The 20 Year Fall of Japan's Sharp Corporation

The mechanical pencil. The calculators. The TVs.

Over the years, Japan's Sharp Corporation has delivered a bevy of iconic products.

But starting at the turn of the century, the company found itself increasingly trapped in a single, incredibly competitive business.

Attacked on all sides by foreign competitors and running out of money, the company sold itself to a Taiwanese electronics giant. The first such foreign takeover of a major Japanese consumer electronics company.

For this video, let us talk a bit about the rise and decline of the 100-year old Sharp Corporation.

Beginnings

Founder Tokuji Hayakawa (早川 徳次) was born in 1893 in Tokyo, the third son of a furniture-maker. He lived a harsh childhood. His mother suffered health problems and could not take care of him so he was put up for adoption.

Treated harshly by his new step-mother, Tokuji was forced to drop out of the second grade for work. But at the age of eight, an elderly lady got him a position as an apprentice for a strict but compassionate metalworker.

After training in metalworking for seven years, Hayakawa graduated and joined the workforce. Soon after came his first invention, a belt buckle dubbed the Tokubijo.

What was special about this buckle was that it can be fastened without needing to punch holes into the belt. It was a hit, selling 4,752 pieces and necessitating a serious expansion in capacity.

Thus at the age of 19, Hayakawa opened a metal workshop of his own in Tokyo with just 50 yen of invested capital. 40 of which was borrowed. The Workshop

A few years later in 1915, a manufacturer placed an order at Hayakawa's workshop for the metal innards for a mechanical pencil.

Struck by that pencil's poor quality, Hayakawa worked day and night to produce a superior version: the Hayakawa Mechanical Pencil.

This pencil was a hit. Most pencils at the time were imported from Germany. With Germany fighting World War I at the time, the Hayakawa Mechanical became the next best alternative.

The business rapidly expanded. Hayakawa's long-lost older brother Masaharu joined the business. In 1923, the two brothers built a new, 990 square-meter factory staffed with 200 workers to handle all the orders.

Earthquake

Then on September 1st 1923, 11:58 AM, the Great Kanto Earthquake struck the country.

Hayakawa, his family, and his factory survived the initial earthquake, which is said to have lasted over ...