() is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Nissan ''zaibatsu'' and later

DKB Group The or the Dai-Ichi Kangyo Group was the largest Japanese keiretsu in the late 1990s. The group emerged after World War II and coalesced around the Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank. Two of DKB's largest clients, Kawasaki Heavy Industries and Furukawa Electri ...

and

Fuyo Group is a Japanese ''keiretsu'' descended from the Yasuda zaibatsu, Asano zaibatsu and Okura zaibatsu. They are major business grouping in Japan up to World War II. In 1948, Yasuda was dismantled, with its key financial arm Yasuda Bank becoming Fuj ...

of companies before DKB and

Fuji Bank The was one of Japan's major banks during the post–World War II era. It combined with Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and the Industrial Bank of Japan in 2000 to form Mizuho Financial Group, and changed its name to Mizuho Corporate Bank in 2002 after t ...

(the core Fuyo Group company) merged into the

Mizuho Financial Group , abbreviated as MHFG, or simply called Mizuho, is a banking holding company headquartered in the Ōtemachi district of Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The name "" literally means "abundant rice" in Japanese and "harvest" in the figurative sense. Upo ...

. As of 2020, Hitachi conducts business ranging from IT, including AI, the Internet of Things, and big data, to infrastructure. Hitachi is listed on the

Tokyo Stock Exchange The , abbreviated as Tosho () or TSE/TYO, is a stock exchange located in Tokyo, Japan. It is the third largest stock exchange in the world by aggregate market capitalization of its listed companies, and the largest in Asia. It had 2,292 listed ...

and

Nagoya Stock Exchange Nagoya Stock Exchange (名古屋証券取引所 ''Nagoya Shōken Torihikijo'', NSE) is a stock trading market in Nagoya, Japan. It is Japan's second largest exchange, behind the Tokyo Stock Exchange. History The Nagoya Stock Exchange (NSE) is t ...

and its Tokyo listing is a constituent of the

Nikkei 225 The Nikkei 225, or , more commonly called the ''Nikkei'' or the ''Nikkei index'' (), is a stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). It has been calculated daily by the '' Nihon Keizai Shimbun'' (''The Nikkei'') newspaper since 1950 ...

and

TOPIX , commonly known as TOPIX, along with the Nikkei 225, is an important stock market index for the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) in Japan, tracking all domestic companies of the exchange's Prime market division. It is calculated and published by the ...

Core30 indices. It is ranked 38th in the 2012

Fortune Global 500 The ''Fortune'' Global 500, also known as Global 500, is an annual ranking of the top 500 corporations worldwide as measured by revenue. The list is compiled and published annually by ''Fortune'' magazine. Methodology Until 1989, it listed onl ...

and 129th in the 2012 Forbes Global 2000.

History

Hitachi was founded in 1910 by electrical engineer Namihei Odaira (1874–1951) in

Ibaraki Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,871,199 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, Tochigi Prefecture ...

. The company's first product was Japan's first induction motor, initially developed for use in

copper mining Copper extraction refers to the methods used to obtain copper from its ores. The conversion of copper consists of a series of physical and electrochemical processes. Methods have evolved and vary with country depending on the ore source, loca ...

. The company began as an in-house venture of

Fusanosuke Kuhara was an entrepreneur, politician and cabinet minister in the pre-war Empire of Japan. Biography Kuhara was born in Hagi, Yamaguchi Prefecture into a family of ''sake'' brewers. His brother was the founder of Nippon Suisan Kaisha and his uncle F ...

's mining company in Hitachi, Ibaraki. Odaira moved headquarters to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

in 1918. Odaira coined the company's

toponymic Toponymy, toponymics, or toponomastics is the study of '' toponyms'' (proper names of places, also known as place names and geographic names), including their origins, meanings, usage and types. Toponym is the general term for a proper name of ...

name by superimposing two ''

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

'' characters: ''hi'' meaning "sun" and ''tachi'' meaning "rise".

