MicrosoftJapan, officially Microsoft Japan Company, Limited, is a subsidiary of Microsoft based in Japan. Their headquarters are at Shinagawa district of Tokyo.
History
In 1978, Kazuhiko Nishi, a founder of ASCII Publisher, became friends with Bill Gates. In 1979, he founded ASCII Microsoft as the sole dealer of Microsoft's products in Japan. In 1980, ASCII made 1.2 billion yen of sales from licensing Microsoft BASIC. It was 40 percent of Microsoft's sales, and Nishi became Microsoft's Vice President of Sales for Far East. In 1983, ASCII and Microsoft announced MSX. In 1984, ASCII Microsoft was merged to ASCII. However, Microsoft founded its own Japan subsidiary, Microsoft Kabushiki Kaisha, and dissolved partnership with ASCII in 1986. It was because Gates wanted Microsoft to go public in the New York Stock Exchange, and also he opposed Nishi and ASCII's diversification. Susumu Furukawa, who was also a member of ASCII, officially became the first president of Microsoft Kabushiki Kaisha. ASCII kept rights of MSX. In October 1986, MSKK announced the AX project that was a Japanese computing initiative to allow IBM PCs to handle Japanese text. The AX couldn't break into the Japanese PC market due to its cost and less available software. In October 1990, IBM Japan announced the DOS/V. Soon after the announcement, Furukawa got a contract with IBM Japan to receive source code of DOS/V. MSKK supplied own DOS/V for PC manufacturer. For the Japanese adaptation of Windows 3.1, MSKK and Ricoh developed two Japanese TrueType fonts, MS Gothic and MS Mincho. It took two years, and delayed the Japanese adoption of Windows 3.1. However, it became the first successful version of Windows in Japan. In 1998, the Japan Fair Trade Commission informed Microsoft of an unfair trade that Microsoft forced personal computer manufacturers to bundle with Excel and Word against the request of a bundle with Excel and Ichitaro. The company faced another JFTC scrutiny when the company was accused of having clauses that hurt the ability of Japanese computer manufacturers to obtain an OEM Windows license in 2004. Microsoft Japan conducted a trial 4-day work week in summer 2019, granting workers paid leave on Fridays. At the same time it cut the length of most meetings from a full hour to half an hour, and capped attendance at five employees. For the duration of the trial, the company reported a 40% increase in productivity and 23% reduction in electricity costs.
Products
Microsoft Hagaki Studio
Microsoft Hagaki Studio is a discontinued postcard software for printing nengajo. The software was released only in Japan from 1997 to 2006. It provided the upgrade path from other competitors such as Fudemame and Fudeoh, but Microsoft Hagaki Studio 2007 was the last version of the software.
