Deeply committed to R&D, Jujo Chemical has developed products such as its UV inks, which emit significantly less CO2 than conventional inks, while supplying key industries, including automotives.
“Since 2021, 100% of the electricity used at our plants comes from renewable energy generated by hydro-electric sources. This accounts for more than 90% of the total electricity that we use as a firm.“
Hiroshi Koyama, President, Jujo Chemical Co., Ltd.
Since it was founded back in 1957, screen ink manufacturer Jujo Chemical has been offering innovative products to its customers across various industries including electronic devices, medical care, cosmetics and fashion. Thanks to diligence, steadfastness and a clear plan, continued success at home and overseas is expected.
“Our capacity to continuously and stably create high-quality products is one of our core strengths,” says company president Hiroshi Koyama. “However, if we carry on production only locally in Japan, the costs are going to be higher. Therefore, as seen with other Japanese companies, by transferring our monozukuri methodology overseas, creating and selling our products in those markets, we can reduce our overall costs."
“Taking our expertise abroad also allows us to leverage lower labor costs, which major Japanese companies are good at doing,” he adds.
With the screen ink market being a competitive one, it’s in UV ink where Jujo Chemical has an advantage.
“There are quite a lot of competitors in the screen ink market, so I believe that our strength lies in our UV ink, which is of the highest quality,” explains Mr. Koyama. “This has led to us being highly valued by our customers, and a lot of our sales come from our UV ink. Our functionality ink, such as the ink used for conductivity and insulation, also has a very high reputation.”
And when it comes to innovation, the company knows how important new ideas are to a constantly changing landscape.
“The market for the screen printing industry, which we are in, will shrink,” believes Mr. Koyama. “For that reason, we are concentrating our efforts on new product development and eager to achieve innovations. We have two important themes in our R&D. The first is automobiles, specifically conductive inks as substitutes for wire harnesses and laminate materials for EV batteries. The second theme is our response to the environment.
“We believe that these two areas require drastic change, and this poses its own challenges, including coming up with new environmentally friendly products, potentially water-based or those that use biomaterials. We are also developing conductive layers with our inks for Perovskite solar cells which will spread in the near future. This is the second pillar of our R&D strategy.”
This approach leads us back to the focus on international collaboration.
“Right now, we do not have a deep partnership with another company, but we are certainly open to that. Due to the development challenges in our area of focus, collaborating with the right companies would enhance both the speed and quality of development.
“Based on the current population of the regions, as well as the expected growth of these markets, our target is China and Southeast Asia. We already have locations in Taiwan, Thailand, China and India, and they will be our future concentration points. A characteristic of our overseas business is that there are no Japanese people and all employees are local, allowing us to serve and support the thinking and needs of those customers.”
Mr. Koyama is driven towards establishing a lively working environment in which his employees feel motivated and where they set targets for themselves, aligned to the company objective to deliver unique and innovative products that enhance human life.
“The greater amount of our products that the customers gladly purchase, the better we can contribute to society,” the president concludes.
0 COMMENTS