Tokuji Hayakawa Founder of Sharp Corporation
Biography of Tokuji Hayakawa
Early Life
Tokuji Hayakawa founder of Sharp Corporation, was born in Tokyo, the city of Japan, in 1893. He was a Japanese businessman. When he was born, his family was in severe poor financial conditions. It was very difficult for his family to nourish a child. So, later on the Sato family adopted him. But very soon he came to know that he was an adopted child. He left his primary school education after knowing that fact. He was in second standard at that time.
Working Life
Due to poor financial conditions of his family he was sent to metal ornament manufacturer for work. There he worked very hard and carefully to increase his skills in the field of ornament making, and it’s trading system. With his devotion to work, with in no time he gained the trust from his supervisory authority.
Initially he started up with making belts, which were used as women’s clothing material and men’s wearing item. He introduced his belts in Japan in 1912. But the demand of belts increased in Japan when Western style belts were introduced. He introduced a new type of belt which became very popular.
Entry in Industrial department
His boss appreciated him for his innovation and suggested him to get patents for that belt. But due to huge demand of his product he was unable to apply for patent. There were so many orders to be fulfilled and pressure was mounting on him. He decided to build a factory then for his own created products. In September 1912, he borrowed money and set up a shop. Slowly and gradually he increased the number of employees and production. His business was at boom, he paid back his debt and continued to earn profits and expand his business.
Founder of Sharp Corporation
He then introduced many other products. In 1913, he also obtained patent for his own creation of water taps. In 1915 he developed a sample of mechanical pencil. It was the time for domain shifting for him. Suddenly he moved to electronic items from handmade metal ornaments. This manufacturing business was later on named as “Sharp Corporation”. First ever electronic product for his company was a mechanical pencil, and then worked on radio, tape recorders, and televisions.
Sharp Corporation
Sharp Corporation is a Japanese multinational company of electronics. This company’s headquarter is in Abeno-ku, Osaka, Japan. It was initially started in 1912 by Tokuji Hayakawa, Japanese businessman. Sharp name was adopted from the first innovative product, a mechanical pencil called “Ever-Sharp”. It is now fifth biggest TV manufacturer of the world.
Later Life
After the introduction of his “Sharp Corporation”, he engaged himself in promoting his newly developed company. He worked on the product development, market strategies, and identifying the needs of his company’s customers. Apart from his company he was also engaged in social welfare programs. At the age of 86 years in 1981 he died of natural death.
He died at 88 years old. Not 86.
How do you know this dear. There is actually confusion about his exact age.
In 1913, Hayakawa acquired the patent of an innovative water faucet, and in 1915, he developed the prototype of the Sharp automatic pencil still sold today. Later, he expanded his enterprise into electronics manufacturing of radios, tape-recorders and televisions. He was also active in social welfare programs. He died in 1980 at the age of 86.