History

A chronology of the history of NHK Spring.
Click the + on the far right to see the list.

NHK Spring's founding originated with the acquisition of Shibaura Spring in Shibaura, Tokyo. Started by Mr. Masao Nakano as a sole proprietorship, this company started by making springs for automobile repairs and expanded to springs for assembly. Later, the company was reorganized as a corporation.

The company's first Presidents Eikichi Kaede, Kiyoshi Inoue, and Hisashi Sakamoto, focused efforts on springs for automobiles. Exhibiting entrepreneurial spirit, they developed a business plan and started out by acquiring an existing spring factory, which they considered the shortest path.

In February 1939, after acquiring the Nitto Plant of Osaka Steel Works and turning it into a rolling mill for springs, the company's board of directors was reelected at an extraordinary shareholders' meeting. Among the new directors was Kiyotoshi Fujioka, who later became President and CEO. After two capital increases and other changes, on September 8 of the same year, the company name was changed to "NHK Spring Co., Ltd." The company celebrates this day as the anniversary of its founding.

Although the company was founded in Shibaura, Tokyo, the founders had a vision in their minds to expand facilities and build a large mass-production plant. At that time, since materials and products were mainly transported by ship, they thought it would be best to locate the new plant in a coastal area, so they searched for a site along Tokyo Bay from Ichikawa in Chiba Prefecture. Although they were unable to find suitable land, they did find a reclaimed site in Isogo, Yokohama.

The Company invested a huge amount of money (3 million yen, twice the amount of the Company's capital) in constructing the plant and introducing all possible state-of-the-art equipment, such as cranes, conveyors, and automated machinery. In November 1940, Isogo Factory (see note) began production of leaf springs as a state-of-the-art modernized factory. With the start of operations at Isogo Factory, the Company's headquarters moved to Isogo.

After that, while overcoming the hardships of World War II and so on, the Company continued to develop and innovate production, including the introduction of shot peening, and made great strides on the back of its advanced technological capabilities.
(Note) Isogo Plant was called "Yokohama Plant" at the time, but to avoid confusion with the later Yokohama Plant in Kanazawa Ward, it is referred to here as "Isogo Plant".

The Japanese economy entered a period of full-fledged expansion in tandem with the major economic boom known as the "Jinmu Boom" that began in 1955. Responding to positive capital investment by automobile manufacturers, the Company also promoted capital investment and rationalization over two stages.

Meanwhile, the competition for market share in the spring industry was becoming increasingly intense. In the spring of 1957, fearing that excessive competition could lead to mutual collapse, the Company's management spearheaded a reorganization of the industry. They came to the drastic conclusion of merging with the spring division of Daido Steel, one of the top three spring makers in the industry.

The merger process progressed quickly, and after repeated negotiations with the Fair Trade Commission and other authorities, Daido Steel separated its spring division and established Daido Spring in December of the same year on the premise that it would merge with NHK Spring. Thus, in May 1958, the merger between the NHK Spring and Daido Spring was realized.

As a result, Daido Spring's Kawasaki Plant became NHK Spring's Kawasaki Plant. At this time, capital was increased to 500 million yen, and the Company cemented its position as a leading spring manufacturer.

From 1949, the Company manufactured seat springs for jeeps for the Occupation Forces at the Miyada Plant (now Ina Plant) in Nagano Prefecture.

The company then expanded its business to include general trucks, etc., but as production volume increased, transportation costs began to mount, affecting profitability. The only way to overcome this situation was to build a new plant specializing in seat springs in a location adjacent to an automobile manufacturer.

This resulted in the establishment of the Nagoya Plant (current Toyota Plant) as the Company's first local production base in 1961.

The following year, the Kawasaki Plant (Seating) was established. At that time, the Company produced drum-shaped springs, however, through a technical tie-up with the American company Rockwell Corporation, it switched to S-springs, which improved productivity and reduced weight, giving us a head start over other spring manufacturers in making this type of spring. After that, in 1964, we started production of urethane foam integrated seats. After that, the seating business steadily expanded, including the establishment of the Ota Plant (current Gunma Plant).

In 1963, NHK Spring became the first automotive parts manufacturer to establish operations in Thailand (Note).  
As early as the late 1950s, inquiries for leaf springs were coming in from Southeast Asia and South America, and the Company was beginning to establish a foothold in overseas production. At that time, the demand for springs in Southeast Asia was mainly for repair work. Whereas the domestic demand for springs was 300 tons, the Company was exporting 100-150 tons. Against this backdrop, the relevant directors at that time conducted exhaustive negotiations and eventually obtained approval to establish NHK Spring (Thailand) Co., Ltd.

Initially, the Company planned a facility with monthly production capacity of 400 tons of leaf springs. When it was first established, the plant had 101 employees comprising 94 locals and 7 expatriates from Japan.

NHK Spring (Thailand) Co., Ltd. has since established bases in various regions and started integrated production of seating, coil springs, and various precision springs, and has expanded its business beyond the automotive field to handle NHK Spring's main business such as HDD suspensions. The company is making great strides as one of the most important members of our group.
(Note) Yazaki Corporation entered Thailand earlier than NHK Spring, however, NHK Spring was the first to establish operations in Thailand in the automotive parts business.