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

had a significant impact on the company with many of its factories being destroyed by Allied bombing raids, and discord after the war. Founder Odaira was removed from the company and

Hitachi Zosen Corporation is a major Japanese industrial and engineering corporation. It produces waste treatment plants, industrial plants, precision machinery, industrial machinery, steel mill process equipment, steel structures, construction machinery, tunnel boring ma ...

was spun out. Hitachi's reconstruction efforts after the war were hindered by a labor strike in 1950. Meanwhile, Hitachi went public in 1949. Hitachi America, Ltd. was established in 1959. The Soviet Union started to produce air conditioners in 1975. The Baku factory was established under the license of Japanese company Hitachi. Volumes of production of air conditioners in the USSR were small, about 500,000 per year. However air conditioners were a matter of great pride. Mainly window air conditioners were produced. Most of the output was exported. Hitachi Europe, Ltd. was established in 1982. From 2006 to 2010, Hitachi lost US$12.5 billion, the largest corporate loss in Japanese history. This prompted Hitachi to restructure and sell a number of divisions and businesses, a process that is expected to end in 2021. In March 2011, Hitachi agreed to sell its

hard disk drive A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magne ...

subsidiary,

HGST HGST, Inc. (Hitachi Global Storage Technologies) was a manufacturer of hard disk drives, solid-state drives, and external storage products and services. It was initially a subsidiary of Hitachi, formed through its acquisition of IBM's disk d ...

, to

Western Digital Western Digital Corporation (WDC, commonly known as Western Digital or WD) is an American computer drive manufacturer and data storage company, headquartered in San Jose, California. It designs, manufactures and sells data technology produc ...

for a combination of cash and shares worth US$4.3 billion. Due to concerns of a duopoly of WD and Seagate Technology by the EU Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, Hitachi's 3.5" HDD division was sold to

Toshiba , commonly known as Toshiba and stylized as TOSHIBA, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, ...

. The transaction was completed in March 2012. In January 2012, Hitachi announced it would stop producing televisions in Japan. In September 2012, Hitachi announced that it had invented a long-term data solution out of

quartz glass Fused quartz, fused silica or quartz glass is a glass consisting of almost pure silica (silicon dioxide, SiO2) in amorphous (non-crystalline) form. This differs from all other commercial glasses in which other ingredients are added which chang ...

that was capable of preserving information for millions of years. In October 2012, Hitachi agreed to acquire the United Kingdom-based nuclear energy company

Horizon Nuclear Power Horizon Nuclear Power is a British energy company that was expected to build new nuclear power stations in the United Kingdom. It was established in 2009, with its head office in Gloucester, and is now owned by Hitachi. On 17 January 2019, Hor ...

, which plans to construct up to six nuclear power plants in the UK, from E.ON and RWE for £700 million. In November 2012, Hitachi and

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is a Japanese multinational engineering, electrical equipment and electronics corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. MHI is one of the core companies of the Mitsubishi Group and its automobile division is the predecessor of Mitsubishi Mo ...

agreed to merge their thermal power generation businesses into a joint venture to be owned 65% by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and 35% by Hitachi. The joint venture named Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) began operations in February 2014. In October 2015, Hitachi completed a deal with

Johnson Controls Johnson Controls International is an American Irish-domiciled multinational conglomerate headquartered in Cork, Ireland, that produces fire, HVAC, and security equipment for buildings. As of mid-2019, it employed 105,000 people in around 2,00 ...

to form a joint-venture that would takeover Hitachi's HVAC business. Hitachi maintained a 40% stake of the resulting company, Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning. In May 2016, Hitachi announced it was investing $2.8 billion into its IoT interests. Following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011 and the extended temporary closure of most Japanese nuclear plants, Hitachi's nuclear business became unprofitable and in 2016 Hitachi CEO Toshiaki Higashihara argued Japan should consider a merger of the various competing nuclear businesses. Hitachi is taking for 2016 an estimated ¥65 billion write-off in value of a

SILEX Silex is any of various forms of ground stone. In modern contexts the word refers to a finely ground, nearly pure form of silica or silicate. In the late 16th century, it meant powdered or ground up "flints" (i.e. stones, generally meaning the c ...

technology laser

uranium enrichment Enriched uranium is a type of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 (written 235U) has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Naturally occurring uranium is composed of three major isotopes: uranium-238 (238 ...

joint venture with

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American multinational conglomerate founded in 1892, and incorporated in New York state and headquartered in Boston. The company operated in sectors including healthcare, aviation, power, renewable en ...

