NEC
NEC Corporation (日本電気株式会社, Nippon Denki Kabushiki gaisha, an acronym for the Nippon Electric Company) is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered at the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan.[3] It provides IT and network solutions, including cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) platform, and telecommunications equipment and software[4][5] to business enterprises, communications services providers and to government agencies, and has also been the biggest PC vendor in Japan since the 1980s when it launched the PC-8000 series.
This article is about the Japanese information technology company. For other uses, see NEC (disambiguation).
Native name
日本電気株式会社
Nippon Denki Kabushiki gaisha
Nippon Electric Company, Limited (1899-1983, in English)
Worldwide
¥153 billion (2021)[2]
¥161 billion (2021)[2]
¥3.7 trillion (2021)[2]
¥1.5 trillion (2021)[2]
114,714 (2021)[2]
- NEC Platforms
- NEC Fielding
- NEC Solution Innovators
- ABeam Consulting
- NEC Communication Systems
- NEC Nexsolutions
- NEC Facilities
- NEC Networks & System Integration (51.4%)
- Japan Aviation Electronics (50.8%)
- NEC Corporation of America
- NEC Europe
- NEC Asia Pacific
- NEC China
- NEC Latin America
- Netcracker Technology
NEC was the world's fourth-largest PC manufacturer by 1990.[6] Its semiconductors business unit was the world's largest semiconductor company by annual revenue from 1985 to 1992, the second largest in 1995, one of the top three in 2000, and one of the top 10 in 2006.[7][8] NEC spun off its semiconductor business to Renesas Electronics and Elpida Memory. Once Japan's major electronics company, NEC has largely withdrawn from manufacturing since the beginning of the 21st century.
NEC was #463 on the 2017 Fortune 500 list.[9] NEC is a member of the Sumitomo Group.
History[edit]
NEC[edit]
Kunihiko Iwadare and Takeshiro Maeda established Nippon Electric Limited Partnership on August 31, 1898, by using facilities that they had bought from Miyoshi Electrical Manufacturing Company. Iwadare acted as the representative partner; Maeda handled company sales. Western Electric, which had an interest in the Japanese phone market, was represented by Walter Tenney Carleton.[10] Carleton was also responsible for the renovation of the Miyoshi facilities.[11] It was agreed that the partnership would be reorganized as a joint-stock company when the treaty would allow it. On July 17, 1899, the revised treaty between Japan and the United States went into effect. Nippon Electric Company, Limited was organized the same day as Western Electric Company to become the first Japanese joint-venture with foreign capital.[12] Iwadare was named managing director. Ernest Clement and Carleton were named as directors. Maeda and Mototeru Fujii were assigned to be auditors. Iwadare, Maeda, and Carleton handled the overall management.[13]
The company started with the production, sales, and maintenance of telephones and switches. NEC modernized the production facilities with the construction of the Mita Plant in 1901 at Mita Shikokumachi. It was completed in December 1902.
The Japanese Ministry of Communications adopted a new technology in 1903: the common battery switchboard supplied by NEC. The common battery switchboards powered the subscriber phone, eliminating the need for a permanent magnet generator in each subscriber's phone. The switchboards were initially imported, but were manufactured locally by 1909.[14]
NEC started exporting telephone sets to China in 1904. In 1905, Iwadare visited Western Electric in the U.S. to see their management and production control. On his return to Japan, he discontinued the "oyakata" system of sub-contracting and replaced it with a new system where managers and employees were all direct employees of the company. Inefficiency was also removed from the production process. The company paid higher salaries with incentives for efficiency. New accounting and cost controls were put in place, and time clocks was installed.[15]
Between 1899 and 1907 the number of telephone subscribers in Japan rose from 35,000 to 95,000.[16] NEC entered the China market in 1908 with the implementation of the telegraph treaty between Japan and China. They also entered the Korean market, setting up an office in Seoul in January 1908. During the period from 1907 to 1912 sales rose from 1.6 million yen to 2 million yen. The expansion of the Japanese phone service had been a key part of NEC's success during this period.
The Ministry of Communications delayed a third expansion plan of the phone service in March 1913, despite having 120,000 potential telephone subscribers waiting for phone installations. NEC sales fell sixty percent between 1912 and 1915. During the interim, Iwadare started importing appliances, including electric fans, kitchen appliances, washing machines, and vacuum cleaners. Electric fans had never been seen in Japan before. The imports were intended to prop up company sales. In 1916, the government resumed the delayed telephone-expansion plan, adding 75,000 subscribers and 326,000 kilometers of new toll lines. Thanks to this third expansion plan, NEC expanded at a time when much of the rest of the Japanese industry contracted.[17]
1919 to 1938[edit]
In 1919, NEC started its first association with Sumitomo, engaging Sumitomo Densen Seizosho to manufacture cables. As part of the venture, NEC provided cable manufacturing equipment to Sumitomo Densen. Rights to Western Electric's duplex cable patents were also transferred to Sumitomo Densen.[18]
The Great Kantō earthquake struck Japan in 1923. 140,000 people were killed and 3.4 million were left homeless.[19] Four of NEC's factories were destroyed, killing 105 of NEC's engineers and workers. Thirteen of Tokyo's telephone offices were destroyed by fire. Telephone and telegraph service was interrupted by damage to telephone cables. In response, the Ministry of Communications accelerated major programs to install automatic telephone switching systems and enter radio broadcasting.[20][1] The first automatic switching systems were the Strowger-type model made by Automatic Telephone Manufacturing Co. (ATM) in the United Kingdom. NEC participated in the installation of the automatic switching systems, ultimately becoming the general sales agent for ATM. NEC developed its own Strowger-type automatic switching system in 1924, the first in Japan. One of the plants almost leveled during the Kanto earthquake, the Mita Plant, was chosen to support expanding production. A new three-story steel-reinforced concrete building was built, starting in 1925. It was modeled after the Western Electric Hawthorne Works.
