NEC Corporation ( 日本電気株式会社 , Nippon Denki Kabushiki gaisha ; an acronym for Nippon Electric Company ) is a Japanese company that provides technology services around the world. It has its main office in the NEC Supertower in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. NEC offers IT and network solutions, such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) platform, and telecommunications equipment and software to businesses, communication service providers, and government agencies. It is one of the five largest defense contractors in Japan.

NEC was one of the world's largest makers of personal computers and semiconductors from the 1980s to the 2000s. However, it has mostly stopped making products since the year 2000. It moved its PC business to Lenovo and its semiconductor business to Renesas Electronics and Elpida Memory.

NEC is a member of the Sumitomo Group.

History

Kunihiko Iwadare and Takeshiro Maeda created Nippon Electric Limited Partnership on August 31, 1898, using facilities they purchased from Miyoshi Electrical Manufacturing Company. Iwadare was the representative partner; Maeda managed company sales. Western Electric, interested in Japan’s phone market, was represented by Walter Tenney Carleton. Carleton also oversaw the renovation of the Miyoshi facilities. It was agreed that the partnership would become a joint-stock company when a treaty allowed it. On July 17, 1899, a revised treaty between Japan and the United States took effect. Nippon Electric Company, Limited was formed the same day as Western Electric Company, becoming Japan’s first joint-venture with foreign capital. Iwadare became managing director. Ernest Clement and Carleton were directors. Maeda and Mototeru Fujii were auditors. Iwadare, Maeda, and Carleton managed the company.

The company began producing, selling, and maintaining telephones and switches. In 1901, NEC built the Mita Plant in Mita Shikokumachi to modernize production. The plant was completed in December 1902.

In 1903, the Japanese Ministry of Communications adopted a new technology: the common battery switchboard supplied by NEC. These switchboards powered subscriber phones, removing the need for a permanent magnet generator in each phone. Initially imported, the switchboards were made locally by 1909.

NEC started exporting telephones to China in 1904. In 1905, Iwadare visited Western Electric in the U.S. to study its management and production methods. After returning to Japan, he replaced the "oyakata" sub-contracting system with a new system where managers and employees were direct company workers. He also improved production efficiency, raised salaries, and introduced incentives for efficiency. New accounting methods, cost controls, and time clocks were added.

Between 1899 and 1907, Japan’s telephone subscribers increased from 35,000 to 95,000. NEC entered China’s market in 1908 through a telegraph treaty with China. It also entered Korea, opening an office in Seoul in January 1908. From 1907 to 1912, sales rose from 1.6 million yen to 2 million yen. The growth of Japan’s phone service was key to NEC’s success during this time.

In March 1913, the Ministry of Communications delayed a third expansion plan for phone service, even though 120,000 people were waiting for phone installations. NEC sales dropped by 60% between 1912 and 1915. During this time, Iwadare began importing appliances like electric fans, kitchen tools, washing machines, and vacuum cleaners. These were new to Japan. The imports aimed to boost company sales. In 1916, the government resumed the expansion plan, adding 75,000 subscribers and 326,000 kilometers of new toll lines. This helped NEC grow while much of Japan’s industry shrank.

In 1919, NEC partnered with Sumitomo, allowing Sumitomo Densen Seizosho to manufacture cables. NEC provided manufacturing equipment to Sumitomo Densen. Rights to Western Electric’s duplex cable patents were also transferred to Sumitomo Densen.

The Great Kantō earthquake hit Japan in 1923, killing 140,000 people and leaving 3.4 million homeless. Four NEC factories were destroyed, killing 105 engineers and workers. Thirteen Tokyo telephone offices were destroyed by fire. Telephone and telegraph services were disrupted due to damaged cables. In response, the Ministry of Communications accelerated programs to install automatic telephone switching systems and start radio broadcasting. NEC helped install the first automatic switching systems, becoming the general sales agent for Automatic Telephone Manufacturing Co. (ATM) in the UK. NEC developed its own Strowger-type automatic switching system in 1924, the first in Japan. The Mita Plant, nearly destroyed in the earthquake, was chosen to expand production. A new three-story steel-reinforced concrete building was built starting in 1925, modeled after Western Electric’s Hawthorne Works.

NEC began its radio communications business in 1924. Japan’s first radio broadcaster, Radio Tokyo, was founded in 1924 and started broadcasting in 1925. NEC imported broadcasting equipment from Western Electric. As radio expanded to Osaka and Nagoya, it became a new industry. NEC created a radio research unit in 1924 and started developing electron tubes in 1925. By 1930, NEC produced its first 500 W radio transmitter. In 1934, NEC provided a 100 kW radio system to China’s Xinjing station.

NEC’s photo-telegraphic equipment sent photos of Emperor Hirohito’s accession ceremony in Kyoto in 1928. Newspapers Asahi Shimbun and Mainichi Shimbun competed to cover the event. Asahi used a Siemens device, while Mainichi planned to use French equipment. Both eventually used NEC’s product because it had faster transmission and better picture quality.

In 1929, Nippon Electric provided Japan’s Ministry of Communications with the A-type switching system, the first developed in Japan. In 1937, Nippon supplied nonloaded line carrier equipment for long-distance telephone channels.

World War II was described by NEC as its darkest period. In 1938, the Mita and Tamagawa plants were controlled by the military. In 1939, Nippon Electric established a research lab at the Tamagawa plant, becoming the first Japanese company to test microwave multiplex communications. On December 22, 1941, the enemy property control law was passed, seizing shares owned by International Standard Electric Corporation (ISE) and Western Electric. Military control over NEC plants began in 1943. The Ueno plant was destroyed in March 1945. Fire bombings in April and May damaged the Tamagawa Plant, reducing its capacity by 40%. The Okayama Plant was destroyed in June 1945. By the war’s end, NEC’s production had dropped due to facility damage and shortages of materials and workers.

After the war, production returned to civilian use. NEC reopened major plants by January 1946. In 1950, NEC began researching transistors. In 1951, it exported radio equipment to Korea under its first major postwar contract. In 1952, NEC received the Deming Prize for quality control. Computer research started in 1954.

Operations

As of July 2018, NEC has six main business groups: Public, Enterprise, Network Services, System Platform, Global, and Others. It changed the name of its Telecom Carrier business to Network Service. Principal subsidiaries of NEC include:

Sponsorships

NEC was the main sponsor of the Davis Cup competition until 2002, when BNP Paribas became the new sponsor.

From 1982 to 2012, NEC sponsored the NEC Cup, a Go tournament held in Japan.

Between 1986 and 2003, NEC sponsored the NEC Shun-Ei, a Go tournament for young players in Japan.

NEC sponsored the English football club Everton from 1985 to 1995. The 1995 FA Cup Final was Everton's final game during this sponsorship period. After that, Danka became the new sponsor.

NEC signed a sponsorship deal with the Sauber F1 Team for the 2011 to 2014 seasons.

After Sauber, NEC continued to sponsor the Sahara Force India F1 Team from the 2015 season until the team ended its operations in 2018. Following this, NEC sponsored the team's successor, Racing Point, only in the 2019 season.

In April 2013, NEC became the main sponsor of PGA Tour Latinoamérica, a lower-level men's professional golf tour.

Sports teams

These teams originally began as company teams but later included professional athletes.

NEC previously owned Montedio Yamagata, a football (soccer) team in the J. League. However, since 2009, NEC only sponsors the team, along with other local businesses.

The following team no longer exists.