History

From the auditorium of Unoke Junior High School in Ishikawa Prefecture, located in the midwestern part of Japan, facing the Sea of Japan …

at the time of establishment
location of ISHIKAWA prefecture in japan

PFU was established as “Unoke Electronics Industries, Ltd.” by 7 people in 1960, as a startup. We will not forget the “ entrepreneurial spirit” our founders had at the time of establishment and continue to take on new challenges that are not bound by existing frameworks.

PFU Limited

  • 2022

    Became a member of Ricoh Group companies
    Global shipments of image scanners passed the 14 million mark

  • 2021

    Global sales of ScanSnap Series passed the 6 million mark and ScanSnap 20th anniversary
    Global sales of Happy Hacking Keyboard Series passed 0.6 million mark and HHKB 25th anniversary

  • 2018

    Cumulative sales of embedded computing products exceeded 1 million units

  • 2014

    Consolidated offices in the Tokyo region and moved to Yokohama
    Established Unified Management Center (A unique management center that integrates telephony, monitoring, technical assistance, and security operations)

  • 2011

    China’s National Bureau of Statistics adopted 1700 of our business scanners and Chinese OCR software for its sixth national survey, which read about 740 million sheets of handwritten paper

  • 2010

    Became a Fujitsu Limited wholly owned subsidiary by concluding a share exchange agreement

  • 2009

    Strengthened image scanner sales network through the addition of branch offices globally

  • 2006

    Established ProDeS Center (Product Design Service Center)
    Established IP Communication Center (currently Unified Management Center), offering a maintenance call center service operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a year

  • 2002

    Strengthened image scanner business globally by dispatching PFU assignees and sales experts as expatriates

  • 2001

    The scanner business was transferred from Fujitsu Limited to PFU Limited.
    Started the ProDeS service (Product Design Service) business, which handles everything in-house, from planning and designing commercial equipment to manufacturing and maintenance according to customer requests.
    Released 1st generation of ScanSnap product

    1st generation of ScanSnap

  • 1996

    Developed Happy Hacking Keyboard

    Happy Hacking Keyboard
    Happy Hacking Keyboard

  • 1995

    Started the Embedded Computer and Self-Service Terminal business

    Self-Service Terminal

  • 1992

    Started multi-vendor support services
    Established PFU Shanghai Co., Ltd.

  • 1991

    Developed the DS/90 Series UNIX servers

    DS/90/7000 Series

  • 1987

    Merged USAC and PANAFACOM and changed company name to PFU Limited

USAC Electronic Industrial

  • 1986

    Developed the FACOM K260R
    Developed the USAC 2001

  • 1984

    Developed the FACOM K-10
    Developed the USAC CAMARADE

    FACOM K-10

  • 1974

    Developed the FACOM VO which was first joint development with Fujitsu

  • 1972

    Partnering between Fujitsu Ltd., Uchida Yoko Co., Ltd., and USAC Electronic Industrial Co., Ltd.

  • 1971

    Developed Office Computer U720
    First lineup of compact computer released in Japan

  • 1969

    Changed company name to USAC Electronic Industrial Co., Ltd.

  • 1966

    Developed billing machines

  • 1962

    Signed business collaboration agreement with Uchida Yoko Co., Ltd.

  • 1960

    Unoke Denshi Kogyo Partnership established (7 employees)

PANAFACOM Limited

  • 1986

    Developed the PANAFACOM A-30 minicomputer
    Developed the PANAFACOM A-200UX UNIX workstation

  • 1983

    Developed the PANAFACOM C-280 multi-function personal computer

  • 1977

    Started working on UNIX

  • 1975

    Developed the world’s first 16-bit microcomputer on a single chip

  • 1973

    PANAFACOM Limited established