It takes only one and a half hours on the JR Sobu Line and Narita Line from the heart of Tokyo to Sakura City, Chiba Prefecture. In this area, residential sections have been developed and at the same time large industrial complexes have been built, which is due to the city’s convenience of being accessible to Narita City. KEF Corporation is located in one corner of such an area.

In manufacturing precision rubber seals, the company’s technology is guaranteed. The company has been developing and selling rubber seals that protect the inside of electric devices such as watches, digital cameras, ink-jet printers, etc. from water and dust. Ever since the company started, it has been engaged in business development with a view to advancing into foreign markets, and it started production in a factory in China 15 years ago. KEF is always looking one step ahead of the industry.

KEF Corporation
Yoshitake Iyoku, President

Building credibility by never allowing waterproof-related accidents

“O-rings” used for various purposes such as to waterproof watches

Informative precision instruments”used for the internal parts of hard disks etc.

It was the beginning of August when it could be rightly described as “midsummer” that I visited the head office factory of KEF. President Yoshitake welcomed a group of reporters and said with a smile as he began to speak: “Today is the anniversary of our company. It has been 45 years since my father, Masami, started his own business.”

“I was going to be two years old at the time. So this is what I heard from my father afterward.” And President Iyoku started to talk about the birth of the business some 45 years ago.

“In 1932, my grandfather started a company, Tanaka Kikai Seisakujyo Co. Ltd. It has specialized in manufacturing and repairing water turbines, and his business was taken over by my grandaunt afterward; however, with the expectation of developing new products and creating a new market, I decided to go independent. It was in 2005 that Tanaka Hydropower was established.”

“My father worked for a company that was manufacturing wrist watch cases. One watch manufacturer came to his company and asked if it was possible to create rubber seals that would be able to enhance the waterproof performance of watches. My father, as a technical expert, got involved in the development and established methods of producing rubber seals for wrist watches and the compounding technique of rubbers, which led him to gain independence from that company.”

Now, people take waterproof wrist watches for granted, but in the mid-1960’s, people took off their wrist watch when they washed their face and it was totally unthinkable to wear it while taking a bath. “Those days, the industry seemed to start to be engaged in developing waterproof watches. In such a situation, my father approached one leading watch manufacturer in Switzerland and asked how it thought about his technique of forming small sized rubber seals, and then commenced production. However, there were no metal molds available, so he asked a sculptor to make them. That business relationship with the Swiss manufacture has continued until now, and there have never been any waterproof-related accidents caused by seal failures.

President Iyoku takes pride in the high technical capabilities of the company. Rubber seals that prevent water and dust from getting inside are required to have high impact resilience. A rubber seal can gradually lose its impact resilience while being used, which can allow water leakage to take place. Just after you have made rubber seals, you cannot tell whether they can really maintain their resilience for an extended period of time or not. However, the company has been delivering rubber seals to the Swiss manufacture without ever receiving any complaints, and also it has not heard any complaints from the market since its inauguration, which is the company’s biggest selling point.

“Science course” president exerts himself

At the Sakura factory, Japan, we concentrate our capability on research and development so as to improve the performance of our products to the world standard, and succeed in producing the world smallest “O-rings.”

The quality of precise rubber products is determined by at what temperature and through what procedure you have mixed the natural rubber, synthetic rubber and various chemical agents, where each　company’s secret know-how is accumulated.

“Just a few have learned how to combine them exactly ever since our company started. It is kind of a unique and secret recipe that is not allowed to be taken out of the building. You might sometimes hear about somebody rummaging through the garbage of a famous ramen restaurant for the secret to its taste. It may sound like a joke, but somebody really rummaged through waste products at our factory,” said President Iyoku with a forced smile. Some compounding agents are, in terms of a gram, more valuable than gold.

The company may seem to have enjoyed smooth sailing since its foundation, but things had been far from that. Yoshitake, who was born soon after company’s foundation, never thought of taking over his father’s business.

