Tokudzi Hayakawa

September 15, 1912 19-year Tokudzi Hayakawa opened in central Tokyo, a small workshop of metal haberdashery. Then managed to invent vechnoostry pencil. Thus began the career of the founder Sharp Corporation - one of the leading electronic companies.
. Representatives of the old Japanese industrial clans often laughed Hayakawa: once again out of step again, kicking some kind of adventure, see what he will
. But it appeared that Hayakawa first started this or that good business and the skeptics were forced to catch up. Self-taught mechanic Hayakawa could not get a good education. But it was him and his company's Japanese - and not just Japanese - owe their introduction to the wonders of XX century such as radio and television, liquid crystals and microelectronics.
. At the beginning of the century, Japanese children started to work in the still very tender age
. So Tokudzi Hayakawa, as soon as he was nine years old, was given to the students to master metalworker. He was engaged in the manufacture of traditional Japanese crests and hairpins, which Japanese women knitted their complex hairstyles.
Education was not in vain. In 1912 Tokudzi invented buckle belt. Very unusual for that time in Japan, where everyone wore a kimono. Even in Tokyo is very rare to be found clothing western cut - it was just beginning to move higher class of Japanese society. Having seen the western westerns in which the heroes of one hand movement were controlled with straps, Tokudzi invented the buckle, which does not need a hole on a strap, patented it and called "Tokubidzho". And hit the bull's eye: "new Japanese" chased him buckle, as after 80 years of "new Russian" - the fashionable neckties. Traders crowds besieged the small shop, and mentor Sensei blessed Tokudzi on their own business.
His business he started with 50 yen in my pocket (about $ 1200 for these days), of which forty took credit. Every day from four in the morning until late at night he and two employees riveting "Tokubidzho". A month later he paid the creditor, and after two more of its capital was already 120 yen. Has come in 1913, Hayakawa moved into a new studio and began making the buckles in addition to hoops for Japanese umbrellas. Tokudzi invented a convenient sliding sleeve, and received a patent. A year later Hayakawa began to build its own plant. Put him in a lot of money: in the era of ubiquitous manual labor at the factory Hayakawa machines driven by engines with capacity of 1 horsepower. Labor productivity in the factory has reached unprecedented heights in those days.
It would seem, to invent a pencil - it's like reinventing the wheel. But Hayakawa managed to make this simple and familiar to all subject matter is something completely new. He devised an original mechanism that allowed all the time to support the pencil point in working condition, and placed him in a metal case. Slate was running out due to the rotation of its case. "Mechanical Pencil Hayakawa" (under that name he patented invention) was deprived of the shortcomings of its predecessor, which was made of celluloid and was terribly inconvenient, unsightly and impractical.

. In 1915, Hayakawa made his pencils on sale
. Expenditure, they badly: the metal casing chilled fingers and looked bad with kimono. Hayakawa stubbornly continued to work at the warehouse until they waited for a large order from a trading firm from the port city of Yokohama. It turned out that in Europe and the U.S. "pencil Hayakawa" gained popularity. Large Japanese traders quickly assessed the export potential of new product and began to buy pencils directly at the factory Hayakawa. It was loaded to the limit, as traders demanded more and more. Then, for the production of pencils Hayakawa created another company, and he continued to work on their construction. In 1916, he developed a head for pencil, mechanical pencil, and took the image that remains to this day. The product received a new name - "vechnoostry pencil", Ever-Ready-Sharp Pencil. Hence has its origins in the name of the corporation Sharp.

Business grew, production expands. Hayakawa constantly invent some technological innovations. For example, the pencil factory he organized Japan's first assembly line. 11 years after the company was founded on Hayakawa employed 200 people, and he earned 50 thousand. yen per month.

Everything collapsed on Sept. 1, 1923 - the day of the Tokyo earthquake (7.9 on the Richter scale). Closely built-up wooden houses turned into ruins Tokyo. What was left after the earthquake, burned in the fire, which started because of the overturned cooking braziers. Thousands of people died. Hayakawa himself escaped with scratches, but lost everything he had. Killed his family - his wife and two children. From the factory no trace. Suffered many of its workers.
Many in this situation would be broken. But Hayakawa persevered and with the help of three employees returned to the business. They left from Tokyo, where everything reminded of their loss, in Osaka. In this city in September 1924, Hayakawa has restored the production of pencils and created a company Hayakawa Metal Works.
The first radio Hayakawa saw in the watch shop, located in the commercial center of Osaka. These things imported, imported into Japan from the U.S., were in demand - a year in the country was due to start regular broadcasting. His radio was not in Japan, and Hayakawa, feeling that the radio has a great future, decided to do their production.

He had no idea how to operate electric circuits, but it does not bother. He bought radio parts, Hayakawa and his comrades gathered from these schemes, checking them with Morse code, - transmitting stations in Japan has not yet been. By April 1925 the apparatus was ready. And on June 1 radio JOBK (later it turned into a media corporation, NHK) has implemented Japan's first successful radio broadcast. Team Tokudzi Hayakawa was on duty at his destination - and began to dance when he sounded a clear voice. Soon, the serial production of the first radio made in Japan.

Intuition is not summed Hayakawa: radio became a very popular commodity. In 1925 there were 5455 holders of licenses (each owner paying radio receiver yen per month, and the first receiver Hayakawa cost 3.5 yen). Three years later the number of licensees NHK over half a million. And many enjoy the receivers that were sold under the brand name Sharp. The plant produced 10 thousand. receivers in a month, and for the Japanese Sharp brand has become almost synonymous with the word "radio".

