The History of HASEGAWA
Established in the textile town Ichinomiya, spreading the business all over Japan,
HASEGAWA has gradually formed a close bond with world-famous apparel brands.
The 60-year history of challenges has built our culture, “Moving your hearts”.
Looking back over what we have done, with the spirit of the funder, let’s explore the possibilities for the future.
| 1965 | Masaru Hasegawa starts his own business in Ichinomiya city. |
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The beginnings of HASEGAWA came in 1965, when Masaru Hasegawa founded a small yarn workshop as a sole proprietor.
Born in Ichinomiya, one of Japan’s major textile manufacturing towns, Masaru started working for a textile company after he graduated from high school. There he learned the basics of the textile industry. Three years later he left to start a business of his own.
At first, he simply took orders as a subcontractor for the local dyeing factory. Then he started developing and supplying yarn for silk fabrics. This gained him connections and lead to the start of his dealings with the silk crepe manufacturers in Nagahama in Shiga Prefecture.
Purchase spun silk yarn, process and deliver it. The core elements of the business that we still conduct out today were born at that time.
Nagahama was famous as a production area for silk crepe, which at time was at the height of its popularity.
Masaru started receiving offers from companies asking him to design new products.
And the developments became popular. He started to get a lot of orders and every day was busy, but from a certain time he started to get complaints about quality of his products.
People said “HASEGAWA’s silk isn’t silk filament, it’s spun silk. It’s not suitable for silk crepe.” and the textiles had a red stamp saying “Spun Silk” placed on them.
Although Masaru’s business has lost its impetus, he kept looking for new markets and found the bigger textile producing area of Tango in Kyoto to set up a new business operation there.
In Tango, the quality of HASEGAWA products was accepted and he was more popular than before. However, as he looked over his successes, his heart was already somewhere else.
“Silk crepe is not going to be more popular. Next time I want to put my efforts into western clothes in Ichinomiya”.
He returned home town and proceeded to work on a new development.
There were many high school classmates working in the textile industry in Ichinomiya and they linked up together to build a new stage.
| 1977 | HASEGAWA CORPORATION is established. |
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| 1982 | The head office moves to Nagaike Kohibino Azai Ichinomiya city. |
When Masaru was 33, he founded Hasegawa Corporation.
He was finally able to establish all the details of purchase of silk yarn and raw materials by himself.
He narrowed his strategic focus to target silk used for western clothing only. He took silk filament yarn and spun silk yarn that had been used in Japanese clothing and made various adjustments and modifications to create twisted silk yarn that he started supplying to the weaving and knitting industries.
At the same time, he introduced manually operated flat knitting machines, prepared swatches and starting making proposals for new designs to apparel makers inside and outside Japan. Finally he got a series of popular products that contributed to the silk knit boom that was occurring at the time.
He had a good relationship with his suppliers and partner companies, and HASEGAWA corporation accumulating trusted business relationships and rock solid results.
With these strong business results, it was new personal connections that held the clue to the next stage in HASEGAWA’s expansion.
Together with some young men from a weaving company that he had got to know in Ichinomiya and Osaka, he went on a tour of inspection of Europe and other countries overseas, and opened the way for a stream of new orders from overseas.
And then he visited China, India and Uzbekistan and other countries. The volume of orders from overseas were getting increased, and he also commenced his association with Japan’s major trading companies.
Using these trading company connections to the maximum, Masaru soaked up information from countries around the world while expanding his business at a rapidly accelerating speed.
He began to wonder whether there were any better materials, or more efficient suppliers waiting out there to be discovered in the wide world, and as he started thinking in this way, he could see the possibilities unfolding right in front of him.
His ambition, determination and desire to expand further overseas grew stronger every day.
With that mindset, he took his first step into a new world, and participated for the first time as an exhibitor at “FILASIA” in Hong Kong in 1998.
This opportunity was the catalyst for many subsequent appearances at overseas exhibitions and trade shows.
| 1995 |
HASEGAWA starts technical training and installs cutting-edge equipment to affiliated factories in China for their quality improvement. |
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| 1998 |
HASEGAWA exhibits at FILASIA in Hong Kong for the first time. HASEGAWA exhibits at JAPAN CREATION in Tokyo for the first time. |
| 2001 |
HASEGAWA exhibits at EXPOFIL in Paris as the first Asian company. HASEGAWA exhibits at YARN FAIR in New York for the first time. |
Through a process of repeated trial and error, HASEGAWA had exhibited at trade shows in every country in the world. As a result, HASEGAWA’s name had become gradually better known and its reputation for high quality products was also growing.
