is a Japanese multinational

ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcela ...

s and

electronics manufacturer The electronics industry is the industry that produces electronic devices. It emerged in the 20th century and is today one of the largest global industries. Contemporary society uses a vast array of electronic devices that are built in factories o ...

headquartered in

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. It was founded as in 1959 by

Kazuo Inamori was a Japanese philanthropist, entrepreneur, Zen Buddhist priest, and the founder of Kyocera and KDDI. He was the chairman of Japan Airlines. Inamori was elected as a member into the National Academy of Engineering in 2000 for innovation i ...

and renamed in 1982. It manufactures industrial ceramics, solar power generating systems, telecommunications equipment, office document imaging equipment, electronic components, semiconductor packages, cutting tools, and components for medical and dental implant systems.

History

Origins to 2000

Kyocera's original product was a ceramic insulator known as a "kelcima" for use in

cathode-ray tubes A cathode-ray tube (CRT) is a vacuum tube containing one or more electron guns, which emit electron beams that are manipulated to display images on a phosphorescent screen. The images may represent electrical waveforms on an oscilloscope, ...

. The company quickly adapted its technologies to produce an expanding range of ceramic components for electronic and structural applications. In the 1960s, as the NASA space program, the birth of Silicon Valley and the advancement of computer technology created demand for semiconductor

integrated circuits An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a set of electronic circuits, consisting of various electronic components (such as transistors, resistors, and capacitors) and their interconnections. These components a ...

(ICs), Kyocera developed ceramic

semiconductor packages A semiconductor package is a metal, plastic, glass, or ceramic casing containing one or more discrete semiconductor devices or integrated circuits. Individual components are fabricated on semiconductor wafers (commonly silicon) before being dic ...

that remain among its core product lines. In the mid-1970s, Kyocera began expanding its material technologies to produce a diverse range of applied ceramic products, including solar photovoltaic modules;

biocompatible Biocompatibility is related to the behavior of biomaterials in various contexts. The term refers to the ability of a material to perform with an appropriate host response in a specific situation. The ambiguity of the term reflects the ongoing ...

tooth- and joint-replacement systems; industrial cutting tools; consumer ceramics, such as ceramic-bladed kitchen knives and ceramic-tipped ballpoint pens; and lab-grown gemstones, including

rubies Ruby is a pinkish-red-to-blood-red-colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum (aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sapphi ...

emeralds Emerald is a gemstone and a variety of the mineral beryl (Be3Al2(SiO3)6) colored green by trace amounts of chromium or sometimes vanadium.Hurlbut, Cornelius S. Jr., and Kammerling, Robert C. (1991). ''Gemology'', John Wiley & Sons, New York, ...

, sapphires,

opals Opal is a hydrated amorphous form of silicon dioxide, silica (SiO2·''n''H2O); its water content may range from 3% to 21% by weight, but is usually between 6% and 10%. Due to the amorphous (chemical) physical structure, it is classified as a ...

, alexandrites and

padparadscha Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide () with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, cobalt, lead, chromium, vanadium, magnesium, boron, and silicon. The name ''sapphire ...

hs. The company acquired electronic equipment manufacturing and radio communication technologies in 1979 through an investment in Cybernet Electronics Corporation, which was merged into Kyocera in 1982. Shortly afterward, Kyocera introduced one of the first portable, battery-powered laptop computers, sold in the U.S. as the Tandy Model 100, which featured an LCD screen and telephone-modem data transfer capability. Kyocera gained optical technology by acquiring

Yashica was a Japanese manufacturer of cameras, lenses, and film editing equipment active from 1949 until 2005 when its then-owner, Kyocera, ceased production. It acquired the lens manufacturer Tomioka (Tomioka Optical Co., Ltd). In 2008, the Yashica ...

in 1983, along with Yashica's prior licensing agreement with

Carl Zeiss Carl Zeiss (; 11 September 1816 – 3 December 1888) was a German scientific instrument maker, optician and businessman. In 1846 he founded his workshop, which is still in business as Zeiss (company), Zeiss. Zeiss gathered a group of gifted p ...

