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Toshiba 東芝

Inventors of flash memory

Toshiba was formed in 1939 from two companies: a telegraph equipment maker founded by the inventor Hisashige Tanaka in 1875, and a light bulb maker founded in 1890. It made Japan's first electric washing machine and refrigerator, and invented flash memory.

Founded
1875
Meiji 8
Founder
Hisashige Tanaka and Ichisuke Fujioka
Started in
Tokyo
Status
Still trading
Age 151 years

Timeline

  1. 1875 (Meiji 8)

    Hisashige Tanaka opens Tanaka Seisakusho, making telegraph equipment.

  2. 1939 (Shōwa 14)

    Merges with Tokyo Electric, the light bulb maker that grew out of Hakunetsusha, to form Tokyo Shibaura Electric.

  3. 1985 (Shōwa 60)

    Launches the T1100, one of the first laptop computers.

  4. 1987 (Shōwa 62)

    Its engineer Fujio Masuoka invents NAND flash memory.

  5. 2015 (Heisei 27)

    An accounting scandal begins years of losses and sell-offs.

  6. 2023 (Reiwa 5)

    Leaves the stock market after a buyout by a group led by Japan Industrial Partners.

Years in brackets are the Japanese era year. Japanese era converter →

Did you know?

Tanaka was nicknamed "Karakuri Giemon" for the mechanical dolls and clocks he built before founding the company.

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Dates follow the companies' own published histories where available. Trademarks belong to their owners; this page is not affiliated with any company listed.