Hitachi is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange and is a key component of the Nikkei 225 and TOPIX Core30 indices. As of June 2024, it has a market capitalisation of 16.9 trillion yen, making it the fourth largest Japanese company by market value.[6] In terms of global recognition, Hitachi was ranked 38th in the 2012 Fortune Global 500 and 129th in the 2012 Forbes Global 2000.[7] Hitachi is a highly globalised conglomerate. In the fiscal year 2023, it generated approximately 61% of its total revenue of 9.7 trillion yen from international markets. The major contributors to this global revenue were Asia, Europe, and North America, with each region accounting for 22%, 16%, and 16% of the total revenue, respectively.[8][9]
Hitachi mission is to 'contribute to society through the development of superior, original technology and products'.[10] All 12 CEOs the company has had, including founder Odaira, have engineering backgrounds, with eight of them, including Odaira, being alumni of the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Engineering.[11]
Historically a large conglomerate active in various fields, including electric generators, consumer electronics, trains, semiconductors, computers, and nuclear reactors, Hitachi recorded a record loss of 787.3 billion yen in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. The company sold numerous unprofitable operations and ventured into new areas such as digital systems and renewable energy. As a result of these moves, Hitachi returned to profitability by March 2011.[12]
Today, Hitachi's corporate activities are organised into three large sections: Digital Systems and Services, Green Energy and Mobility, and Connective Industries.[13]
Hitachi has been using a monogram of the two Kanji characters that make up the word 'Hitachi' (日立) as its corporate symbol (monshō). Conceived by Namihei Odaira,[14] this symbol appeared on most of Hitachi's products until 1991. In 2000, Hitachi adopted the advertising slogan 'Inspire the Next',[15] and the corporate logo was gradually phased out as this statement was incorporated into the branding. However, the symbol is still used to represent the company rather than its products or services, such as in the favicon of its official website.[16]
Since 1975, Hitachi has been using images of a 130-year-old Samanea saman tree, known as the Hitachi Tree (hitachi no ki), located at Moanalua Gardens, Hawaii, in most of its television commercials as a symbol of the conglomerate. The advert song introduced alongside the tree is also called Hitachi no Ki, or Konoki Nanno Ki lit.'What tree is this?', after the song's opening lyrics. Three other trees have briefly represented the company, but since 1984, the current tree has been designated as the Hitachi Tree.[17] In 2016, it was reported that the company spends around 50 million yen annually on its maintenance.[18]
Two Hitachi water turbines, built in 1939, still in use in Taiwan. Motors and generators were among Hitachi's earliest products.
Founded in 1910 in Ibaraki Prefecture by electrical engineer Namihei Odaira, Hitachi's first product was a 4-kilowatt induction motor, designed for copper mining.[19][20][21] Originally an in-house venture of Fusanosuke Kuhara's mining company, Hitachi became independent in 1911 and moved its headquarters to Tokyo in 1918. The company's name 'Hitachi', combining the kanji for 'sun' (日, hi) and 'rise' (立, tachi), was coined by Odaira.[22] While industrial machinery in Japan was usually powered by steam at the time, Odaira built water power stations in the mine and electrified almost all facilities in the factory. The company developed various electrical equipment later in its history. In 1924, Hitachi completed Japan's first mainline electric locomotive (JNR Class ED15). In 1932, the company started manufacturing elevators and electric refrigerators.[23]
World War II and its aftermath significantly impacted Hitachi, leading to the destruction of factories, post-war internal discord, and the removal of founder Namihei Odaira by the Allied occupation forces. Hitachi went public in 1949, listing on the Tokyo Exchange (TYO:6501). Odaira returned to the company in 1951 when the purge of key pre-war Japanese figures ended. However, he died in October of the same year at age 77.
In 1949, Hitachi built its first power shovel, marking the start of what is now Hitachi Construction Machinery. In 1960, Hitachi developed the world's first electric train seat reservation system, MARS-1, for Japanese National Railways (JNR), allowing nationwide booking for express train seats.[24] Around the same time, Hitachi began expanding its business overseas, with the establishment of Hitachi America, Ltd. 1959. In 1961, Hitachi began selling fully-automated washing machines and completed its first experimental nuclear reactor.[25]
Hitachi played a crucial role in the development of the Shinkansen.