, and manufactured film and digital cameras under the Kyocera, Yashica and

Contax Contax (stylised as CONTAX in the Yashica/Kyocera era) began as a German camera model in the Zeiss Ikon line in 1932, and later became a brand name. The early cameras were among the finest in the world, typically featuring high quality Carl Zeis ...

trade names until 2005, when the company discontinued all film and digital camera production. In the 1980s, Kyocera marketed audio components, such as

CD players A CD player is an electronic device that plays audio compact discs, which are a digital optical disc data storage format. CD players were first sold to consumers in 1982. CDs typically contain recordings of audio material such as music or audi ...

, receivers,

turntables A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration Waveform, waveforms are recorded as correspond ...

, and

cassette deck A cassette deck is a type of tape machine for playing and recording audio cassettes that does not have a built-in power amplifier or speakers, and serves primarily as a Transport (recording), transport. It can be a part of an automotive entertai ...

s. These featured unique elements, including Kyocera ceramic-based platforms. At one time, Kyocera owned the famous KLH brand founded by

Henry Kloss Henry Kloss (February 21, 1929 – January 31, 2002) was a prominent American audio engineer and entrepreneur who helped advance high fidelity loudspeaker and radio receiver technology beginning in the 1950s. Kloss (pronounced with a long o, lik ...

, though Kloss and the original

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

design and engineering staff had left the company by the time of the Kyocera purchase. In 1989, Kyocera stopped production of audio components and sought a buyer for the KLH brand. In 1989, Kyocera acquired Elco Corporation, a manufacturer of electronic connectors. In 1990, Kyocera's global operations expanded significantly with the addition of

AVX Corporation AVX Corporation is an American manufacturer of electronic components headquartered in Fountain Inn, South Carolina. It is the largest industrial employer in Horry County, South Carolina, with almost 1000 workers in Myrtle Beach and Conway. AVX has ...

, a global manufacturer of passive electronic components, such as ceramic chip capacitors, filters and voltage suppressors. Expanding sales of photovoltaic solar energy products led the company to create Kyocera Solar Corporation in Japan in 1996, and Kyocera Solar, Inc. in the U.S. in 1999. On August 4, 1999, Kyocera completed its merger with solar energy systems integrator Golden Genesis Company (Nasdaq:GGGO).

Since 2000

In January 2000, Kyocera acquired photocopier manufacturer Mita Industrial Company, following Mita's decline and bankruptcy in the late 1990s. This resulted in the creation of Kyocera Mita Corporation (now Kyocera Document Solutions Corporation), headquartered in Osaka, Japan, with subsidiaries in more than 25 nations. Also in 2000, Kyocera acquired the mobile phone manufacturing operations of Qualcomm Incorporated to form Kyocera Wireless Corp. In 2003, Kyocera Wireless Corp. established Kyocera Wireless India (KWI), a mobile phone subsidiary in Bangalore. KWI has established alliances with several leading players providing CDMA services in India. Kyocera Wireless Corporation was the first to combine BREW capabilities and enhanced brilliant Color displays on entry-level CDMA Handsets, when it demonstrated BREW-enabled handsets at the BREW 2003 Developers Conference. In 2008, Kyocera acquired Sanyo Mobile, the mobile phone division of Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., and its associated operations in Japan, the United States and Canada. In April 2009, Kyocera unveiled its EOS concept phone at

CTIA CTIA may refer to: * Color Television Interface Adaptor, a custom chip inside early Atari 8-bit computers * CTIA (organization), a trade association representing the wireless communications industry in the United States * Cape Town International A ...

