GOTO INC
Nobutaka Goto, President

The year 2009 is called the "International Year of Astronomy," as it marks the 400th anniversary since Galileo Galilei made the first astronomical observations of sunspots and the surface of the moon with a telescope that he made. Moreover, as the total solar eclipse will also be observed in Japan on July 22, I have no doubt that we will see a start of the astronomical observation boom this summer.

When people think about astronomical observation, they think about planetariums, and I’m sure everybody has an experience of being moved by the movement of constellation or stars that were projected on the dome-shaped ceiling. The lens-projection type of planetarium that we have today was introduced in 1923. It is said that Carl Zeiss Company, a German manufacturer of optical equipment, built this planetarium. Since then, planetariums have spread to various cities in Germany and throughout the world. After that, planetariums made by Carl Zeiss Company came to dominate the market.

Toward making a Japanese planetarium

The person who changed the status quo of near monopoly by the Carl Zeiss Company was Seizo Goto, the founder and first president of GOTO INC. The year was 1956. Nobutaka Goto, the current president explains the story of those days as follows:

"Seizo was my great-grandfather. When he went on a business trip to Beijing, he was moved by a planetarium that he saw and was inspired. He wanted to make a planetarium by himself somehow. However, when he consulted with teachers in college or people he knew, everybody was against it."

GOTO INC was established in 1926 as a private company, when Seizo was 35 years old. It was started by launching single refractors with effective aperture of 25mm. Due to the unprecedented low price for an astronomical telescope, it caused a sensation.

"He had been manufacturing telescopic lenses during the Pacific War, but after the war in 1954, the Science Education Promotion Act went into effect and when schools began to enhance equipments for science, he probably keenly felt the necessity of planetariums made in Japan. Three years after he saw the planetarium in Beijing and after much trial and error, he finally succeeded in developing a medium-sized planetarium. The reason why my great-grandfather became interested in astronomy was because he happened to see the Halley’s Comet when he was 20 years old, so I suppose his dream for the stars was quite strong," said Goto, the company’s president.

Refractor with effective aperture of 25mm which was launched in 1926, and caused a sensation.

In 1959, the company succeeded in developing a lens projection type medium-sized planetarium. It was displayed at the Tokyo International Trade Show.

A lens projection type medium-sized planetarium, which can be called the first planetarium made in Japan, was displayed at the Tokyo International Trade Show. Compared with the product by Carl Zeiss, it had the same performance but less than 1/10th of its price, and this attracted the attention from around the world. The first unit was installed at the Asakusa Shin-Sekai building in Asakusa, Tokyo and the second unit was delivered to the Museum of Art, Science and Industry in Bridgeport in the U.S.

A small-size planetarium was developed during the era of Ryuichiro Goto, who was Nobutaka’s father and also the previous president, and began to be introduced to school facilities. After that, full automatic planetarium, astronomic planetarium, and hybrid planetarium which is the mainstream these days were developed. As a result, the company has grown into a global top manufacturer of planetariums that not only does business in the U.S. and European countries, but also expanded its sales channels to Asian countries such as China or Korea, as well as Africa and Latin America.

A hybrid planetarium is a state-of-the-art system which can show overlapping images of not only astronomical charts but also constellation lines, coordinates, planets, and galaxies on the starlit sky projected onto the domed space, without the slightest misalignment.

At the same time, the imaging technology of GOTO INC did not stop with dome-projected images such as planetariums, and it can create special image spaces. Its advanced technologies were deployed at various exhibitions.

Display images that lead the era were developed in rapid succession such as those shown at the Osaka Exposition’s "Midori Pavilion" in 1970, Tsukuba Exposition’s "Heartopia Pavilion" in 1985, Osaka Garden and Greenery Exposition’s "Yusei-Kyodo Pavilion" in 1990, and The 2005 World Exposition Aichi, Japan’s "Japan Pavilion" in 2005.

Moreover, the company is not only developing or manufacturing planetarium equipment, but is also involved in the production of video image contents or picture images as image software business. Images and sound are combined according to various scenarios, and together with the planetarium, the domed space is turned into a fantasy astronomical stage and can not only become an educational program, but also recreate scenes such as the collision of giant planets or dinosaurs that lived several hundred millions of years ago.

Also, the company has recently gone into supporting the operation of planetarium facilities at the Sendai Astronomical Observatory, Niigata Science Museum, and Kitakyushu Planetarium, based on the wealth of know-how in areas such as the development/manufacturing of planetariums and production of contents.

"Astrorama," the world’s first pano-hemispheric motion picture system, was developed and delivered to the Midori Pavilion at EXPO’70 (Osaka Exposition) in 1970.

A "Hybrid planetarium" which combines the meticulous expressive capability of opto-mechanical planetarium projector with powerful video images by a full-dome digital video imaging system.

Don’t forget the research spirit

It has been more than 80 years since GOTO INC was established, but the path was not always smooth. The reason why it was able to overcome a number of crises is because the founding spirit was still alive.

Goto, the company’s president explained about the company’s principle which has continued unbroken since its establishment as follows; "the name of the company in Japanese is ‘Goto Optical Research Institute,’ and not - Optical Manufacturing or - Optical Industry; my great-grandfather was very particular about it. It was his wish that even though it was a small company, it should always have a research attitude, and every employee should never forget the spirit to study. By keeping the research spirit, it will become the motivating force to bring forth inventive approaches that are not imitations of somebody else."

When Seizo passed away at the age of 91, Goto, the company’s president was a freshman in high school. He said, "my grandfather and my father took over after my great-grandfather; however, I never thought of going into the family business after them."

"I naturally did learn about astronomy or space as the saying goes, ‘A boy living near a Buddhist temple can learn an untaught sutra by heart,’ but I studied fluid dynamics at the university and had planned to join an automobile manufacturer after graduation. My father opposed this strongly. Maybe he thought that I will never come back if I joined an automobile manufacturer. Thus, I ended up joining a bank."

His seniors at the bank wondered why someone with a science and math education would join, but he was in charge of corporate accounts, and it must have been a good experience to look at companies from the bank’s point of view. He resigned four years later, joined GOTO INC, and after experiencing jobs at various departments, became the president at the age of 37.

Goto, the company’s president, told us forcefully, "more than 80% of our employees are engineers. There are optical engineers who polish and finish the telescope lenses and engineers of astronomic science who work on the development of planetariums; by everyone utilizing their own expertise, the techie spirit is ingrained – I’m sure that is the strength of our company, and our ‘application skill’ to absorb state-of-the-art technology immediately."

The company also provides operation supports to the theaters such as the Sendai Astronomical Observatory which was opened in 2008.

GOTO INC:
Development/manufacturing of planetarium equipment, manufacturing of astronomical telescopes, production of planetarium programs/image contents, contracted operation of planetarium facilities, etc.

Address: 4-16 Yazakicho, Fuchu, Tokyo, Japan 183-8530
Phone：+81-42-362-5311（Main number）
FAX：+81-42-361-9571
Established: 1926
Employees: 128 persons
http://www.goto.co.jp/