. In February 2017, Hitachi and

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a producti ...

announced a partnership to develop, produce and sell motors for electric vehicles. Also in 2017, private equity firm KKR bought Hitachi Kokusai's (itself a subsidiary of Hitachi) semiconductor equipment division, becoming Kokusai Electric. In 2019,

Applied Materials Applied Materials, Inc. is an American corporation that supplies equipment, services and software for the manufacture of semiconductor (integrated circuit) chips for electronics, flat panel displays for computers, smartphones, televisions, and ...

announced that it would acquire Kokusai Electric from KKR for US$2.2 billion. The deal was later terminated in 2021. In 2018, Hitachi stopped selling televisions in Japan because its market share had dropped to 1%, opting to sell Sony TVs through its existing dealer network. On March 14, 2018, Zoomdata announced its partnership with Hitachi INS Software to help develop big data analytics market in Japan. In December 2018, Hitachi Ltd. announced it would take over 80% of ABB Ltd.'s power grid division for $6.4 billion renaming it Hitachi-ABB Power Grids in the process. In October2021, the enterprise was rebranded HitachiEnergy. From 2008 to 2018, Hitachi has reduced the number of its listed group companies and consolidated subdiaries in Japan from 22 to 4 and around 400 to 202, respectively, through restructuring and sell-offs. It plans to become a company specializing in IT and infrastructure maintenance in the near future. In 2019, Hitachi sold its medical imaging business to

Fujifilm , trading as Fujifilm, or simply Fuji, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, operating in the realms of photography, optics, office and medical electronics, biotechnology, and chemicals. The offerings from the ...

for US$1.7 billion.

Showa Denko , founded in 1939 by the merger of Nihon Electrical Industries and Showa Fertilizers, both established by a Japanese entrepreneur Nobuteru Mori, is a Japanese chemical company producing chemical products and industrial materials. SDK's products ...

bought

Hitachi Chemical () is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Nissan ''zaibatsu'' and later DKB Group and Fuyo Gr ...

from Hitachi and other shareholders, at US$42.97 per share. Until then, Hitachi Chemical had been considered to be a core unit of the group. Hitachi also suspended the

ABWR The advanced boiling water reactor (ABWR) is a Generation III boiling water reactor. The ABWR is currently offered by GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) and Toshiba. The ABWR generates electrical power by using steam to power a turbine connected ...

development by its British subsidiary

as it did not provide an adequate "economic rationality as a private enterprise" to proceed. In October 2019, the talks between

and Hitachi to consolidate their four automotive parts businesses, Showa, Nissin and Keihin of the former and the latter's Hitachi Automotive Systems, have reportedly begun, resulting in the creation of a "mega supplier" named Hitachi Astemo incorporated in January 2021. In September 2020, Hitachi abandoned plans to create nuclear power plants in Gloucestershire and Wales due to issues with funding due to the impact of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quickly ...

. In the same month, Hitachi Capital agreed to be bought by its second-largest shareholder, business partner, and former rival Mitsubishi UFJ Lease, which has invested in the Hitachi subsidiary in 2016. In November 2020, it announced that Hitachi Metals and

Hitachi Construction Machinery is a Japanese construction equipment company which is into the manufacturing, sales and service of construction machinery, transportation machinery, and other machines and devices. It is a subsidiary of the Hitachi Group. History Hitachi Cons ...

, both being some of the last remaining listed subsidiaries, will likely be detached from the group according to the restructuring plan. In December, Hitachi sold a 60% stake in its overseas home appliance business to Turkish Arcelik for US$300 million. In December 2021, it was announced by OPG that they had selected GE-Hitachi to construct two BWRX-300 reactors at the Darlington site in Ontario, Canada. OPG and GE-Hitachi will be collaborating on the design, planning and preparation of license materials for the construction of Canada's first SMR which is planned to enter operation in 2028.

Products and services

Automotive systems

* Car Information Systems * Drive Control * Electric Powertrain Systems * Engine Management Systems

Construction machinery

* Hydraulic Excavators * Forestry Equipment * Mechanical & Hydraulic Cranes * Mining Dump Trucks * Crawler Dump trucks * Wheel Loaders

Defense systems

* Military vehicles * Vetronics *

Crisis management Crisis management is the process by which an organization deals with a disruptive and unexpected event that threatens to harm the organization or its stakeholders. The study of crisis management originated with large-scale industrial and envir ...

C4I Command and control (abbr. C2) is a "set of organizational and technical attributes and processes ... hatemploys human, physical, and information resources to solve problems and accomplish missions" to achieve the goals of an organization or en ...

systems * Satellite image processing systems * Social Infrastructure

security" \n\n\nsecurity.txt is a proposed standard for websites' security information that is meant to allow security researchers to easily report security vulnerabilities. The standard prescribes a text file called \"security.txt\" in the well known locat ...

business (in coordination with Hitachi's Infrastructure Systems Group) * Electric propulsion technology *

Electro-mechanical In engineering, electromechanics combines processes and procedures drawn from electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. Electromechanics focuses on the interaction of electrical and mechanical systems as a whole and how the two systems ...

systems (including some

robotics Robotics is an interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist humans. Robotics integrate ...

research & development) * Advanced Combat Infantry Equipment System

CIES The International Centre for Sports Studies, known mostly by the initials CIES from the French ''Centre International d'Etude du Sport'', is an independent, research and education organization, located in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. It had a resea ...