NEC started its radio communications business in 1924. Japan's first radio broadcaster, Radio Tokyo was founded in 1924 and started broadcasting in 1925. NEC imported the broadcasting equipment from Western Electric.[21] The expansion of radio broadcasting into Osaka and Nagoya marked the emergence of radio as an Industry. NEC established a radio research unit in 1924. NEC started developing electron tubes in 1925. By 1930, they were manufacturing their first 500 W radio transmitter. They provided the Chinese Xinjing station with a 100 kW radio broadcasting system in 1934.
Photo-telegraphic equipment developed by NEC transmitted photos of the accession ceremony of Emperor Hirohito. The ceremony was held in Kyoto in 1928. The Newspapers Asahi Shimbun and Mainichi Shimbun were competing to cover the ceremony. The Asahi Shimbun was using a Siemens device. The Mainichi was planning to use French photo-telegraphic equipment. In the end, both papers acquired and used the NEC product, due to its faster transmission rate and higher picture quality.[22]
In 1929 Nippon Electric provided Japan's Ministry of Communications with the A-type switching system, the first of these systems to be developed in Japan. Nippon supplied Japan's Ministry of Communications with nonloaded line carrier equipment for long-distance telephone channels in 1937.[23]
1938 to 1945[edit]
World War II was described by the company as being the blackest days of its history.[24] In 1938 the Mita and Tamagawa plants were placed under military control, with direct supervision by military officers. In 1939, Nippon Electric established a research laboratory in the Tamagawa plant. It became the first Japanese company to successfully test microwave multiplex communications.[25] On December 22, 1941, the enemy property control law was passed. NEC shares owned by International Standard Electric Corporation (ISE), an ITT subsidiary, and Western Electric affiliate were seized. Capital and technical relations were abruptly severed. The "Munitions Company Law" was passed in October 1943, placing overall control of NEC plants under military jurisdiction.[26] The Ueno plant was leveled by the military attack in March 1945. Fire bombings in April and May heavily damaged the Tamagawa Plant, reducing its capacity by forty percent. The Okayama Plant was totally destroyed by a bombing attack in June of the same year. At the end of the war, NEC's production had been substantially reduced by damage to its facilities, and by material and personnel shortages.
1945 to 1980[edit]
After the war, production was slowly returned to civilian use. NEC re-opened its major plants by the end of January 1946.[27] NEC began transistor research and development in 1950. It started exporting radio-broadcast equipment to Korea under the first major postwar contract in 1951. NEC received the Deming Prize for excellence in quality control in 1952. Computer research and development began in 1954. NEC produced the first crossbar switching system in Japan. It was installed at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation (currently Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation; NTT) in 1956. NEC began joint research and development with NTT of electronic switching systems the same year. NEC established Taiwan Telecommunication Company as their first postwar overseas joint venture in 1958. They completed the NEAC-1101 and NEAC-1102 computers in the same year. In September 1958, NEC built their first fully transistorized computer, the NEAC-2201, with parts made solely in Japan.[28] One year later, they demonstrated it at the UNESCO AUTOMATH show in Paris. The company began integrated circuit research and development in 1960. In 1963 NEC started trading as American Depositary Receipts, with ten million shares being sold in the United States.[29] Nippon Electric New York (now NEC America Inc.) was incorporated in the same year.[27]
As of July 2018, NEC has 6 larger business segments—Public, Enterprise, Network Services, System Platform, Global, and Others.[71] It has renamed its Telecom Carrier business to Network Service.
Principal subsidiaries of NEC include:
Achievements of NEC include:
Sponsorships[edit]
NEC was the main (title) sponsor of the Davis Cup competition until 2002, when BNP Paribas took over the sponsorship.[80]
NEC between 1982 and 2012 sponsored the NEC Cup, a Go tournament in Japan.
NEC between 1986 and 2003 sponsored the NEC Shun-Ei, a Go tournament for young players in Japan.
NEC sponsored the English football club Everton from 1985 to 1995. The 1995 FA Cup Final triumph was Everton's final game of the decade-long NEC sponsorship, and Danka took over as sponsors.[81]
NEC first time signed the deal to sponsor Sauber F1 Team from 2011 season until 2014 season.[82]
Right after Sauber, NEC continue sponsored Sahara Force India F1 Team for 2015 season until its demise during 2018 season.[83] Since then NEC has sponsored for their last time its successor Racing Point only in 2019 season.
In April 2013, NEC became the umbrella sponsor for PGA Tour Latinoamérica, a third-tier men's professional golf tour.[84]
These started as works teams, but over the years came to include professional players:
NEC also used to own Montedio Yamagata of the football (soccer) J. League, but as of 2009 just sponsors them along with other local companies.
The following team is defunct.