At around that time, HASEGAWA produced a large lot of spun silk for use in sweaters in response to an order from a large knitting company in Hong Kong and gained an ongoing overseas sales channel as a result.
From that time on, HASEGAWA had two sides, as a yarn manufacturer and as a trading company, carrying out all stages of the production process from sourcing high quality materials to finishing and sale of yarn. This ability to take responsibility for the entire process saw the company become highly respected in overseas markets and has subsequently taken root as one of HASEGAWA’s strengths.
The material costs that formed a large portion of expenditures when relying on other trading companies also decreased with this integrated system.
| 2003 |
Logistics Center Established. Murata MACH corner with air splicer & uster quantum (colored yarn detector) is installed. Quality inspections during loading and unloading of shipments is started. HASEGAWA exhibits at FILO in Como as the first Asian company. |
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One of HASEGAWA’s strengths is the ability to carry out all stages of the production process from purchase to manufacturing and sales. In order to build up that strength even further, HASEGAWA regularly carries out proactive and effective investment in facilities and equipment.
At the same time as Murata MACH corner was installed in 2003, HASEGAWA also installed new circular knitting machines, automatic winders and the latest automatic knitting machines. At the same time as strengthening in-house manufacturing capabilities, HASEGAWA also worked hard on initiatives to improve quality.
Originally the only product HASEGAWA handled was yarn, but with installing of circular knitting machines, it became possible to produce circular knitting jersey, and now HASEGAWA is also able to develop new knit products in a way that hadn’t been possible before.
Through cooperation with partner companies inside and outside Japan and the efforts of technical instructors in overseas factories, HASEGAWA continues to face up to the challenge of creating new and distinctive high quality items in the way that “only HASEGAWA can”.
| 2004 |
HASEGAWA exhibits at Pitti Filati in Florence as the first Asian company. The head office moves to the current address Ohagi Kohibino Azai Ichinomiya city. |
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| 2006 |
HASEGAWA exhibits at Handarbeit & Hobby in Cologne alone as the first Asian company. |
| 2007 |
FUKUHARA circular knitting machines are introduced in the factory. Double twisters, silk sliver traction device and gill serial connectors are introduced in the factory. |
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| 2008 |
Lily yarn machines, covering machines, large twisting machines, mole yarn machines and automatic winding machines are introduced in the factory. Online shop is launched to spread our handknitting yarn to the public. HASEGAWA exhibits at Premiere Vision in France and New York for the first time. |
| 2010 |
Exclusive collaboration with Gima processing factory is started. |
| 2012 |
Our shop [Silk HASEGAWA] opens. |
| 2015 |
4 design systems and 10 automatic knitting machines are introduced from SHIMA SEIKI to start producing the products with our yarn Our large warehouse opens next to the head office. |
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| 2016 |
Product finishing machines (automatic finishing machines, tumbler dryers, dry cleaning equipment, sewing machines) are installed. Sales of products using our own yarn are started. |
| 2017 |
Automatic CAM cutting machine is installed. Single head embroidery machine TMBR-S1501C is introduced in the factory. HASEGAWA holds 40th anniversary ceremony. |
| 2018 |
HASEGAWA hosts first solo exhibition “SILK +” in Tokyo. |
| 2019 |
Online shop for silk knitwear “HASEGAWA” is launched. HASEGAWA starts selling on Amazon. HASEGAWA starts exhibiting at department store events nationwide. |
| 2020 |
HASEGAWA SILK MARKET 1st is hold. HASEGAWA starts the production and sales of own silk masks. Our direct-sales shop “SHOP HASEGAWA” adjoining our head office is launched. Our crowdfunding opens. Our YouTube channel opens. TVCM broadcast starts. |
| 2021 |
Masaru Hasegawa is inaugurated the adviser. Yoko Hasegawa is inaugurated the president. Our factory tour is started. |
Times are changing and the situation around us is also changing.
Researching the market, we feel that the apparel industry is in a slump while fast fashion and online shopping are notably rising. But no one knows what the future holds.
Due to the more complicated and subdivided distribution channel, some opportunities are gone. Under the circumstances, HASEGAWA is still improving our strength to attract more people. “HASEGAWA will promptly deliver their items.” “HASEGAWA can supply every single client, not only the worldwide brands but also individual customers, with their high-quality products.” To receive these high evaluations, we need to pay attention to every area in this world to get the latest news and polish up the skill to choose the best raw materials as the very first step of our integrated system for production.
In addition to “Move your hearts”, we will find the seeds of business as our new step for the future, which can synergistically make moving experiences and energy. HASEGAWA CORPORATION will weave the new history of moving on the history of challenging.