(

JSDF The Japan Self-Defense Forces ( ja, 自衛隊, Jieitai; abbreviated JSDF), also informally known as the Japanese Armed Forces, are the unified ''de facto''Since Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution outlaws the formation of armed forces, t ...

) - Primary contractor

Digital media and consumer products

2008 Hitachi aircon outdoor unit RAM-5DNS

Air conditioning equipment Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

- jointly with

Hitachi Magic Wand The Hitachi Magic Wand (renamed Magic Wand Original and Original Magic Wand) is an AC-powered wand vibrator. It was originally manufactured for relieving tension and relaxing sore muscles, however, it is most known for its use as a sex toy. Jap ...

* Optical disc drives - jointly with optical disc drive division of LG as Hitachi-LG Data Storage * White goods ( refrigerators,

washing machine A washing machine (laundry machine, clothes washer, washer, or simply wash) is a home appliance used to wash laundry. The term is mostly applied to machines that use water as opposed to dry cleaning (which uses alternative cleaning fluids and ...

s, etc.) - majority stake of ex-Japan business sold to Arcelik.

Electronic systems and equipment

* Test and measurement equipment * Particle therapy equipment * Cell culture equipment

Advanced materials

* Specialty steels * Wires and cables

Information and telecommunication systems

* ATMs * Servers *

Disk array A disk array is a disk storage system which contains multiple disk drives. It is differentiated from a disk enclosure, in that an array has cache memory and advanced functionality, like RAID, deduplication, encryption and virtualization. Compo ...

subsystems * Data storage and analytics solutions **

Virtual Storage Platform Virtual Storage Platform is the brand name for a Hitachi Data Systems line of computer data storage systems for data centers. Model numbers include G200, G400, G600, G800, G1000, G1500 and G5500 History Hitachi Virtual Storage Platform, also kno ...

* Internet of Things ** Hitachi Lumada * VOS3 Mainframe computer

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also i ...

Software Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. ...

* Outsourcing services *

Telecommunications equipment Telecommunications equipment (also telecoms equipment or communications equipment) are hardware which are used for the purposes of telecommunications. Since the 1990s the boundary between telecoms equipment and IT hardware has become blurred as a ...

Power systems

* Nuclear and hydrogen power generation systems * Power Grids *

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) is a provider of advanced reactors and nuclear services. It is headquartered in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States. Established in June 2007, GEH is a nuclear alliance created by General Electric and Hitach ...

Social infrastructure and industrial systems

Elevator An elevator or lift is a cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or decks of a building, vessel, or other structure. They a ...

s *

Escalator An escalator is a moving staircase which carries people between floors of a building or structure. It consists of a motor-driven chain of individually linked steps on a track which cycle on a pair of tracks which keep the step tread horizo ...

s * Industrial machinery and plants * Railway vehicles and systems **

Hitachi A-train The Hitachi A-train is a family of rail rolling stock built and designed by Hitachi Rail using a common base and construction techniques. The stock is designed to facilitate a number of product life-cycle improvements including ease of manufacture ...

Others

* Logistics * Property management

Subsidiaries

Hitachi Vantara

Hitachi Vantara is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi which provides hardware, software and services to help companies manage their digital data. Its flagship products are the

(for enterprise storage), Hitachi Unified Storage VM for large-sized companies, Hitachi Unified Storage for small and mid-sized companies, Hitachi Content Platform (archiving and cloud architecture), Hitachi Command Suite (for storage management), Hitachi TrueCopy and Hitachi Universal Replicator (for remote replication), and the Hitachi NAS Platform. Since September 19, 2017, Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) has become part of Hitachi Vantara, a new company that unifies the operations of Pentaho, Hitachi Data Systems and Hitachi Insight Group. The company name "Hitachi Data Systems" (HDS) and its logo is no longer used in the market.

Hitachi Consulting Hitachi Consulting Corporation was an American international management and technology consulting firm with headquarters in Dallas, Texas. It was founded in November 2000 as a subsidiary of the Japanese corporation Hitachi, and employed approxima ...

, the group's international management and technology consulting subsidiary with headquarters in Dallas, Texas, was integrated with Hitachi Vantara in 2019.

