Taito Corporation is a Japanese company that makes video games, toys, and amusement arcade games. It was founded in 1953 by Ukrainian businessman Michael Kogan as the Taito Trading Company. At first, the company imported vodka, vending machines, and jukeboxes into Japan. In 1973, Taito began creating video games. In 2005, Square Enix bought Taito, and by 2006, Taito became a fully owned part of Square Enix.
Taito played a key role in the early development of video games. It created several popular arcade games, including Speed Race (1974), Western Gun (1975), Space Invaders (1978), Bubble Bobble (1986), and Arkanoid (1986). Taito is one of the most well-known Japanese video game companies and was the first to send its games to other countries. Space Invaders was especially important for the growth of video games in the late 1970s. The alien characters from the game are now seen as important symbols in the video game industry.
Today, Taito operates a chain of arcade centers called "Taito Game Stations" in Japan. The company also makes toys, plush dolls, and UFO-catcher prizes.
History
In 1944, Jewish Ukrainian businessman Michael Kogan started a company called Taitung in Shanghai. Kogan was a refugee from the Soviet Union. Before moving to Shanghai, he worked in a factory in Japan during World War II. He joined his father in Shanghai. The company’s name, written in Kanji as 太東 (Pinyin: tàidōng, Japanese reading: taitō), combines the characters 太 from 猶太 ("Judea") and 東, meaning "East." This reflects Kogan’s identity as a Jewish person living in the Far East. Taitung sold floor coverings, natural hair wigs, and hog bristles.
When the Communist Party took control of China, Kogan closed his business in 1950 and moved operations to Japan, which was struggling economically after the war. His second business in Japan, a clothing distributor named Taito Yoko, faced financial problems because of employee mistakes and lost products. On August 24, 1953, Taito Yoko was shut down and replaced by Taito Trading Company. Kogan partnered with Akio Nakatani, a lawyer and former newspaper worker. Taito Trading Company began as a vodka distillery—the first in Japan to make vodka—and imported peanut vending machines and perfume machines.
By 1955, Taito stopped making vodka due to competition and focused on vending machines and jukeboxes. Since Japan did not allow jukeboxes to be imported legally, Taito bought broken machines from U.S. military bases and fixed them. As Japan’s economy improved, Taito became the official distributor of AMI jukeboxes. Over 1,500 machines were sold by 1960. A partnership with Seeburg Corporation made Taito one of Japan’s top jukebox companies.
In the 1960s, Taito started making electro-mechanical games (EM games). In 1967, they released Crown Soccer Special, a two-player sports game that used electronic parts like pinball flippers. In 1968, Crown Basketball became the highest-earning arcade game at the Tampa Fair in the United States.
In August 1972, the company changed its name to Taito Corporation. It created a U.S. subsidiary, Taito America, in Chicago in 1973. This subsidiary later developed games like Qix.
Taito’s first video game was Elepong, a ping-pong arcade cabinet released in Japan in 1973.
Tomohiro Nishikado, a graduate of Tokyo Denki University who joined Taito in 1968, helped the company shift to video games. He developed popular electro-mechanical games like Sky Fighter (1971) and Sky Fighter II. His bosses believed transistor-transistor logic (TTL) technology would shape the arcade industry, so they asked Nishikado to study it. He studied Atari’s Pong unit and created Soccer and Davis Cup for Taito. These games were released in November 1973. He later made TV Basketball (1974), Speed Race (1974), and Western Gun (1975). These games were later sold in North America as TV Basketball, Wheels, and Gun Fight.
In 1978, Nishikado created Space Invaders, Taito’s most famous game and one of the most popular in arcade history. This game helped start the golden age of arcade video games. After Kogan died in 1984, his son Abraham "Abba" Kogan became Taito’s chairman, and Akio Nakanishi became president.
In April 1986, Taito merged with two subsidiaries, Pacific Industrial Co., Ltd. and Japan Vending Machine Co., Ltd. Japan Vending Machine had been bought by Taito in 1971 to help manage amusement facilities. Pacific Industrial was created by Taito in 1963 to develop products for the company.
In 1992, Taito announced a CD-ROM-based video game console called WOWOW. It would allow players to play near-exact versions of Taito’s arcade games and download games from a satellite. The name came from the Japanese TV station WOWOW. The console was never released.
Taito America closed in July 1996 after more than 20 years. Earlier, Taito had sold its U.S. publishing rights to Acclaim Entertainment. A European division, Taito (Europe) Corporation Limited, was created in 1988 and shut down in 1998.
When Kyocera owned Taito, its headquarters were in Hirakawachō, Chiyoda. In 2000, Taito merged with Kyocera Multimedia Corporation to enter the mobile phone market.
In 2005, Square Enix bought 247,900 Taito shares worth ¥45.16 billion (US$409.1 million), making Taito a subsidiary of Square Enix. This helped Taito increase profits and expand into new gaming areas. Kyocera, the previous owner, approved the takeover.
By September 2005, Square Enix owned 93.7% of Taito’s shares. In 2006, Square Enix merged Taito into SQEX Corporation, making Taito a fully owned subsidiary. Taito was removed from the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
In 2008, Square Enix closed two Taito subsidiaries, Taito Art Corporation and Taito Tech Co., Ltd., because they had completed their goals.
In 2010, Taito’s home video game division became a separate company called Taito Soft Corporation. This company was later folded into Square Enix. All of Taito’s console games in Japan are now published by Square Enix.
Square Enix wanted to combine all its arcade operations under one company. The current Taito Corporation was formed in 2010 by merging two companies and renaming one as Taito Soft Corporation.