A surprisingly little-known fact is that NHK Spring used to operate a bowling alley and a cab company. Hisashi Sakamoto, the third President and CEO, and Kiyotoshi Fujioka, the fourth President and CEO, who were involved in the Company's founding, promoted diversification of the business, believing that "the future would be difficult if we were only a spring manufacturer. "Kinko Bowl" and "Kinko Kotsu" were representative Group companies at that time.

"Kinko Bowl" was operated in Isogo Ward, Yokohama during the bowling boom of the time, but it was later closed and turned into the Negishi Branch, where the Industrial Machinery and Equipment Division (at the time) had its offices. It has since been sold and no trace of the company remains. In addition, the cab company "Kinko Kotsu" was spun off from the NHK Spring Group and continues to operate today.

The ideas of our founders were rooted and passed down to other companies as well, such as Nippon Shaft, which develops and produces golf shafts and metal bats, and NHK MEC, which handles ship products. The breadth of the Group's current operations may be traced back to these days.

Our small springs have developed mainly at our Miyada Plant (now Ina Plant) in Nagano Prefecture. Demand for both wire springs and sheet springs has been increasing since the 1960s. In order to make a full-scale entry into the field of precision springs, in which we had lagged behind, we established a two-plant system at Ina (renamed Ina Plant in 1963) and Kawasaki.

However, unlike suspension springs and seating, because small springs did not require large facilities and could be established with a small amount of capital, numerous small businesses shot up. In these circumstances, since the Company could not compete in terms of price, it had no choice but to compete based on product precision and more advanced production technology. It installed a large number of state-of-the-art high-precision machine tools and molding machines at both the Ina and Kawasaki plants.
Later, during the first and second phases of rationalization, the Company established production technology, including the introduction of automatic machines. In 1970, the precision springs business of the Kawasaki Plant was transferred to the Atsugi Plant in Kanagawa Prefecture. Thus, the precision springs business continued to expand, with Atsugi Plant producing thin leaf springs and Ina Plant producing wire springs as the main products.

In 2000, the HDD suspensions business, which had been a part of the precision spring business, was spun off as the DDS Business Division. 

In 1971, our first medium-term management plan, “Vision 5,” was announced and set high numerical targets. The next plan, “New Vision 5” announced in 1976, set even higher numerical targets. To achieve these targets, the plan clearly stated that the Company would not only rely on the automotive field, which had previously accounted for a high percentage of its sales, but would also “increase sales of products other than existing automotive-related products to 40% of total sales. We have entered an era of full-fledged business diversification.

The pioneer of the Industrial Machinery and Equipment business was pipe hangers for plant piping support equipment. Subsequently, pipe clamps, mechanical snappers, and disc springs used in the Honshu-Shikoku bridges were developed and produced. The Komaki Plant in Aichi Prefecture, which was newly established in 1980, produced mechanical multilevel parking equipment (production was later moved to the Yasu Plant in Shiga Prefecture). The chemical products business became the next pillar of focus after the plant division. Various developments were carried out and consolidated in Komagane, Nagano Prefecture. In 1986, the Electronic Components Department was newly established and began production of integrated metal substrates. In 1990, we launched a brazing business, which has grown into today's bonding and ceramics business. The security business grew out of the information-related equipment business and has earned the Company a worldwide reputation for its anti-counterfeiting technology.

Planning for the Trans-Tokyo Bay Expressway began in the 1960s, and since it runs through the land of our former Head Office/Yokohama Plant (Isogo Ward at the time), we decided to cooperate with the City of Yokohama by accepting an alternative site. Although the oil crisis and other factors delayed the initial plan, in 1979, it was decided to secure a landfilled site in Kanazawa Ward, Yokohama. In response, a preparatory office for the construction of the new Yokohama Plant was established the following year, and the relocation plan was launched in earnest.

In 1987, construction of a plant for automobile suspension coil springs began, followed by the construction of a seating block the following year. In parallel with the above, the NN Planning and Promotion Office was established to plan the use of the entire new site, and the Main Building, the Development and Experiment Building, the Welfare Building, and the Employee Pension Fund Hall (now the gymnasium) were constructed.

In 1991, the Head Office, Yokohama Plant, Kawasaki Plant, Negishi Branch, and NHK Spring Group Central Research Laboratory all moved to the new Yokohama Works, where they remain to this day.

In the 2000s, the Company experienced various hardships such as the economic downturn precipitated by the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, the Great East Japan Earthquake, and massive flooding in Thailand, but our Group as a whole continued to grow steadily. In Japan, we reorganized our Group companies and expanded our business by developing highly competitive products in a wide range of fields. Overseas, we established bases for suspension springs, automotive seating, and precision springs in China and other countries.

In the 2010s, we accelerated our global activities by establishing new bases in the Philippines, Indonesia, Mexico, and other countries and regions we had not previously entered. In 2015, we also established our first production base in Eastern Europe, in Hungary, as a foothold for expanding sales to European manufacturers. Our global expansion is based on "local production for local consumption" rather than, for example, entering a market because labor costs are low, and our unchanging desire is to be loved as a local company rooted in each community.