, with an

OLED An organic light-emitting diode (OLED), also known as organic electroluminescent (organic EL) diode, is a type of light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is an organic compound film that emits light in respon ...

and which is powered by kinetic energy from the user. The prototype phone also has a foldable design which is capable of morphing into a variety of shapes. In 2009 Kyocera sold its Indian R&D Division (Wireless) to Mindtree Limited. In March 2010, Kyocera launched its first Smartphone ( Zio) since 2001, after focusing on lower cost phones. In March, 2010, Kyocera announced the merger of its two wholly owned subsidiaries: San Diego–based Kyocera Wireless Corp. and Kyocera Communications, Inc. The merged enterprise continued under the name Kyocera Communications, Inc. Later that month, Kyocera agreed to acquire part of the thin film transistor (TFT) liquid crystal display (LCD) design and manufacturing business of Sony Corporation's subsidiary Sony Mobile Display Corporation. In October 2010, Kyocera acquired 100% ownership of the shares of TA Triumph-Adler AG (Nuremberg, Germany) and converted the daughter company into TA Triumph-Adler GmbH. TA Triumph-Adler GmbH currently distributes Kyocera-made printing devices and software with TA Triumph-Adler and UTAX trademarks within the EMEA (Europe-Middle East-Africa) region. TA Triumph-Adler GmbH is located in Nuremberg, Germany and UTAX GmbH (subsidiary of TA Triumph-Adler) in Norderstedt, Germany. KYOCERA-UNIMERCO-building-Sunds-Denmark

In July 2011, Kyocera's wholly owned Germany-based subsidiary Kyocera Fineceramics GmbH acquired 100% ownership of the shares in

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

-based industrial cutting tool manufacturing and sales company Unimerco Group A/S. Unimerco had been founded in Denmark in 1964. Today, the subsidiary is known as Kyocera Unimerco A/S, and comprises a tooling division and fastening division. In February 2012, Kyocera became the total stock holder of Optrex Corporation, which was subsequently renamed Kyocera Display Corporation. In March 2016, Kyocera acquired an international cutting tool company called SGS Tool Company for $89 million. In August 2017, Kyocera acquired 100% ownership of Senco Industrial Tools. In November, 2020, Kyocera acquired a light source company called SLD laser. The company innovated a product that uses phosphor to convert blue laser light to produce a broad-spectrum, incoherent, high luminance white light source.

Main products

Printers and multi-function devices

Kyocera Document Solutions Corporation manufactures a wide range of printers, MFPs. and toner cartridges which are sold throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Australia and the Americas. Kyocera printing devices are also marketed under the Copystar name in Americas and under TA Triumph-Adler and Utax names in EMEA (Europe-Middle East-Africa) region. This division is overseen by Aaron Thomas (North American division President), Henry Goode, and Adam Stevens

Satellite phones

In the past, Kyocera manufactured

satellite phone A satellite telephone, satellite phone or satphone is a type of mobile phone that connects to other phones or the telephone network by radio link through satellites orbiting the Earth instead of terrestrial cell sites, as cellphones do. Therefo ...

s for the

Iridium Iridium is a chemical element; it has the symbol Ir and atomic number 77. This very hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum group, is considered the second-densest naturally occurring metal (after osmium) with a density ...

network. Three handsets were released in 1999 including one with an unusual docking station which contained the Iridium transceiver and antenna, as well as a

pager A pager, also known as a beeper or bleeper, is a Wireless communication, wireless telecommunications device that receives and displays Alphanumericals, alphanumeric or voice messages. One-way pagers can only receive messages, while response p ...

for the Iridium network.

Mobile phones

North America (Kyocera International, Inc.)

Kyocera manufactures mobile phones for wireless carriers in the United States and Canada. Marketing is done by its subsidiary Kyocera International, Inc. Kyocera acquired the terminal business of US digital communications technology company

Qualcomm Qualcomm Incorporated () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software and services related to wireless techn ...

in February 2000, and became a major supplier of mobile handsets. In 2008, Kyocera also took over the handset business of

Sanyo is a former Japanese electronics manufacturer founded in 1947 by Toshio Iue, the brother-in-law of Kōnosuke Matsushita, the founder of Matsushita Electric Industrial, now known as Panasonic. Iue left Matsushita Electric to start his own bu ...