Hitachi Metals

Among other things, Hitachi Metals supplies materials for aircraft engines and fuselage components (e.g. landing gear), along with finished components for same and other aerospace applications. It also provides materials, components and tools for the automotive and electronics industries. Among the Hitachi Metals facilities is Hitachi Metal Yasugi Works or Tatara Works, one of the oldest furnaces in Japan, famously featured as a main backdrop in ''

Princess Mononoke is a 1997 Japanese animated epic historical fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten, Nippon Television Network and Dentsu. The film stars the voices of Yōji Matsuda, Yuriko Ishida ...

'', a Japanese animation film set in the

Muromachi period The is a division of Japanese history running from approximately 1336 to 1573. The period marks the governance of the Muromachi or Ashikaga shogunate (''Muromachi bakufu'' or ''Ashikaga bakufu''), which was officially established in 1338 by t ...

. As of September 2020, Hitachi Metals is set to be divested as part of the long-term restructuring plan being executed by the group.

Hitachi Rail

''Hitachi, Ltd. Railway Systems Business Unit'', known as Hitachi Rail is the

rolling stock The term rolling stock in the rail transport industry refers to railway vehicles, including both powered and unpowered vehicles: for example, locomotives, freight and passenger cars (or coaches), and non-revenue cars. Passenger vehicles can ...

and

railway signalling Railway signalling (), also called railroad signaling (), is a system used to control the movement of railway traffic. Trains move on fixed rails, making them uniquely susceptible to collision. This susceptibility is exacerbated by the enormo ...

manufacturing division of Hitachi. Hitachi built the first railway carriage in 1924 for the domestic japanese market and soon became one of the main railway suppliers in Japan. By 1964 Hitachi was one of only three companies that built the world’s first fleet of high-speed trains, the

shinkansen The , colloquially known in English as the bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. Initially, it was built to connect distant Japanese regions with Tokyo, the capital, to aid economic growth and development. Beyond l ...

. ''Hitachi Rail Europe'' (legally ''Hitachi Rail Limited'') was established in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

as the European headquarters of the company in 1999. Other subsidiaries are: * HITACHI RAIL ESPANA S.L., * HITACHI RAIL HONOLULU JV, * HITACHI RAIL STS, * AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, * HITACHI RAIL STS CANADA, INC., * HITACHI RAIL STS DEUTSCHLAND GMBH, * HITACHI RAIL STS FRANCE SOCIETE PAR ACTIONS SIMPLIFIEE, * HITACHI RAIL STS HONG KONG LIMITED, * HITACHI RAIL STS HURONTARIO HOLDINGS INC., * HITACHI RAIL STS INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED, * HITACHI RAIL STS MALAYSIA SDN BHD, * HITACHI RAIL STS MOBILINX HURONTARIO GP INC., * HITACHI RAIL STS RAILWAY SIGNALING TECHNOLOGY (BEIJING) COMPANY LIMITED, * HITACHI RAIL STS S.P.A., * HITACHI RAIL STS SWEDEN AB, * HITACHI RAIL STS UK LTD, * HITACHI RAIL STS USA, INC., * HITACHI RAIL STS USA INTERNATIONAL CO. * HITACHI RAIL WASHINGTON LLC. The rail division delivered 120 CQ311 series railcars to MARTA from 1984 to 1988. Hitachi markets a general-purpose train known as the "

A-train is a series of business simulation video games developed and published by Japanese game developer Artdink in Japan. The first game in the series was published in 1985. The first release in the United States was ''Take the A-Train II'', published ...

", which uses double-skin, friction-stir-welded

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...

body construction. Hitachi's products have included the designing and manufacturing of many

Shinkansen The , colloquially known in English as the bullet train, is a network of high-speed railway lines in Japan. Initially, it was built to connect distant Japanese regions with Tokyo, the capital, to aid economic growth and development. Beyond l ...

models, including the

N700 Series Shinkansen The is a Japanese Shinkansen high-speed train with tilting capability developed jointly by JR Central and JR West for use on the Tokaido and San'yō Shinkansen lines since 2007, and also operated by JR Kyushu on the Kyushu Shinkansen line. ...

. On February 24, 2015, Hitachi agreed to purchase the Italian rolling stock manufacturer

AnsaldoBreda Hitachi Rail Italy S.p.A. is a multinational rolling stock manufacturer company based in Pistoia, Italy. Formerly AnsaldoBreda S.p.A., a subsidiary of state-owned Finmeccanica, the company was sold in 2015 to Hitachi Rail of Japan. After the ...

and acquire

Finmeccanica Leonardo S.p.A., formerly Leonardo-Finmeccanica and originally Finmeccanica, is an Italian multinational company specialising in aerospace, defence and security. Headquartered in Rome, Italy, the company has 180 sites worldwide. It is the eighth ...

