[June 5, 1980, Thursday - Nihon Kogyo Shimbun]
Printing electrons ③ Newlong Seimitsu Kogyo
The spring of 1964.
NEWLONG SEIMITSU released the first TN-Double-type flat screen printer to the Japanese market. It was April thirtieth, just one year after the company had come into contact with the technology sent from the United States.
The two units of first machines. One was delivered to Toyama Kogei in Nagoya and the other to a company called Yamashita Mark in Osaka.
“Normally, it is common knowledge that the first machine is one machine, but we proceeded with the development of two machines in parallel from the beginning. The first machine was the result of the passion and hard work of all employees." (President Inoue)
As Inoue said aptly last time, the time was ripe for requests for “original technology” within the company. He expanded his business from sewing machine parts to jigs and tools, and had more than forty employees. Screen printing technology quickly fell into the circle of enthusiastic employees and quickly bore fruit.
Feeling the heat on his skin, Inoue looked at his feet steadily and calmly, never getting hot himself.
"Let's keep the company small without increasing the number of people. Even if we do increase the number of people, let's limit it to fifty and create a corporate culture led by a small number of elites."
This was the decision.
It's not a solid defensive stance. It can be said that it was an inevitable policy born from the basic attitude of trying to reject the temptation of mere desire for expansion.
At that time, a lot of information was predicting the future of screen printing technology. He predicted that this technology, which can print on materials other than paper, would be widely introduced in the future in fields such as molded products, metals, and glass. In fact, since then, screen printing has been expanding its range of applications centering on resin products, and has grown in step with the expansion and development of the Japanese economy.
Judging from Inoue's intentions, such predictions must have been seen as a strong support for the advancement of new fields. That is probably why Inoue chose the idea of firmly incorporating this technology into his own company while solidifying his own foothold.
You can see Inoue's management stance of steadily and proactively working on a solid policy. In fact, Inoue's subsequent actions have always been aggressive and swift.
In the autumn of 1966, the company went on its first inspection trip to the United States. The members participated in the world conference of the Screen Printing Association and related exhibitions as part of the Japanese industry inspection team; through that experience, Inoue began the rapid development of NEWLONG SEIMITSU as a main manufacturer of screen printers.
Despite having a little preliminary knowledge, Inoue was once again surprised by the scale of the American industry when he actually saw it with his own eyes. There were huge machines for printing posters. The scale of the factories that Inoue was able to openly and amicably see far exceeded Inoue's imagination.
“Japan was an underdeveloped country in this field, so I was very grateful that they were able to show us everything openly. At a casino in Las Vegas, it was even used to print game mats. My honest impression was that it has a wide range of applications.”
After returning to Japan, Inoue examined the company's future policy based on that experience, analyzed future market trends, and decided on a policy to lead by screen printing. At the start of 1966, Inoue declared this new policy to the entire company. And he sincerely said goodbye to the sewing machine field that had continued since his creation only two years after entering this field. It was a quick turnaround.
(Titles of persons omitted)
<Written by Kunio Michida>
From June 3, 1980, to the 16th, over 2 weeks; Nihon Kogyo Shimbun (now:FujiSankei Business i.), reprinted with permission.
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