1915～

Keiichiro Yasukawa (1912)
Panoramic view of Meiji vocational school

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Founding Promoter : Keiichiro Yasukawa

The founding promoter, Keiichiro Yasukawa, was known as one of the Three Great Families of Chikuho region when he succeeded in the coal mining business with modern management, including the reform of the labor employment system and new coal mining using dynamite. Besides coal mining, he was involved in railway, spinning, port construction, bank management and nitrogen manufacturing in the Chikuho region and encouraged his sons to start a business. He also focused on human resource development and opened the Meiji Technical School (now Kyushu Institute of Technology) with his own funds in 1909. In his friendship with the revolutionary Sun Yat-sen in China, there remains an episode in which he was given a sign of “world peace” as a thank you for his support during his exile in Japan.

Founding employee (1917) with representative employee Daigoro Yasukawa
Exterior view of the factory of Yaskawa Electric Manufacturing Company (1919)

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Founder : Daigoro Yasukawa

The fifth son of Keiichiro Yasukawa, Daigoro Yasukawa, who was interested in electric motors, which had begun to replace steam engines in all industrial fields, learned the basics of advanced technology in the United States. Then, encouraged by Keiichiro to establish a company “I’ll pay for it. I won’t interfere, so try to work together with the brothers, “he founded a joint-stock company, Yaskawa Electric, in 1915. Although the company started with build-to-order manufacturing of electrical equipment for coal mines, it continued to be in the red until 1932, when it reduced the items of manufacturing to “electric motors and their controllers,” it finally turned in the black. He also left behind the company’s founding spirit of “striving to design and manufacture our own products, not imitate foreign products.”. In 1942, he became the first president of the Electric and Mechanical Control Association, and took on a number of important positions, including chairperson of the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee (1963 – 1965).

Three-phase induction motor KBQ type
Yasukawa Taiichi (1894-1982), first managing director
Flow operation of small motors
Super synchronous motor No.1(1927)

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Product Development from Foundation

The first product in 1917, the three-phase induction motor 20HP, was used in coal mines and steel making. From 1930, the business rapidly expanded with the success of super synchronous motors for cement and coal mines, and motors with ball bearings as electric motors and their applications (Yaskawa as a motor company). Electric motors with ball bearings were an opportunity to turn around a business that was in serious condition at the time, due in part to the Great Recession. Taiichi Yasukawa, a legendary engineer who played a major role in the development of the machine, was enthusiastic about “manufacturing to sell the brain” because he believed that if a device was made with an optimal control system for an electric motor, the intangible brain would be sold along with the device. It also introduced a stream operation system, which quadrupled the production capacity of the rotary machine plant.

Tagoto pumps (manufactured from 1947 to 1950)

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Boosting Production of Electrical Appliances for Agriculture and Coal Mining

After World War II, the company faced difficulties in rebuilding because of the aging production facilities and the ongoing inflation. The Japanese government’s urgent task was to solve the food supply problem caused by the record-breaking drop in rice production in 1945 and to increase coal production, and the company focused on producing electrical products for agricultural development and coal mining. In a movement to bring electricity to agricultural use, we have made a significant contribution to increasing food production through increased production of pump motors for irrigation, pumping and drainage, and agricultural work. Also, as the government shifted its focus to coal and steel under the lean production system, the company gave priority in the provision of necessary materials and loans, and increased the production of electrical equipment for coal mines.

Motor Age

Electric motors and their applications

Founding Promoter : Keiichiro Yasukawa

Founder : Daigoro Yasukawa

Product Development from Foundation

Boosting Production of Electrical Appliances for Agriculture and Coal Mining