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.

Michiyasu Tano, President, Datatec Co., Ltd.

A flight recorder is a device placed in an aircraft for the purpose of automatically recording flight events. It is the key to investigating the cause when problems such as planes crashing take place. A drive recorder could be called the automobile version of a flight recorder. It is capable of precisely recording driving events, or “when”, “where" and “how the vehicle is driven.

A drive recorder, which are attracting attention because of their usefulness in revealing the cause of and preventing traffic accidents, was developed and commercialized by Datatec Co., Ltd. (Ota-ku, Tokyo) for the first time in Japan. It was completed with the use of the know-how accumulated through the development of firmware (software for basic control of hard ware) and the high level of the technological capabilities of the company in 1998. To date “our drive recorders have been adopted by 500 companies or more, particularly by freight companies, with more than 45,000 vehicles having been equipped with the device,” said Michiyasu Tano, President of the company.

We Want to Develop and Market Products on Our Own.
Datatec was formed in 1983. President Tano, who had continued studying at university after graduating, and two friends shared in the incorporation expenses. The capital was 1,000,000 yen. Their basic policy was to develop new products through making the most of their technologies and then marketing them on their own.

“A group of three amateurs started the business knowing nothing. The company originated in something like a pioneer venture. And for the first 10 we faced a series of problems," said President Tano reflecting on the early days. While Japan was at the time approaching the zenith of its bubble economy, the company continued their research and development activities without being swayed by it. According to him, there were even people at meetings of the owners of small and medium-sized companies that told him, “If a company is not profitable now there must be something wrong with it.” The company finally got on track after the collapse of the bubble economy, perhaps proof of the appropriateness of their basic policy.

Datatec developed the world’s first compact three-axial angular sensor for use with virtual reality using a gyro sensor that is well known for being used to prevent camera shake. Later the sensor was adopted by a leading game console manufacturer and then widely used as a 3D sensor. The drive recorder also called a “safety recorder” was developed using that technology. The recorders finally came on the market after the process of trial and error.

“The sensor technology that our company developed and accumulated enabled us to precisely measure not only the location and direction of a vehicle but also other data on the operational conditions, including in relation to the steering wheel, accelerator and brakes, with the combined use of GPS, accelerometer for gauging the moving speed of a load and the gyro sensor to detect the direction and angular speed (traverse angle per second) of a vehicle. These very precise measurements allow the travel conditions of a vehicle carrying our drive recorder to be understood at a glance.”

The safety recorder has earned various utility model patents and incorporates a wide variety of advanced proprietary technologies of the company.

Example “Safety Recorder” manufactured and marketed by Datatec
The photo shows the “SRVideo,” which has an image recording function.

Datatec Logo

Result of driving diagnosis with the “Safety Recorder”

Flexibility to Meet Needs
“Even good products that you are confident of do not always lead to immediate sales, especially if it is a product produced by a small company with no brand name power. To overcome this problem we selected nonlife insurance companies and leasing companies as target customers rather than leading freight companies. We promoted the benefit of installing a safety recorder as helping to determine what led to a traffic accident and also preventing them from occurring.”

This sales promotion turned out to be successful. And on top of that the earlier model recorder, which was rather large and had only limited functionality, had evolved in responding to orders and requests from customers. “If a customer requests something tough or sets a high hurdle to clear, you know what, it’s a chance for engineers to show their capabilities and skills. And actually, when we have finally made a product in response to the request of a customer, and the customer is satisfied with it, I feel really excited and proud to be an engineer”, says President Tano.

An example of the innovative functions is the set of report sheets that are output as data. The earlier sheets displayed complicated distribution charts that could only be understood by professionals, while drivers could neither make head nor heed of them. A series of version upgrades improved how driver performance was displayed by focusing on five categories: brake operability while the vehicle is in motion, brake operability when the vehicle is stopped, steering wheel manipulation, performance during right and left turns, and smoothness while the vehicle is in motion. Furthermore, additional improvements then allowed the categorized performance to be depicted by a pentagonal diagram.

“A newly adopted point system also appears to be a motivation to drivers. ‘Today I got such and such a score, but I'll try to do better tomorrow.’ According to drivers using the point system resulted in them starting to avoid dangerous driving and actively pursuing safety.”

Products also Friendly to the Environment
Has the number of traffic accidents actually declined at companies using the safety recorders? Taking the number of accidents of a leading freight company in the year 2000, just before they introduced the safety recorders, as 100, the index number was reduced to 37 over the next 4 years due to its corporate efforts, and is now 29, down more than 70%, which is due to the introduction of the image recording function inclusive “SRVideo”. The accident rates of other freight companies and bus companies also had the characteristic sharp drops.

The advantage of introducing them is not only limited to the areas of safe driving and prevention of accidents and dangerous events. According to the company safe driving leads fuel conservation, and thus less costs, with other factors such as tire replacement, insurance premiums etc also greatly contributing to even more cost saving. The above mentioned leading freight company improved its fuel expenses by as much as 14% when compared to before introducing the safety recorders, which then also results in the reduced carbon dioxide emissions.

Datatec was selected as one of the “Energetic Small and Medium-Sized Manufacturing Companies” in fiscal 2007 (by the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency) due to its high technological capabilities and large domestic share.

Datatec Co., Ltd.:
Development and marketing of “Safety Recorders”, an automobile version of a flight recorder, as its main business as well as the development and marketing of electronic measuring instruments including a self-contained navigation unit (M12P), single- and three-axial angular sensors, and VR sensors.
Address: 8F. K-1 Bldg. 5-8-7, Kamata, Ota-ku, Tokyo, 144-0052 Japan
TEL: +81-3-5703-7060 FAX: +81-3-5703-7063
Capital: JPY 70,000,000
Number of employees: 70