In 1978, Hitachi's Twin-Well Hi-CMOS process ushered in a new era in the global semiconductor industry. For instance, the Hitachi HM6147 chip, developed by a Hitachi team led by Toshiaki Masuhara, was able to match the Intel's flagship 2147 HMOS's performance with 87 per cent less power.[27] Until the early 1980s, American semiconductor producers were focusing on the development and production of NMOS transistors, with which they dominated the global market, while Hitachi invested heavily in developing efficient CMOS transistors. This success led to the world's three largest manufacturers by revenue all being Japanese companies by 1987, amongst which Hitachi was counted.[28] Hitachi Europe, Ltd. was established in 1982.[29]
Hitachi played a central role in the development of Suica.
In 2001, the contactless fare card system Suica was introduced at 424 JR East stations throughout the Greater Tokyo Area. While the card itself was developed using Sony's FeliCa system, Hitachi was responsible for building the server-side system.[30] Other contactless fare card systems such as ICOCA and PASMO have been introduced throughout the country since, almost all of which are modelled after Suica and thus mutually compatible. It is now widely used as a contactless payment system in non-railway business as well, and Hitachi has been involved in the series of developments in this area.[31] At the CES 2007, Hitachi revealed the first consumer HDD with a storage of 1 TB,[32] which was released in the same year.[33]
In the 2008 fiscal year, Hitachi lost US7ドル.8 billion, the largest corporate loss in Japanese history up to that point.[34] Since its zenith in the 1980s and 1990s, a number of departments had suffered a decline in efficiency. However, being one of the largest conglomerates in the world at the time, conflicts of interest existed across the company, making it difficult to implement fundamental solutions. These delays in essential reforms proved detrimental when facing the 2007–2008 financial crisis and led to the record loss.[35] This prompted Hitachi to restructure and sell a number of divisions and businesses under the leadership of Takashi Kawamura.[36][37][38] From 2008 to 2018, Hitachi reduced the number of its listed group companies and consolidated subsidiaries in Japan from 22 to 4 and around 400 to 202, respectively, through restructuring and sell-offs. It plans to become a company specializing in IT and infrastructure maintenance in the near future.[39]
In March 2011, Hitachi agreed to sell its hard disk drive subsidiary, HGST, to Western Digital for a combination of cash and shares worth US4ドル.3 billion.[40] Due to concerns of a duopoly of WD and Seagate Technology by the EU Commission and the Federal Trade Commission, Hitachi's 3.5" HDD division was sold to Toshiba. The transaction was completed in March 2012.[41]
In January 2012, Hitachi announced it would stop producing televisions in Japan.[42] In September 2012, Hitachi announced that it had invented a long-term data solution out of quartz glass that was capable of preserving information for millions of years.[43] In October 2012, Hitachi agreed to acquire the United Kingdom-based nuclear energy company Horizon Nuclear Power, which plans to construct up to six nuclear power plants in the UK, from E.ON and RWE for 700ドル million.[44][45] In November 2012, Hitachi and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries agreed to merge their thermal power generation businesses into a joint venture to be owned 65% by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and 35% by Hitachi.[46][47] The joint venture named Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) began operations in February 2014.[48] In 2020 Hitachi transferred its share of the venture to MHI.[49]
In October 2015, Hitachi completed a deal with Johnson Controls to form a joint venture that would take over Hitachi's HVAC business. Hitachi maintained a 40% stake in the resulting company, Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning.[50] In May 2016, Hitachi announced it was investing 2ドル.8 billion into its IoT interests.[51]Hitachi’s rail business in Europe, especially in the United Kingdom, expanded in the 2010s, with Hitachi Newton Aycliffe starting operations in October 2015.
