The history of Yokogawa Electric dates back to 1915 when a renowned architect, Tamisuke Yokogawa formed the company. Today, Yokogawa Electric Corporation is a famous Japanese multinational business that specializes in electrical equipment and IT infrastructure. The company operates in 55 companies with more than 19,000 employees. It also has 84 subsidiaries and 3 affiliated companies.
Yokogawa Electric’s headquarters is based in Musashino, Tokyo, Japan. Hitoshi Nara is the current President and CEO of the company while Takashi Nishijima is the Chairman. Yokogawa Electric is a publicly-traded company listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Some of the most famous products of the company are manufacturing execution systems, production control systems, test and measurement instruments, etc.
Founding The Company In 1915
The story of Yokogawa Electric began when Dr. Yokogawa established an electric meter research institute in Tokyo. This foundation was formed by Ichiro Yokogawa and Shin Aoki. After working for a couple of years to launch the company’s product, it became the first company in Japan to produce and sell electric meters. Initially focusing exclusively on electric meters, the company soon pioneered its development and officially incorporated the enterprise, Yokogawa Electric Works Ltd in 1920. After it has been almost a decade that the company was only producing electric meters, it decided to expand its product line. So, in 1933 Yokogawa Electric began the research for aircraft instruments and started its production. Some of the other instruments that were introduced are flow, temperature, and pressure controllers.
Yokogawa Electric Becoming A Public Company
A few years later, the scenario changed for every industry due to the war. After the war ended, Yokogawa decided to go public in 1948 and developed its first electronic recorders. After going public, the company not just expanded its product line but also decided to enter the international market. So, in 1955, the company signed an agreement with Foxboro, the USA for providing technical assistance in industrial types of equipment. After two years, the company established Yokogawa Electric Works, Inc as a North American sales office.
With the advent of a new decade, Yokogawa entered the industrial analyzer market fully prepped. So, in 1969, it started the development, manufacture, and sale of vortex flowmeters. As the company previously opened sales offices in the United States, but it was for the first time in the 1970s that it established a plant outside Japan. This manufacturing plant was established in Singapore in 1974 and with that established the business in the country (Yokogawa Electric Singapore Pte. Ltd.). The company also expanded to Europe as it opened a sales office there. During this time Yokogawa Electric became one of the first companies in the market to bring distributed process control systems.
In 1983, the company merged with Hokushin Electric Works and after the merger established Yokogawa Hokushin Electric Corp. After a few years, the company decided to expand to China and did it jointly with Xian Instruments Factory. In 1986, the company changed its name to Yokogawa Electric Corporation which is the current name of the company. By the end of the 1980s, the company entered the high-frequency measuring instrument business and in 1990 expanded to the Middle east. It also entered the biotechnology business during the same time.
Hitoshi Nara – CEO
Hitoshi Nara, the current CEO and President of the company joined it in 1985. Since then he has served at various levels starting with Deputy Managing Director of Yokogawa Engineering Asia in 2001, Managing Director of Yokogawa (Thailand in 2003), Senior Vice President of several business units, and so on. He became the CEO of the company in April 2019. He has been also elected as the Director of the company and serving in the position for ten years.
Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more