, eventually forming 'Kyocera Communications, Inc.'. The Kyocera Communications terminal division is located in

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

Japan

Kyocera Corporation manufactures and markets phones for the Japanese market which are sold under different brands. Kyocera makes phones for some Japanese wireless carriers including au,

willcom Y!mobile is a Japanese mobile phone operator. Y!mobile is a brand used by SoftBank Corp., a subsidiary of Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank Group Corporation, that provides mobile telecommunications and ADSL services. The current CEO o ...

SoftBank is a Japanese multinational Investment company, investment holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, that focuses on investment management. The group primarily invests in companies operating in technology that offer goods and services ...

an
Y!mobile
In May 2012, Kyocera released the world's first speaker-less smartphone, the ''Kyocera Urbano Progresso.'' This phone produces vibration to conduct sound through the ear canal instead of the customary speaker, making it easier to hear phone conversations in busy and noisy places. This also benefits those who are having difficulty hearing, but are not totally deaf. It could be used across the world on CDMA, GSM, GPRS and UMTS networks. This phone was only available in Japan.

Solar cells

Kyocera maintains production bases for photovoltaic cells and solar modules in Japan and China. In 2009, it was announced that Kyocera's solar modules were available as an option on the

Toyota Prius The is a Compact car, compact/small family car, small family liftback (supermini/subcompact sedan (car), sedan until 2003) produced by Toyota. The Prius has a Hybrid vehicle drivetrain, hybrid drivetrain, combined with an internal combustion ...

. The company also operates solar power plants, such as the

Kagoshima Nanatsujima Mega Solar Power Plant The is a solar power generating station located in Kagoshima, Japan. It sits on a platform of reclaimed land on the coast of Kagoshima Bay. With a capacity of 70 MW, it was formerly the largest solar plant in Japan. History The site at Nanatsuj ...

Advanced ceramics

Kyocera sells ceramic knives via its web store and retail outlets under the name Kyocera Advanced Ceramics.

Corporate affairs

Kyocera's headquarters building in Kyoto is tall. A 1,900-panel

photovoltaic Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially ...

power system is on the roof and south wall of the building, which can supply 12.5% of the facility's needed energy, generating 182 megawatt hours per year.

Sponsorships

Between 1978 and 1998, Kyocera and the International Affairs Board of the City of

sponsored an all-expense paid tour of Japan for students from the United States called HORIZON (stylized in all capital letters and designated by year: e.g. HORIZON '98). The program's purpose was to acquaint these students with the Japanese people and their culture, and to facilitate friendship and understanding. The program was open to students ages 10–14; applicants were chosen randomly. The brand Mita was the first main sponsor of the Argentine club Independiente, from 1985 to 1992. Mita also sponsored English club

Aston Villa F.C. Aston Villa Football Club (commonly referred to as simply Villa) is a professional Association football, football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club, founded in 1874, compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English foot ...

, appearing on shirt fronts from 1984 to 1993, and Italian club

Como 1907 Como 1907 () is an Italian professional football club based in Como, Lombardy. The club competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football league system, Italian football, after achieving promotion in the 2023–24 Serie B, 2023–24 Se ...

from 1983 to 1989. Between 2005 and 2008, Kyocera also sponsored

Reading F.C. Reading Football Club ( ) is a professional football club based in Reading, Berkshire, England. They compete in EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. They play their home matches at the Select Car Leasing Sta ...

and Brazilian football team

Atlético Paranaense Club Athletico Paranaense (abbreviated CAP, commonly known as Athletico Paranaense and up to 2019 known as Atlético Paranaense) is a Brazilian football team from the city of Curitiba, capital city of the Brazilian state of Paraná, founded o ...