Following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011 and the extended temporary closure of most Japanese nuclear plants, Hitachi's nuclear business became unprofitable and in 2016 Hitachi CEO Toshiaki Higashihara argued Japan should consider a merger of the various competing nuclear businesses.[52] Hitachi is taking for 2016 an estimated 65円 billion write-off in value of a SILEX technology laser uranium enrichment joint venture with General Electric.[53][54]
In February 2017, Hitachi and Honda announced a partnership to develop, produce and sell motors for electric vehicles.[55] Also in 2017, private equity firm KKR bought Hitachi Kokusai's (itself a subsidiary of Hitachi) semiconductor equipment division, becoming Kokusai Electric. In 2019, Applied Materials announced that it would acquire Kokusai Electric from KKR for US2ドル.2 billion.[56][57] The deal was later terminated in 2021.[58] In 2017, KKR also bought Hitachi's power tools subsidiary Hitachi Koki for US1ドル.3 billion, changing its name to Koki Holdings (HiKOKI) and marketing its tools as Metabo HPT in the US market.[59][60] In 2018, Hitachi stopped selling televisions in Japan because its market share had dropped to 1%, opting to sell Sony TVs through its existing dealer network.[61] On March 14, 2018, Zoomdata announced its partnership with Hitachi INS Software to help develop big data analytics market in Japan.[62]
In December 2018, Hitachi Ltd. announced it would take over 80% of ABB's power grid division for 6ドル.4 billion[63] renaming it Hitachi-ABB Power Grids in the process.[64] In October2021, the enterprise was rebranded HitachiEnergy.[65] In 2019, Hitachi sold its medical imaging business to Fujifilm for US1ドル.7 billion. Showa Denko bought Hitachi Chemical from Hitachi and other shareholders, at US42ドル.97 per share. Until then, Hitachi Chemical had been considered to be a core unit of the group.[66][67][68][69][70] Hitachi also suspended the ABWR development by its British subsidiary Horizon Nuclear Power as it did not provide adequate "economic rationality as a private enterprise" to proceed.[71] In October 2019, the talks between Honda and Hitachi to consolidate their four automotive parts businesses, Showa, Nissin and Keihin of the former and the latter's Hitachi Automotive Systems, have reportedly begun, resulting in the creation of a "mega supplier" named Hitachi Astemo incorporated in January 2021.[72][73][74]
L0-950, first Maglev train manufactured by Hitachi
In March 2020, an improved version of the L0 SeriesSCMaglev rolling stock for the Chuo Shinkansen was introduced, marking the first magnetically levitated train manufactured by Hitachi.[75] In September 2020, Hitachi abandoned plans to create nuclear power plants in Gloucestershire and Wales due to issues with funding due to the impact of COVID-19.[76][77] In the same month, Hitachi Capital agreed to be bought by its second-largest shareholder, business partner, and former rival Mitsubishi UFJ Lease, which invested in the Hitachi subsidiary in 2016.[78] In November 2020, it announced that Hitachi Metals and Hitachi Construction Machinery, both being some of the last remaining listed subsidiaries, will likely be detached from the group according to the restructuring plan.[79] In December, Hitachi sold a 60% stake in its overseas home appliance business to Turkish Arcelik for US300ドル million.[80] In December 2021, it was announced by OPG that they had selected GE-Hitachi to construct two BWRX-300 reactors at the Darlington site in Ontario, Canada. OPG and GE-Hitachi will be collaborating on the design, planning and preparation of license materials for the construction of Canada's first SMR which is planned to enter operation in 2028.[81]
Hitachi, with its focus on energy, information technology, and infrastructure, has seen a significant improvement in profitability since the record loss in 2009. Reflecting this, Hitachi’s market capitalisation has more than octupled since 2010, becoming the fourth largest company in Japan by market capitalisation in June 2024.[6]
Hitachi's corporate activities are organised into three large sections: Digital Systems and Services, Green Energy and Mobility, and Connective Industries.
The Digital Systems and Services segment features Lumada, through which the company provides digital solutions to improve business processes and operational efficiency. This segment accounted for 21.9 percent of the total revenue in FY2022.[82]
Hitachi Vantara headquarters in California, United States
Hitachi Vantara is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi which provides hardware, software and services to help companies manage their digital data. Its flagship products are the Virtual Storage Platform (for enterprise storage), Hitachi Unified Storage VM for large-sized companies, Hitachi Unified Storage for small and mid-sized companies, Hitachi Content Platform (archiving and cloud architecture), Hitachi Command Suite (for storage management), Hitachi TrueCopy and Hitachi Universal Replicator (for remote replication), and the Hitachi NAS Platform.[87]
Since September 19, 2017, Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) has become part of Hitachi Vantara, a new company that unifies the operations of Pentaho, Hitachi Data Systems and Hitachi Insight Group. The company name "Hitachi Data Systems" (HDS) and its logo is no longer used in the market. Hitachi Consulting, the group's international management and technology consulting subsidiary with headquarters in Dallas, Texas, was integrated with Hitachi Vantara in 2019.[88] On November 1, 2023, Hitachi spun off Hitachi Vantara LLC's digital solutions business into a new company, Hitachi Digital Services; Hitachi Vantara now focuses on its storage and hybrid cloud-centric data infrastructure services portfolio.[89]
GlobalLogic is a digital services subsidiary of Hitachi based in the United States. Originally founded in India in 2000, the company was acquired by Hitachi in 2021 for US9ドル.6 billion,[90] which was Hitachi's most expensive acquisition at the time.[91] The acquisition is intended to bridge various operational technology and industrial products that Hitachi offers by strengthening the group's software development capability as part of the broader Lumada strategy.[92]
The Green Energy and Mobility segment focuses on developing and providing power systems. This includes power generation, transmission, and distribution systems. In the rail industry, the company is a provider of rolling stock and traction equipment to signaling, traffic management systems, and maintenance depots. A key component of this segment is the ZeroCarbon suite, designed to enable fleet operators to transition to electric vehicles. This segment accounted for 22.9 per cent of the total revenue in FY2022.[93][82]
Hitachi built its first steam locomotive in 1920, and has since evolved into a company that builds almost everything related to rail transport; rolling stock, traction systems, power transmission systems, signalling systems, programmed traffic control systems and seat reservation systems.[94]
In July 2020, Hitachi acquired 80.1% of ABB’s power grid business for 740 billion yen (US68ドル.5 billion) and completed the acquisition with the remaining 19.9% in December 2022.[95] Merged with Hitachi’s own power grid operations, the entity has become a major supplier of high-voltage direct current transmission systems.[96]
Hitachi has been involved in the nuclear power industry since the 1950s and has been active in constructing and maintaining boiling water reactors (BWRs) since the 1970s.