“My father probably wanted me to learn business management or English; however, I took a science course at university and graduate school against his will. I made a special study of chemistry that handles organic materials such as the plastic used in rockets and completed my doctoral course with the aim of being a scientist. However, when I was at a research institute at the age of 28, my father fell sick and was hospitalized, by which I was obliged to enter this company. The following year, my father passed away and I had to take over his business, but I was a president with a science background and no experience as a salesperson. I felt unsettled, but the remaining employees must have felt even more unsettled.”

President Iyoku laughed without any inhibition. A “science course” president took over the company in 1995 and set up a sales subsidiary in Hong Kong and built a factory in China two years later. Thus he was able to eliminate the accumulated deficit.

Withdrawal from doing subcontracting work

In manufacturing precise rubber products, a considerable part of the materials becomes waste material. In the forming process, burrs have to be taken away. Such a series of operations are dependent on human work.

Therefore, the company expanded its business to China in search of inexpensive labor 15 years ago. The situation at that time was totally different from the present one. The monthly labor-cost for each Chinese worker has increased 8 times, from about 5000 yen to 40000 yen, and it seems that such a trend will continue into the future. Presently, expanding business to China has become less meaningful in terms of labor costs. President Iyoku strikes a note of warning to Japanese small and medium-sized enterprises that are inclined to blindly expand their business to foreign countries recently.

In 2005, President Iyoku got involved in a labor dispute with the company’s Chinese factory. It was two years after the second factory in China had started its operation.

China No. 1 Factory (top) and China No. 2 Factory (bottom)

The vice president, in whom I had put my trust, said that he was not satisfied with his salary and submitted his resignation, and then another 28 employees turned in their resignations the next day. And the day after that, another 280 employees turned in their resignations. The company had 350 employees, so 80% of them were involved. They must have thought that the company would accept their demand. But if we had lost our courage, we would have fallen into their trap. So we accepted their resignations and paid the discharge allowances on the spot in an extremely strained atmosphere. After that, we newly hired 300 employees in 3 weeks or so, and some of them had applied for re-employment secretly on receiving discharge allowances. There was a great deal of trouble; however, there was no delay in the delivery of products fortunately,” said President Iyoku with an expression of relief, but it is not hard to imagine that the company was making a risky attempt.

The company has tried to establish a kill-two-birds-with-one-stone method that will streamline its business by using lower labor costs as well as by reducing waste that comes into being in the manufacturing process. In other words, it wants to reduce its material loss to the utmost limit and develop automated equipment. Precise rubber products themselves are very small, and their manufacturing equipment is comparatively small and automated, which enables labor costs to be lowered.

“If we can employ the molding method that has been commonly used for making plastic products, we can reduce material loss. And if the same thing can be performed with automated equipment, we can save a lot on the workforce. If we install automated equipment near the factories for overseas users as well as Japanese users, we can sally forth into foreign countries regardless of the labor costs.

President Iyoku speaks about his dream. In 2007, the company disengaged itself from subcontracted work that had accounted for 20% of its sales, and adjusted its direction with the aim of building its own brand. This bold decision led to developing precision parts for ink-jet printers, digital cameras, hard disk drives, etc.

In addition, the company developed seals for wrist watches that were designed on the assumption that they would be used by astronauts when performing extravehicular activities in space. The company was required to produce high-performing and high-precision products that are able to work at 1000 meters under water and at temperatures in the range of -20℃ to +30℃; nevertheless, the company’s high technology was successfully proved.

His family name “Iyoku” is believed to have come from samurai worriers in Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture. President Iyoku has been facing the challenge of advancing management innovations with his eyes focused on the future, which somehow reminds us of the dignity that an ancient worrier might have had.

KEF Corporation

Manufacture and sales of rubber products (seals etc.)

ADDRESS: 1607 Mutsuzaki, Sakura City, Chiba Prefecture 285-0812, Japan
TEL: ＋81-43-486-2161
FAX: ＋81-43-486-2164
Capital:98 million yen
Number of employees: 35 (350 employees in the entire group of KEF)
Establishment：1967