Small and medium size companies account for the majority of companies in Japan, and the various components supplied by them sustain the high quality of Japanese products.
We interviewed the top executives of several small and medium size companies that play an important role in sustaining those activities in Japan to reveal their commitment to original technology and the challenge of technological innovations.

Koichi Ohishi, president of DAIWA HIGHTECHS Co., Ltd.

The majority of comics sold at book shops come packaged in transparent vinyl sheets. However, although along with other books they used to come without them they are now quite common. Many people think the reason is for that is to prevent any unwanted “browsing” from taking place, but the original purpose was rather different.

Specialized in the field of shrink wrap machines for books and then monopolized the market share
Located in Itabashi-Ku in Tokyo the main business of “DAIWA HIGHTECHS” is manufacturing and selling book packaging machines (shrink wrap machines) and material (shrink wrap and films) to book shops throughout Japan. And while it only has about 40 employees you need to consider that the have about 5,500 book shops as customers in Japan. Their market share of shrink wrap machines for use with books is over 90%, or in other words they are of the utmost competitiveness. We questioned President Koichi Ohishi, who established the company in 1978, on the reason why comic books now come packaged. “Most people will often choose the cleaner book that can found beneath the top one in a pile. So I proposed covering books with a vinyl sheet because of the premise that “Fresh clean books would always then be available”.

The purpose of the packaging was to meet the needs of purchasers, but also proved helpful in preventing unwanted browsing.

The ability to package books of different sizes without changing configuration
“People often consider it best to design universal-purpose machines that can be used to package everything with the one machine, which then leads to more sales. However, we took on the challenge of a specialized shrink wrap machine that can only be used for books. And while the cost of development and manufacture per unit rose because sales are limited I determined to produce them anyway to meet the needs of customers (book shops).”

Let’s take a look at the performance of their shrink wrap machines for books that are so specialized.

The most significant function is that they allow automatic packaging even if different size books are randomly set in place. Individual books slightly differ in size, even if they do look the same, but this function eliminates the need for manual sizing and the machine setting to be changed.

A lot of effort was also put into easier maintenance and servicing. Substitute machines are immediately delivered in dedicated boxes by parcel delivery upon receiving a complaint that something has gone wrong with one of their shrink wrap machines. Book shops can return defective machines by packing them in the boxes that the substitutes arrived in, which the company then repairs.

“It is impossible for us to immediately visit all our customers throughout Japan to make repairs because of the small size of our company, but the aforementioned method allows immediate support to be provided.”

They pay for the shipping charges in place of actually visiting the customer. And the shrink wrap machine itself was designed to be capable of being easily disassembled, and therefore customers can remove just the problematic part and return it via parcel delivery.

Dedicated shrinking machine that can automatically package any book from paperbacks through to A5 size books after being placed on the workspace.


Packaged comic books. Upper part opens so inserts (sales and order cards) can be removed.

Fabless company emphasizes customer support and development the most
They also provide the following customer services: “Letters are sent with the name and photo of the person responsible from the sales, technical, service, and consumable departments to customers who have purchased one of the machines”, “The packaging material (shrink film) is replenished free of charge”, “Employees visit to help package the initial stock when a book shop first opens” etc. An advantage of the company is their comprehensive business model that includes the aforementioned customer support in addition to the excellent performance of the actual machines.

“The idea that manufacturing excellent machines leads to excellent sales is self-justifying. Our top priority is discovering exactly what the customer needs and our role is then meeting and satisfying them,” said President Ohishi.

To achieve that goal the company utilizes the fabless system where the manufacture of the machines is outsourced. “However, we directly handle the customer contact department but the manufacturing, which is basically routine work for which the design and development has already been completed, is outsourced without being retained within the company. And this then allows us to concentrate our human resources and funding on marketing, sales, and development.”

Currently the company is addressing a new business idea that leverages the book packaging technology and their customer base. In order to combat the serious issue of shoplifting that book stores currently face they are developing a method with security tags, and proposing the idea to their book shop customers. With their motto of being a “Book shop support company” they stated that they will continue to meet the various needs of book shops with the principle of being “customer-oriented” and “a unique manufacturer that doesn’t believe in imitating others”.

DAIWA HIGHTECHS Co., Ltd.:
Manufactures and sells book packaging machine and materials
36-18 Ohara-cho, Itabashi-ku TOKYO JAPAN 174-0061
TEL: +81-3-3558-8131 FAX: +81-3-3558-8132
Capital: 10 million yen
Number of employees: 42