, having the naming rights of their

stadium A stadium (: stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage completely or partially surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit ...

. Kyocera is currently the sponsor of the football club Kyoto Sanga F.C. of the

J-League The , commonly a.k.a. shortened to the , and officially known as the for sponsorship with Meiji Yasuda Life, is the men's association football league in Japan. It is responsible for organizing Japan's major professional football tournaments, in ...

(its hometown team; here the word "Kyocera" is written in Japanese

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...

, everywhere else in the Latinized logo). Kyocera holds the naming rights for the

Kyocera Dome Osaka The (official name: ) is a baseball stadium located in Osaka, Osaka, Japan. Opened in 1997, the stadium was the home field of the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes. In 2005, the stadium became one of the homes of the Orix Buffaloes, a result of the merg ...

, colloquially known as Osaka Dome. The indoor dome is the home field of the baseball teams

Orix Buffaloes The are a Nippon Professional Baseball team formed as a result of the 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball realignment by the merger of the Orix BlueWave of Kobe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, and the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes of Osaka, Osaka Prefecture ...

and

Hanshin Tigers The are a Nippon Professional Baseball team playing in the Central League. The team is based in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, next to their main stadium, Hanshin Koshien Stadium. The Tigers are owned by Hanshin Electric Railway Co., ...

Gallery of products

File:CONTAX Tix(Silver).jpg, A CONTAX compact camera by Kyocera File:Kyocera6035.jpg, Kyocera 6035 mobile phone (

Sprint PCS Sprint Corporation was an American telecommunications company. Before being Merger of Sprint Corporation and T-Mobile US, acquired by T-Mobile US on April 1, 2020, it was the fourth-largest mobile network operator in the United States, serving 5 ...

network) File:Router Kyocera.jpg, A Kyocera branded router File:Kyocera DR-350.jpg, Kyocera DR-350 digital camera File:Kyocera Echo open jeh.jpg,

Kyocera Echo The Kyocera Echo (sometimes referred to as Sprint Echo) is a smartphone manufactured by Kyocera is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational ceramics and electronics manufacturer headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It was founded as in ...

, 2011 Android smartphone File:Kyocera VP-210 CP+ 2011.jpg, Kyocera VP-210 Japanese phone from 1999 File:Kyocera FS-C5200DN - interface board - Kyocera PowerPC 48J6036-4187.jpg, Kyocera

PowerPC PowerPC (with the backronym Performance Optimization With Enhanced RISC – Performance Computing, sometimes abbreviated as PPC) is a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architecture (ISA) created by the 1991 Apple Inc., App ...

microprocessor File:Kyocera Finecam SL400R - digital camera.png, Kyocera Finecam SL400R, a compact digital camera announced in 2004 File:Kyocera Lynx film camera.jpg, A Kyocera Lynx 35mm film camera

References

External links

Kyocera Global siteKyocera Communications, Inc. site
(archived 24 April 2014)
Kyotronic 85
(archived 27 July 2010)
Kyocera Plans to Build 350-MW Solar Cell Manufacturing Plant
(archived 7 March 2012)
Kyocera Constructing New Solar Manufacturing Plant In ChinaTop 5 Best Kyocera Photocopiers
{{Authority control Electronics companies of Japan Solar energy companies of Japan Mobile phone manufacturers Photovoltaics manufacturers Conglomerate companies of Japan Defense companies of Japan Midori-kai Multinational companies headquartered in Japan Computer companies of Japan Computer hardware companies Computer printer companies Conglomerate companies established in 1959 Electronics companies established in 1959 Manufacturing companies established in 1959 Manufacturing companies based in Kyoto Fushimi-ku, Kyoto Companies listed on the Osaka Exchange Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Companies in the Nikkei 225 Japanese brands Japanese companies established in 1959 Knife manufacturing companies 1970s initial public offerings