's stake in

Ansaldo STS Hitachi Rail STS SpA (from ''Hitachi Rail Signalling and Transportation Systems'') or Hitachi Rail STS (previously Ansaldo STS) is a transportation company owned by Hitachi with a global presence in the field of railway signalling and integrated t ...

, the

railway signaling Railway signalling (), also called railroad signaling (), is a system used to control the movement of railway traffic. Trains move on fixed rails, making them uniquely susceptible to collision. This susceptibility is exacerbated by the enormou ...

division of Finmeccanica The purchase was completed later that year, at which point the company was renamed as Hitachi Rail Italy. Since then, Hitachi has obtained a majority stake in Ansaldo STS.

Hitachi Monorail The Hitachi Monorail System refers to the family of monorails offered by Hitachi Rail. List of notable Hitachi monorails Hitachi's designs are ALWEG-based, and are available in three configurations: All Hitachi trains except those on Japan's ol ...

builds monorail systems with 10 built to date. In July 2020, Hitachi signed an exclusive agreement with Hyperdrive, a UK-based lithium-ion battery company, to bring battery-powered trains to the country. Late in 2021 Alstom announced the transfer of business relating to

Bombardier Zefiro Zefiro is a family of high-speed passenger trains designed by Bombardier Transportation (now Alstom) whose variants have top operating speeds of between ; and . The family consists of: the ''Zefiro 250'', which has a top operating speed of an ...

to Hitachi Rail and should be completed in early 2022. Late 2022 Hitachi Rail won the contract to supply train sets for

Ontario Line The Ontario Line is an under-construction rapid transit line in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its northern terminus will be at Eglinton Avenue and Don Mills Road, at Science Centre station, where it will connect with Line 5 Eglinton. Its southern ...

being planned in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

Hitachi Astemo

Hitachi Astemo, which stands for "Advanced Sustainable Technologies for Mobility", is a 67-33 joint venture between Hitachi and

, which merged their four auto parts affiliates and division, the latter's three keiretsu companies

Showa Corporation is a manufacturer of high-performance automotive, motorcycle and outboard suspension systems based in Gyoda, Saitama in Japan. The company was founded in 1938 as Showa Aircraft Precision Works. In Japan's drive to develop its military capab ...

Keihin Corporation The is a Japanese automotive and motorcycle parts company headquartered in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. The company is a major supplier to Honda, who owns nearly half of Keihin's shares, but also supplies other motorcycle manufacturers, among t ...

, and

Nissin Kogyo is a Japanese automotive parts company that makes vehicle braking systems and aluminium products. The company was founded in 1953 and is listed on the first section Tokyo Stock Exchange. As of March 2017, the company had 1.54 billion dollars in ...

, and the former's wholly owned Hitachi Automotive Systems, to be better equipped for the changing car market environment, frequently represented as CASE, for which they will integrate their assets to accelerate development of new technology and software. Hitachi Astemo is considered a "mega supplier", as annual sales of the four predecessors combined stood at $17 billion, placing it as the second largest among the compatriot auto suppliers.

Other subsidiaries

The rest of the group companies include: *Hitachi High-tech *

Hitachi Construction Machinery (Europe) Hitachi Construction Machinery (Europe) NV (HCME) is a subsidiary of Hitachi Construction Machinery Co.,Ltd. (HCM) and was established in 1972 in Oosterhout, The Netherlands. It is responsible for the manufacture, sales and marketing of Hitachi ...

(co-owned by

) *Hitachi Global Life Solutions - Selling home appliances except

audiovisual Audiovisual (AV) is electronic media possessing both a sound and a visual component, such as slide-tape presentations, films, television programs, corporate conferencing, church services, and live theater productions. Audiovisual service pr ...

products. *

-Hitachi Air Conditioning - A/C business majority-owned by Johnson Controls since 2015. *Hitachi Digital Media Group - Selling electronic products including

video projector A video projector is an image projector that receives a video signal and projects the corresponding image on a projection screen using a lens system. Video projectors use a very bright ultra-high-performance lamp (a special mercury arc lamp), X ...

s under its brand name. *Hitachi Plant Technologies - Engaging in the design, development, manufacture, sale, servicing, and execution of social and industrial infrastructure machinery,

mechatronics Mechatronics engineering also called mechatronics, is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering that focuses on the integration of mechanical, electrical and electronic engineering systems, and also includes a combination of robotics, electronics, ...

