1890's
07/09/2004
Besides producing communications equipment and electronic wiring, Oki Electric Works specialised in construction and installation work for telephone lines, electric bells, and lightening rods for government offices in Tokyo. When the company installed telephone lines to enable communication between the first and twelfth floors in the Ryounkaku, the project received much attention thereby advertising the company's technical abilities.
1894
Business boomed so a new factory was
built in the Kyobashi section of Tokyo with a sales department to
follow two years later.
1896
Oki employed 83 people which was seven times the number it employed
just nine years earlier. This was sound proof that the start of the
telephone business by the Ministry of Communications had led to
expanded operations for Oki, thus turning it into Japan's top
manufacturer of communications equipment.
The government introduced the First Telephone Expansion Plan and
the following period witnessed a significant development in the
early years for Oki, a year during which the value of production
for the company increased two-fold in comparison to its value two
years earlier. Orders to overseas manufacturers from the government
increased, and domestic communications equipment manufacturers
assumed the role as agents for imported products. Oki was in a
natural position to take advantage of this and moved to expand the
line of products it handled.
