Message from the President

Minebea was founded in 1951 as Japan’s first manufacturer to specialize in miniature ball bearings. At present, the Minebea Group encompasses 43 subsidiaries and affiliates, which operate 28 plants and 43 sales offices in 14 countries and employ approximately 48,000 people.

Minebea’s lineup includes miniature and small sized ball bearings; rod-end and spherical bearings; bearing-related products, such as pivot assemblies; a variety of small motors, including HDD spindle motors, stepping motors and fan motors; lighting devices for liquid crystal displays (LCDs); and measuring components. These precision components are used in information and telecommunications equipment, such as household electrical appliances, including air conditioners and vacuum cleaners; and automobiles and aircraft, all of which have become essential to modern day living.

Spurred by the growing sophistication of these products and rapid market expansion, manufacturers are demanding increasingly high-precision and high quality components, as well as reliable and timely supply capabilities.

To realize high profitability and true growth potential, we aim for a company that leads the competition through manufacturing and technological excellence. Fundamental to this is a return to the basics of manufacturing and efforts toward solid manufacturing.

The most important challenge facing us in realizing our vision of Minebea as a company that leads the competition through manufacturing and technological excellence is to strengthen our engineering and technology development capabilities. Pursuing product development technologies alone is not enough to ensure a competitive advantage. Recognizing that superior product development technologies derive from outstanding basic technologies, the Engineering Headquarters focuses on both, with an approach that emphasizes a medium to long term perspective. Technology development divisions affiliated with business units are tasked with developing new products with immediate practicality, that is, new, commercially viable products based on products currently in the business units’ portfolios. It is thus crucial for these divisions to understand customer needs and be able to translate that understanding into business potential – with this capability comes competitive advantage. Minebea also recognizes that responding to market needs requires the integration of multiple basic and product development technologies. Accordingly, the technology development divisions focus not only on strengthening existing technologies, but also on combining these technologies as well as integrating them with technologies introduced from external sources.

Minebea has amassed core technologies, mainly ultra-precision machining technologies for mainstay ball bearings. Going forward, the Company will continue to focus on strengthening manufacturing technologies and reinforcing technology development, and to promote the deployment of new products and expansion into new markets, thereby aiming for a company that leads the competition through manufacturing and technological excellence.

Takayuki Yamagishi
Representative Director,
President and Chief Executive Officer