The way we see... our history
It all started in a little town called Hoya City (now called Nish*tokyo) in 1941. Two brothers, Shoichi and Shigeru Yamanaka, had the ambitious plan to manufacture
optical glass. On 1 November 1941, Toyo Optical Glass Manufacturing, later Hoya Corporation, was founded. Optical glass requires highly sophisticated manufacturing technology compared to
other types of glass, and in those days it was the most technologically advanced
industry in Japan. Therefore, after the founding of Hoya, the company went through
a long trial-and-error process prior to the actual manufacturing of optical glass. Hoya’s story is that of a company that had a modest start as a small manufacturing operation and utilized its technological and managerial excellence to become a global player 70 years later. They did not stick to lenses alone...
At the end of World War II the orders from the military, which formed a considerable part of the turnover of Hoya, stopped. Because of this Hoya experienced a sharp decrease in the demand for optical glass. To overcome this relapse, Hoya decided to manufacture crystal for household purposes, by using its glass melting technology and the substantial inventory of materials left over from their optical glass production. In the years following, Hoya took up the production of lenses for cameras, memory
disks, photo masks for LCD panels and medical applications. From the small Toyo
Optical Glass Manufacturing of those days Hoya has developed into the world player
it is now: an enterprise with nearly 35,000 employees and active in over hundred
countries across the globe. Today, Hoya consists of four different divisions:
- Eye Care
- Information Technology
- Imaging
- Medical
