Ionosphere measuring instrument mounted inside a NASA rocket42Intensied CompetitionIn the 1960s, major electric companies such as Hitachi, Toshiba, Mitsubishi Electric, and Fuji Electric entered the measuring and industrial instrument elds.Although Yokogawa had an approximately 30% share of the measuring instrument market in Japan at that time, President Yamasaki worked hard to strengthen Yokogawa’s position by streamlining operations and constructing a new R&D center (completed in July 1962). Following the set up of a US oce in 1957, he also tried to expand exports by exploring communist bloc markets and signing agreements with distributors in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Central and South America. In 1962, Yokogawa and Voltron Products Inc. (US) set up a joint venture, Acrohm Electronics, for manufacturing electric instruments in the US.Regarding products, Yokogawa developed the COM-21 network analyzer for electric power companies in 1961, and a measuring instrument that was selected by NASA for use in ionosphere rocket experiments. A signicant decision was made at this time to start developing digital control technology. Although Yokogawa was leading the automation market thanks to its ER and ECS products and instrumentation work, the company believed that the core technology of the future would be digital computers rather than analog devices, and so decided to devote human resources to such projects, ahead of the competition. The rst result was a computer control system (CCS) released in 1962 that performed centralized monitoring and control of plants and revolutionized central control room operations.Setting Up of Yokogawa-Hewlett-PackardYokogawa sought a technical tie-up with Hewlett-Packard (HP) in the US to acquire expertise in high-frequency and microwave technologies that were becoming increasingly important in the electronics eld.The negotiations had a rough start because HP’s policy prohibited the provision of technology to anyone other than its wholly-owned subsidiaries. In April 1963, both parties nally agreed to set up a joint venture in Japan, and Yokogawa-Hewlett-Packard (YHP, the current Hewlett-Packard Japan) started operations in October of that year, with the main factory in Hachioji, Tokyo. (Of 500 million yen in capital, 51% was held by Yokogawa and 49% by HP.) YHP received certain technologies and components from HP, and manufactured high-frequency and microwave measuring instruments. The manufacturing of high-frequency measuring instruments was partly transferred from Yokogawa to YHP. In addition, Yokogawa formed tie-ups with other companies in order to expand its business, including Mitaka Yokogawa’s History —— Chapter 2AC network analyzerR&D centerSigning ceremony to form YHP
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