In 1937 Japan occupied Manchuria, the war with China. Japanese eagerly caught the front-line reports and more willingly buy radios. But the assembly line at the plant Hayakawa (incidentally, it was Japan's first conveyor line, Hayakawa himself designed and patented it) every 56 seconds went a new receiver. December 7, 1941 the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor - the Pacific Ocean came the Second World War. And the demand for receivers jumped dramatically: in 1941 was a record number of new license holders - more than 1.2 million. man.
Entered the war and the firm Hayakawa: by order of Army Staff, she moved into the production of military radio equipment. After the war, like all Japanese firms, she paid the price for it. Japan suffered a heavy defeat: the country lay in ruins, products and materials sorely lacking, consumer demand is virtually non-existent, people had nowhere to earn money. Moreover, Japanese businessmen were in the grip of severe restrictions imposed by the occupation authorities. Eid late 50's in Japan, the crisis erupted. Among manufacturers of radios, too, began bankruptcy proceedings: their number fell from 80 to 18. On the verge of collapse and was Hayakawa Electric (is the name of the company received in 1942) - by March 1950 its debt had reached 4.65 million. yen. Yet with the help of bankers and trade unions managed to stay afloat

Soon there were two events which greatly facilitated the life Hayakawa. First, it started the Korean War, and from American military units stationed on the Japanese islands, received large orders. Secondly, in Japan opened several commercial radio stations broadcasting on frequencies that are not available for older receivers. Then Hayakawa Electric released a receiver with an extended range and quickly returned to their previous level of production.

. Intuition is not summed Hayakawa in the case of television - when in the early 50-ies, Japan is ripe for television, he was again in the forefront
. In 1951, Hayakawa Electric introduced the first working prototype TV set through the first year in Japan, entered into a licensing agreement with American corporation RCA. And in January 1953, the market entered the first Japanese television, black and white Sharp TV3-14T (daily television NHK began in February). Worth it insanely expensive-175 thousand. yen (200 yen more per month cost the license), while the average official received 5,4 thousand. yen per month. The first television sets, which were installed in shops, restaurants, streets, gathering huge crowds. Interest in "radio with pictures" grew. But the Japanese still had to be convinced that the TV set in every home - a realistic goal. Hayakawa decided that a good argument to be a TV with a screen 14 inches at the cost of "10 thousand. yen per inch ". And at the end of May 1953 appeared for a TV Sharp 145 thousand

Hayakawa guessed right: it took 60% of TV sets a new market. For the Japanese Sharp brand has once again become a national symbol of "new style of life". By 1955, Hayakawa Electric made 5 thousand. TV sets per month, they immediately sold out.

. Representatives of the so-called zaibatsu-old Japanese industrial clans that have emerged in the last century - has always treated with contempt by upstarts, one of which belonged Tokudzi Hayakawa
. They have a solid business associated with heavy industry, the deep historical roots, but here some frivolous pencils yes receivers ... Beginners really was nothing for the soul, and emerge from the shadows of giants, they could only with the help of new technologies.

Such a chance was given electronics, cybernetics and the underlying semiconductor technology. "Old men" initially reacted to the transistors in disbelief, and Hayakawa, both young and Akio Morita of Sony, immediately seized on them. Hayakawa, for example, the first in Japan reacted to the appearance of computers: in the company's headquarters were established mainframe. And in 1960 a group of young engineers, recruits Hayakawa Electric, lit up the idea of creating their own computers. Hayakawa thought - and agreed.

The youth received a laboratory and, on balance, instead of mainframe computers took up calculators - "electronic accounts, which could be used at any time and anywhere. In 1964, just before the start of the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Hayakawa Electric has released a transistor-diode calculator - this was the first calculator in the world. He was worth as much as color TV, but the Japanese and Olympic visitors were impressed by how he copes valiantly with calculations. Hayakawa created a new market: very soon 32 more companies offering 210 different models of calculators.

In 1969 he flew to the moon Apollo, which first used very large scale integrated circuits (VLSI). Best advertising VLSI could have been devised, and it decided to take Hayakawa. He was worried that Sony is already mass-produced transistor, take them and the old company, a Hayakawa Electric remained the typical collector - or their transistors, no experience of their production. And then Hayakawa received unexpected for many solution: he proposed to spend money on new technology, rather than lay them to participate in a major exhibition Ehro'70. Hayakawa Electric bought the license for manufacture of VLSI Americans (corporation Rockwell) and began to build a large factory. With a total capitalization, valued then at 10.5 billion. yen, the company has spent on this project 7.5 billion. All watched and shrugged: "Well, do not fool if this HayakavaN
The first chips were obtained wildly expensive, the percentage of marriage was a huge. But Hayakawa Electric quickly mastered the science and technology was to copy that was not easy. Another license - in LCD technology, which was considered absolutely non-profit - Hayakawa bought RCA. His engineers began to use it in hours, calculators, TVs. Again, everyone said: y Hayakawa new hobby. However, the company quickly proved that it is not wasted your money.
The last thing that made Hayakawa as president of the company - renamed his company She became known as the Sharp Corporation - consonant with its popular brand. Then he walked away from the operational manual.
A Sharp moved on, staying on the cutting edge of progress.