was a company established by Shōichi Miyoshi and

Fujioka Ichisuke Fujioka may refer to: * Fujioka, Aichi, a former town located in Nishikamo District, Aichi, Japan * Fujioka, Gunma, a city in Gunma, Japan * Fujioka, Tochigi, a former town located in Shimotsuga District, Tochigi, Japan People * Fujioka (surname)

, two of Japan's industrial pioneers during the Tokugawa /

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

. It specialized in the manufacturing of

light bulb Electric light is an artificial light source powered by electricity. Electric Light may also refer to: * Light fixture, a decorative enclosure for an electric light source * ''Electric Light'' (album), a 2018 album by James Bay * Electric Light ( ...

s. The company was established in 1890, and started out by selling bulbs using bamboo filaments. However, following the opening up of trade with the West through the

Unequal treaty The unequal treaties were a series of agreements made between Asian countries—most notably Qing dynasty, Qing China, Tokugawa shogunate, Tokugawa Japan and Joseon, Joseon Korea—and Western countries—most notably the United Kingdom of Great ...

, Hakunetsusha met with fierce competition from imports. Its bulb cost about 60 per cent more than the imports and the quality was poorer. The company managed to survive with the booms after the

First Sino-Japanese War The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 189417 April 1895), or the First China–Japan War, was a conflict between the Qing dynasty of China and the Empire of Japan primarily over influence in Joseon, Korea. In Chinese it is commonly known as th ...

of 1894–95 and the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War (8 February 1904 – 5 September 1905) was fought between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire. The major land battles of the war were fought on the ...

of 1904–05, but afterward its financial position was precarious. In 1905 the company was renamed Tokyo Denki (Tokyo Electric) and entered into a financial and technological collaboration with

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

of USA. General Electric acquired 51 percent share of ownership, sent a vice president, and provided the technology for bulb-making. Production equipment was bought from GE and Tokyo Denki soon started selling its products with GE's trademark. In 1939, Tokyo Denki and

Shibaura Seisakusho was the new name given to the company Tanaka Seisakusho (Tanaka Engineering Works), after it was declared insolvent in 1893 and taken over by Mitsui Bank. In 1910 it formed a tie-up with General Electric (GE) which in exchange for technology acqu ...

were merged to form Tokyo Shibaura Denki (Tokyo Shibaura Electric Company, now

Toshiba is a Japanese multinational electronics company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. Its diversified products and services include power, industrial and social infrastructure systems, elevators and escalators, electronic components, semiconductors ...

References

Manufacturing companies based in Tokyo Electrical engineering companies of Japan Toshiba Electronics companies established in 1890 1890 establishments in Japan Electronics companies disestablished in 1939 1939 disestablishments in Japan {{japan-company-stub