Terumo’s Beginnings in a Small Factory
The first factory—two little buildings in a village of Tokyo
Today, Terumo is a global manufacturer of leading medical devices with over approximately 15,000 associates around the world. It’s difficult to imagine that it all began in a small factory as a traditional neighborhood in the heart of Tokyo, in 1920s.
It was there, in an area called Susaki-machi (now called Mukojima), that Eiji Takeuchi started a small company called "Takeuchi Seisakusho". There were only two small buildings—a one-story factory and a two-story factory. Approximately 20 people were employed in the manufacture of clinical thermometers. The brand name of the thermometers was "Eiji Thermometer," a name taken from the given name of the company’s owner, Eiji Takeuchi. The facilities for glassworks; glass tubes were manufactured and processed on the first floor, and mercury inserted on the second floor.
The thermometers of that time had several drawbacks. One was that the exact mercury level could be hard to read. In order to overcome this problem, the engineers at Takeuchi Seisakusho used their advanced technical expertise to develop thermometers with mercury which is coloured red to make it easier to see. This is why the name originally chosen for the company now known as Terumo was Sekisen Ken-onki Corporation—or translated into English, "Red Line Thermometer Corporation."
Transferring from Mukojima to Hatagaya
The first president Dr. Miozou Sasagawa
As time went by, Eiji Takeuchi faced increasing difficulties financing the company. He discussed the situation with the then-president of the Tokyo Medical Association, Dr. Miozou Sasagawa, and asked him for assistance. Dr. Sasagawa enlisted the cooperation of Dr. Shibasaburo Kitasato, a leading figure in Japanese medicine at the time, and on September 17, 1921, the forerunner of Terumo, Sekisen Ken-onki Corporation, was founded. This new company took over the buildings, manufacturing technology, and business and other rights from Takeuchi Seisakusho.
In 1923, to improve its technical strengths, the company acquired the operations of the measuring division of a firm called Takachiho Seisakusho (which later evolved to become Olympus Corporation). The company moved its operations to part of Takachiho’s factory in another area of Tokyo then called Yoyohata-machi (now Hatagaya) and set up a factory there. Right around this time a short circuit caused a fire that destroyed the Mukojima factory, which meant that the new Hatagaya factory had to take over as the main manufacturing location for Terumo thermometers.
Terumo’s corporate headquarters today is located on the site of the original Hatagaya factory (2-44-1 Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo).
Hatagaya Factory and its associates around the time of establishment
(all dressed up to go to the cherry blossom viewing)
