46｜History of Glass: Japanese Glass Manufacturers, Handmade Glass Factories (16)

Hello everyone 🎵

Last week, February 23rd, was the Emperor's Birthday, but it's also my wedding anniversary! We had our ceremony in 1986 (Showa 61), and later, when the current Emperor ascended the throne, his birthday became a national holiday, and our wedding anniversary also began to be celebrated 🎵

HOYA Crystal is an excellent company that has diversified from glasses to lenses, eyeglasses, and semiconductor equipment, achieving high profitability. At the same time, it has been a pioneer in implementing bold restructuring (business reorganization) and continues to grow. While the withdrawal from glass manufacturing, its founding business, is very regrettable for the industry, I believe it would be evaluated differently from a management perspective.

In the business review of 1994, the crystal business (glass business) faced a tough situation. HOYA Crystal directly sold its products to department stores and retailers. To expand direct sales, they imported items that couldn't be manufactured at their own factory (vases and gift items costing around 3,000 yen) from Eastern European countries such as the Czech Republic and Slovenia. Later, they expanded their procurement sources to Romania and Thailand, and broadened their product lineup. However, issues such as quality control and delays in procurement prevented them from achieving profitability commensurate with sales. The crystal glasses produced at their domestic factory (in Iruma City, Saitama Prefecture) were constantly sold as bargain items from wagons in front of department store escalators because their production capacity exceeded sales volume, which resulted in lowering the value of the HOYA brand. On the production side, to overcome operating losses, they sold their automated glass manufacturing equipment, which produced ordinary soda glass in addition to crystal, to Hasegawa Glass.

HOYA Crystal continued to implement various strategies for rebranding, such as producing Edo Kiriko on automated machines (though the name "Edo Kiriko" could not be used) and opening shops exclusively for their highest-end lines. However, in 2009 (Heisei 21), due to deteriorating profitability in the crystal manufacturing business (for watches, glass products, tableware, etc.), which was HOYA's founding business, the company decided to withdraw. HOYA had already closed its Musashi Factory (Iruma City, Saitama Prefecture) for crystal glass manufacturing in 2006 (Heisei 18). By 2009 (Heisei 21), the company had impaired the facilities at its Tokyo Akishima factory, which was the base for its crystal business, and completed its withdrawal from the crystal business.

From a different perspective, I believe HOYA Crystal made a significant contribution to the glass industry and played a major role in the continued preservation and current growth of Edo Kiriko. HOYA manufactured the so-called "base material" (crystal glass), and numerous Edo Kiriko craftsmen, who were subcontractors, cut it (into Edo Kiriko) and sold it. The fact that some Edo Kiriko craftsmen live in Saitama is a remnant of this. Similarly, Kagami Crystal (to be discussed later) also commissioned many Edo Kiriko craftsmen for processing, which is the same story as craftsmen being active in Tokyo's Ota Ward, where the factory was located until 1989 (Heisei 2). Groups of Edo Kiriko craftsmen were divided among HOYA Crystal, Kagami Crystal, Sasaki Crystal, and others. I believe that these Edo Kiriko craftsmen, while making a living and continuing their work as subcontractors for major companies, honed their skills, which led to their current growth.

Additionally, HOYA Crystal has long challenged itself with design and new forms, and many works by renowned designers are collected and displayed in museums around the world.