History

Hikohachi Sato, who had been researching ceramic materials since before the war, established TAIYO YUDEN CO., LTD. with its head office in Suginami-ku, Tokyo, on March 23, 1950, based on his belief in "starting from material development and shifting to product commercialization." He worked on the development and commercialization of titanium oxide ceramic capacitors and established a mass production system.

Amid the need for production efficiency due to the rapid increase in demand for transistor radios, the Takasaki Plant (now Takasaki Global Center) was opened as a new production base for capacitor substrate and steatite.

The Haruna Plant was opened as a base for material research, production technology improvement, and new product development aimed at the next phase to strengthen the production system.

Although barium titanate has a high dielectric constant and is suitable as a capacitor material, many problems had to be overcome. After many steady efforts, the company succeeded in developing a product that achieved a significant increase in capacitance of nearly two digits compared to conventional products.

Taiyo Yuden, which was rushing to develop small IFTs (Intermediate Frequency Transformers) for use in transistor radios, focused on the future potential of ferrite and commercialized small ferrite cores using nickel-zinc ferrite as IFT components. This contributed to the development of transistor radios and later televisions.

From the mid-1950s, investment in research and development in the electronics field became active. Taiyo Yuden established "enhancement of the research department" as a management policy in 1960, marking its 10th anniversary, and established a new research and development system by making the research department independent.

As the production volume of export products such as televisions and transistor radios increased, our export amount also increased. While considering how to respond to overseas demand, we decided to establish a base in Taiwan, where many major Western manufacturers had already entered, and started production of IFT tubular ceramic capacitors.

Under the policy of product diversification, we opened the Nakanojo Plant, which established an integrated system from ferrite materials to finished products, to manufacture the steady stream of newly announced products and increase production of existing products.

Taiyo Yuden which had established material and manufacturing technologies for ferrite, developed coils (inductors) using its own ferrite materials in response to customer requests, which became its strength, and subsequently, full-scale coil development and production began.

As demand for axial leaded ceramic capacitors increased significantly, we opened the Tamamura Plant equipped with the latest automated production lines to establish a mass production system.

Amid the movement towards energy and power saving after the first oil shock, electronic equipment manufacturers promoted the introduction of automatic insertion machines for electronic components. The axial leaded type was suitable for the automatic insertion machines of the time and was mainly mounted in VCRs and audio equipment.

The technology cultivated through the development of axial leaded ceramic capacitors and years of experience with tubular ceramic capacitors for IFT integration was combined to develop the world's first tubular chip type ceramic capacitor, which responded to the miniaturization of equipment and the leadless trend of components. Mainly mounted in TV tuners.

The women's softball team, established to boost employee morale and increase company recognition, has been in the Japan League Division 1 for over 30 years since 1987, its third year of establishment. Since its establishment, it has been active in winning championships in this league and the All Japan Championship, producing Olympic athletes, and inspiring not only employees but also local residents and children.

As electronic devices became smaller and more multifunctional, dealing with "noise" generated from various electronic devices became an urgent issue. Therefore, Taiyo Yuden established the EMC Center as a facility to study EMC (Electromagnetic Compatibility). It promoted the development of both components and methods for noise countermeasures in collaboration with users.

To respond to the demand for magnetic tape products due to the explosive hit of portable stereo cassette players and the spread of video tape recorders, we opened the Yawatabara Plant as a dedicated magnetic tape factory.

As a dramatic expansion in demand for multilayer ceramic capacitors was expected due to the miniaturization of electronic devices, Taiyo Yuden focused on the small, high-capacity zone and developed the world's first multilayer ceramic capacitor using nickel for internal electrodes, utilizing our material and process technologies.

When the audio Compact Disc (CD) was introduced in 1982, Taiyo Yuden began developing optical recording media compatible with CDs. By turning conventional wisdom on its head, we succeeded in developing the world's first CD-R. The name "CD-R" was also coined by Taiyo Yuden.

As the first overseas production base for multilayer ceramic capacitors, we established a wholly-owned subsidiary TAIYO YUDEN (SARAWAK) SDN. BHD. This was the first step in our overseas production strategy to accelerate business development with high-capacity multilayer ceramic capacitors as our advantage.

We opened the R&D Center as a symbol of "Taiyo Yuden of Technology, Taiyo Yuden of Development." By consolidating research functions as a base for globally disseminating new technologies and products, we realized a product development system that could respond promptly to changes of the times.

As products such as portable audio devices and camera-integrated video tape recorders became hits, the demand for multilayer chip inductors rapidly increased, and we also strengthened development. As a result of strategically utilizing the material and production technologies we had cultivated and working on new technology development, we succeeded in mass-producing multilayer chip inductors.

We commercialized wire-wound chip inductors for power circuits using a unique new structure that thoroughly eliminates unnecessary space not related to characteristics. Furthermore, the following year, we achieved the world's smallest 2012 size at the time. Widely adopted in portable digital devices such as mobile phones and digital cameras.

We developed the technology of CD-R, which we invented, for DVD-R, a higher capacity recording medium. Through the advancement of elemental technologies, we commercialized DVD-R with a capacity of 4.7 GB.

As the need for measurement equipment corresponding to high frequencies in various fields such as communication and EMC (Electromagnetic Compatibility) was increasing, we opened an anechoic chamber with world-class high-frequency evaluation technology within the R&D Center.

By adopting a unique structure, it supported about 1.3 times larger current compared to conventional products of the same shape. Its use expanded in mobile phones that required thinness, high functionality, and impact resistance.

Utilizing the design development and mass production technologies of organic dye-based recording discs cultivated with CD-R and DVD-R, we released a write-once Blu-ray disc adopting organic dye material for the recording layer. The capacity was 25 GB, more than 5 times that of DVD-R, enabling recording of high-definition video that was becoming widespread.