, air-conditioning systems, industrial plants, and energy plant equipment in Asia and internationally. *Hitachi Communication Technologies America - Providing communications products and services for the telecommunications, cable TV, utility, enterprise, industrial and other markets. *Hitachi Solutions America - A consulting firm and systems integrator focusing primarily on Microsoft Dynamics. Hitachi Solutions America acquired

Ignify Ignify was an ERP, CRM, POS and e-commerce software company headquartered in Long Beach, California with more than 500 employees in 8 countries. Ignify's tagline is "Igniting Ideas. Delivering Results." Ignify was founded by Sandeep Walia and Pa ...

, a Microsoft Dynamics Solution provider, in December 2015. *Hitachi Industrial Equipment Systems - producing industrial automation systems and equipment. *Hitachi Transport System - providing one-stop logistics services. *Hitachi Energy

Discontinued or divested businesses

Hitachi Capital

* Leasing * Loan guarantees * Invoice finance * Consumer finance (personal and retail) * Business finance Bought by Mitsubishi, it had been the group's financial business arm.

Hitachi Works

Spin-off entities from Hitachi Works include

Hitachi Cable was established in 1956 as a manufacturer of electric wire and cable for power distribution. The company, based in Tokyo, Japan, was formed from Hitachi Densen Works, the Hitachi Works spin-off previously known as Densen Works. In the half-cen ...

(1956) and Hitachi Canadian Industries Limited (founded 1988 in

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Yellowhead Highway, and has served as th ...

and closed in 2016 as Mitsubishi-Hitachi Power Systems). As Hitachi pulled out of MHPS and handed over the control to MHI, Hitachi Works was also transferred, becoming part of Mitsubishi Power.

Others

Other former businesses Hitachi had had include the following: *Aircraft **

Hitachi T.2 __NOTOC__ The Hitachi T.2 was a trainer aircraft built in Japan in the early 1940s. It was a conventional, single-bay sesquiplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, control ...

** Hitachi TR.2 * Aircraft Engines **

Hitachi Hatsukaze The Hitachi Hatsukaze (初風, Hatsukaze - fresh wind), also known as the Hitachi GK4 (short Navy), Hitachi Army Type 4 110hp Air Cooled Inline (Army long), Hitachi Ha47 (Army Hatzudoki) and Ha-11 model 11 (unified), was Hitachi's fourth design i ...

Hitachi Zosen is a major Japanese industrial and engineering corporation. It produces waste treatment plants, industrial plants, precision machinery, industrial machinery, steel mill process equipment, steel structures, construction machinery, tunnel boring ma ...

** Ships - Business merged with the shipbuilding operation of

NKK corporation is a corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It was formed in 2002 by the merger of and and owns JFE Steel, JFE Engineering and Japan Marine United. JFE is from Japan, Fe (the chemical element symbol of iron) and Engineering. In 2020, it ...

to form Universal Shipbuilding Corporation * Displays ** Plasma and LCD

Television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

s - Ceased production. Brand name continues to be licensed to

Vestel Vestel is a Turkish home and professional appliances manufacturing company consisting of 18 companies specialised in electronics, major appliances and information technology. Vestel's headquarters and production plant are located in Manisa, while ...

for TVs sold at

Argos Argos most often refers to: * Argos, Peloponnese, a city in Argolis, Greece ** Ancient Argos, the ancient city * Argos (retailer), a catalogue retailer operating in the United Kingdom and Ireland Argos or ARGOS may also refer to: Businesses ...

in the UK. ** Small LCDs - Divested to be part of

Japan Display , commonly called by its abbreviated name, JDI, is the Japanese display technology joint venture formed by the merger of the small and medium-sized liquid crystal display businesses of Sony, Toshiba, and Hitachi. As of March 2014, JDI was one of ...

Projector A projector or image projector is an optical device that projects an image (or moving images) onto a surface, commonly a projection screen. Most projectors create an image by shining a light through a small transparent lens, but some newer types ...

s - Sold to Maxell * Memory chips - Spun off to be part of Elpida Memory *System LSIs - Spun off to be part of

Renesas Technology is a Japanese semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, initially incorporated in 2002 as Renesas Technology, the consolidated entity of the semiconductor units of Hitachi and Mitsubishi excluding their dynamic random-access memo ...

Personal computers A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tec ...

- Ceased production * Mobile phones - Merged with

Casio is a Japanese multinational electronics manufacturing corporation headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Its products include calculators, mobile phones, digital cameras, electronic musical instruments, and analogue and digital watches. I ...

