When They Opened in Japan
When Apple rolled into Tokyo in 1983
By June 1983, Apple Computers was seven years removed from its now-mythic garage beginnings at 2066 Crist Drive in Los Altos, California, where founders Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs first launched the company. As Wozniak explained to Bloomberg News back in December 2014, while the garage myth is “a bit… Read
How Costco succeeded in Japan: The story behind its 1999 market entry
On April 23, 1999, Yoshiami Abe, a 74-year-old Fukuoka rice farmer, stood in suit and tie in front of a large Costco sign. As he greeted customers who’d come for Costco Japan’s grand opening, he couldn’t help but feel tormented that the warehouse had been constructed atop the 3.5 acres… Read
Engineer Edmund Morel helps launch Japan Railways in 1870
On April 9, 1870, 29-year-old Edmund Morel (1840-1871) arrived in Yokohama, Japan. In just over 18 months, he’d be dead, but not before laying the groundwork for the Japanese railroad industry. Thanks in large part to the intrepid reporting of scholar Yoshihiko Morita, we can now begin to piece together… Read
Japan's Kirin Beer begins as William Copeland's Spring Valley Brewery in Yokohama
In 1864, 30-year-old Norwegian-American William Copeland (1834-1902) arrived in Yokohama. Copeland — described by Waseda professor Katsumata Senkichiro as a “tall and very imposing man” with “an attractive character” but “a bad drunk” — was starting over, again. At birth, Copeland was given the name Johan Bartinius (later Martinius) Thoresen… Read
Baskin-Robbins brings 31 Flavors to Japan in 1974
It was 1948, near Pasadena, California, and Irvine Robbins, 31, and Burton Baskin, 34, were broke business owners. Robbins had opened five ice cream stores, giving them the name Snowbird. Baskin, lured into the ice cream industry by Robbins, his brother-in-law, had three stores, which he’d named Burton’s. After three… Read
David Rosen helps launch Sega in Japan
It was 1954. The Korean War’s armistice had been signed, and David M. Rosen, 24, a member of the United States Air Force, had returned to Japan, where he’d spent most of his time during the conflict. After a brief but unsuccessful attempt at starting an America-Japan photo art business… Read
Ford’s Model T lands on Japanese soil in 1913
Once upon a time, Ford was the top-selling automobile in Japan. In fact, from 1925 to 1936, as scholar J. Scott Mathews writes for the Michigan Historical Review, Henry Ford’s Model T “dominated automobile sales in Japan,” with Chevrolet a very close second. When Ford officially opened their plant in… Read
Coca-Cola storms Japanese market in late 1950s
In this bimonthly series, Patrick Parr looks at how famous brands got their start in Japan. Parr previously wrote the “Japan Yesterday” series for Japan Today, chronicling past historic visits to Japan by world-famous people. If you are currently in Japan, there’s a good chance that Coca-Cola has taken at… Read
Loy Weston brings Kentucky Fried Chicken to 1970s Japan
In this new bimonthly series, Patrick Parr looks at how famous brands got their start in Japan. Parr previously wrote the “Japan Yesterday” series chronicling past historic visits to Japan by world-famous people. As early as January 1967, there were rumblings in American newspapers that Kentucky Fried Chicken would soon… Read
Starbucks debuts in Ginza in 1996
This is the first story in a new bimonthly series by Patrick Parr on how famous brands got their start in Japan. Parr also wrote the “Japan Yesterday” series that detailed the visits to Japan of famous people. On Wednesday, Oct. 25, 1995, the Starbucks Coffee Company signed an agreement… Read
