Sharp シャープ

Sharp traces its roots to 1912, when Tokuji Hayakawa founded a small metalworking shop in Tokyo. The company took its name from one of his early inventions, the 'Ever-Sharp' mechanical pencil developed around 1915. After the shop was destroyed in the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, Hayakawa relocated the business to Osaka, where it grew into an electronics manufacturer eventually renamed Sharp Corporation in 1970.

Sharp became known for pioneering calculators — releasing the world's first all-transistor desktop calculator in 1964 and the first LCD pocket calculator, the EL-805, in 1973 — and later for LCD televisions under the Aquos brand. Heavy losses in its display business led Sharp to accept a majority investment from Taiwan's Foxconn (Hon Hai Precision Industry) in 2016, and it now operates as part of the Foxconn group while continuing to make displays and electronics under the Sharp name.