's cellphone manufacturing business, then absorbed into NEC Mobile Communications * Batteries - Sold to Maxell * Drilling instruments (Hitachi Via Mechanics) - Sold to The Longreach Group * Hard disk drives - Separated division for this product line as

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies HGST, Inc. (Hitachi Global Storage Technologies) was a manufacturer of hard disk drives, solid-state drives, and external storage products and services. It was initially a subsidiary of Hitachi, formed through its acquisition of IBM's disk d ...

, then HGST was purchased by

* Mainframe computer hardware - Stopped exporting in 2000; Ceased production in 2017 to focus on the operating system business. *Hitachi Kokusai Electric - Sold to KKR **Telecommunication equipment ** Chemical vapor deposition equipment *

Power tool A power tool is a tool that is actuated by an additional power source and mechanism other than the solely manual labor used with hand tools. The most common types of power tools use electric motors. Internal combustion engines and compressed ...

s (Hitachi Koki) - Sold to KKR and renamed Hikoki *

Car navigation system An automotive navigation system is part of the automobile controls or a third party add-on used to find direction in an automobile. It typically uses a satellite navigation device to get its position data which is then correlated to a position on ...

(Clarion) - Sold to

Faurecia Faurecia SE is a French global automotive supplier headquartered in Nanterre, in the western suburbs of Paris. In 2018 it was the 9th largest international automotive parts manufacturer in the world and #1 for vehicle interiors and emission contr ...

Wind turbine A wind turbine is a device that converts the kinetic energy of wind into electrical energy. Hundreds of thousands of large turbines, in installations known as wind farms, now generate over 650 gigawatts of power, with 60 GW added each yea ...

s - Ceased production *

Chemical products Products are the species formed from chemical reactions. During a chemical reaction, reactants are transformed into products after passing through a high energy transition state. This process results in the consumption of the reactants. It can be ...

(Hitachi Chemical) - Sold to

and renamed Showa Denko Materials * Medical diagnostic equipment - Sold to

* Thermal power generation system ( Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems) - Shares held by Hitachi transferred to Mitsubishi

Philanthropy

In August 2011, it was announced that Hitachi would donate an electron microscope to each of five universities in Indonesia (the University of North Sumatra in

Medan Medan (; English: ) is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of North Sumatra, as well as a regional hub and financial centre of Sumatra. According to the National Development Planning Agency, Medan is one of the four mai ...

, the Indonesian Christian University in Jakarta,

Padjadjaran University Padjadjaran University id, Universitas Padjajaran, abbreviated as UNPAD) is a public university located in Sumedang Regency and Bandung, which is the provincial capital of West Java, Indonesia. It was established on September 11, 1957. UNPAD ha ...

in Bandung, General Soedirman University in Purwokerto and Muhammadiyah University in Malang).

Notes

References

External links

* {{Authority control Japanese companies established in 1910 Aircraft engine manufacturers of Japan Audio equipment manufacturers of Japan 1940s initial public offerings Companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Companies listed on the Nagoya Stock Exchange Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Computer security companies Conglomerate companies of Japan Consumer electronics brands Defense companies of Japan Display technology companies Electrical engineering companies of Japan Electrical wiring and construction supplies manufacturers Electronics companies of Japan Elevator manufacturers Equipment semiconductor companies Escalator manufacturers Fuyo Group Home appliance manufacturers of Japan Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning companies Industrial machine manufacturers Japanese brands Robotics in Japan Midori-kai Military vehicle manufacturers Mobile phone manufacturers Multinational companies headquartered in Japan Nuclear technology companies of Japan Power tool manufacturers Public safety communications Rail infrastructure manufacturers Robotics companies of Japan Rolling stock manufacturers of Japan Conglomerate companies established in 1910 Wind turbine manufacturers Steam turbine manufacturers Mining equipment companies Manufacturing companies established in 1910 Electronics companies established in 1910 Carburetor manufacturers Electric motor manufacturers Engine manufacturers of Japan Pump manufacturers Tool manufacturing companies of Japan

History

Products and services

Automotive systems

Construction machinery

Defense systems

Digital media and consumer products

Electronic systems and equipment

Advanced materials

Information and telecommunication systems

Power systems

Social infrastructure and industrial systems

Others

Subsidiaries

Hitachi Vantara

Hitachi Metals

Hitachi Rail

Hitachi Astemo

Other subsidiaries

Discontinued or divested businesses

Hitachi Capital

Hitachi Works

Others

Philanthropy

See also

Notes

References

External links