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In 1897, twenty years after Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated the world’s first telephone in 1876 with the words “Mr. Watson, come here, I want you,” Western Electric Co. (now Lucent Technologies Inc.), which had a monopoly on the manufacture of telephone equipment in the U.S., decided to make a foray into Japan, recognizing the potential of the Japanese market.
Western Electric had proposed to form a joint venture with Japan’s only telephone maker at that time, but negotiations broke down at the last minute despite a plan that had merits for both parties. For a Japanese firm to establish a company in collaboration with a powerful foreign corporation during that period, when trams were pulled by horses down the highways, required a level of courage that is unimaginable today.
On the way back from the failed negotiations, the intermediary suggested to the Western Electric representatives that he might be able to help them out. The man was Kunihiro Iwadare. |
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| A Delville Ko - type desk telephone |
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