Hitachi also owns Horizon Nuclear Power, which was originally expected to construct nuclear power stations in the United Kingdom under a British government contract, but later withdrew from these projects after investing nearly 2ドル billion.[98]
In the Connective Industries segment, Hitachi offers building systems such as elevators and escalators, healthcare with a focus on less invasive cancer treatments and diverse medical equipment, and a variety of industrial equipment such as air compressors and transformers. Additionally, the segment provides sustainable water and wastewater management. This segment accounted for 27.3 per cent of the total revenue in FY2022.[82][99]
Although no longer a core business, Hitachi Global Life Solutions produces refrigerators, laundry machines, vacuum cleaners and other white goods. Hitachi stopped producing televisions (branded as 'Wooo') in 2012.[100]
Air conditioning systems: development and production has been merged with Johnson Controls as Johnson Controls Hitachi.
Hitachi Astemo, which stands for "Advanced Sustainable Technologies for Mobility", is a 40-40-20 joint venture between Hitachi, Honda, and JIC Capital, which is owned by Japan Investment Corporation.[105] Hitachi and Honda their four auto parts affiliates and division, the latter's three keiretsu companies Showa Corporation, Keihin Corporation, and Nissin Kogyo, and the former's wholly owned Hitachi Automotive Systems, to be better equipped for the changing car market environment, frequently represented as CASE, for which they will integrate their assets to accelerate development of new technology and software.
Hitachi Astemo is considered a "mega supplier", as annual sales of the four predecessors combined stood at 17ドル billion, placing it as the second largest among the compatriot auto suppliers.[73][106]
Hitachi Construction Machinery is one of the world's largest construction equipment manufacturers by revenue. The company was spun off from Hitachi in October 1970 and has been listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on its own since 1981. Hitachi owned a 51% share in the company but sold half of its shares to HCIJ Holdings, a joint venture between Itochu and Japan Industrial Partners, in August 2022, leaving Hitachi with 25.4% of the total shares.[107]
Among other things, Hitachi Metals supplied materials for aircraft engines and fuselage components (e.g. landing gear), along with finished components for same and other aerospace applications. It also provided materials, components and tools for the automotive and electronics industries. Among the Hitachi Metals facilities was Hitachi Metal Yasugi Works or Tatara Works, one of the oldest furnaces in Japan, famously featured as a main backdrop in Princess Mononoke, a Japanese animation film set in the Muromachi period. Hitachi sold all its shares in Hitachi Metals in 2021, and the company was renamed Proterial [ja] in 2023.[108]
Spin-off entities from Hitachi Works include Hitachi Cable (1956) and Hitachi Canadian Industries Limited (founded 1988 in Saskatoon and closed in 2016 as Mitsubishi-Hitachi Power Systems).[109]
As Hitachi pulled out of MHPS and handed over the control to MHI, Hitachi Works was also transferred, becoming part of Mitsubishi Power.[110]
^Wakabayashi, Daisuke (May 11, 2012). "Hitachi President Prods Turnaround". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on July 28, 2020. Retrieved December 26, 2019 – via www.wsj.com.
^Omuro, Masami (December 26, 2018). Hitachi, the largest Japanese conglomerate, and its transformation in the innovation era (Thesis). Massachusetts Institute of Technology. hdl:1721.1/117988.
^Television, Marc Chacksfield 2012年01月23日T13:26:00 22Z (23 January 2012). "Hitachi to stop making TVs in 2012". TechRadar. Archived from the original on 2021年01月01日. Retrieved 2019年01月15日.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
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