History 1940-1999

1940 December Established as Hakusan Wireless Electric Company, began manufacturing of batteryoperated household radios.
Capital of 180,000 yen
1943 November Merged with Takizawa Wireless Electric Industries Co., Ltd., renamed as Teikoku Dempa Co., Ltd.
1951 February Produced Japan's first car radio.
1958 June Exported car radios to U.S., creating the base for Japanese car audio exports.
1959 May Car radio receives genuine parts specification from Nissan® Motor.
1962 August Listed on 2nd section of Tokyo Stock Exchange.
1963 October Developed Japan's first car stereo, began marketing August of following year.
1967 September Saitama office opened in Toda-shi, Saitama, Japan
1968 March Marketed Japan's first cassette car stereo.
1969 August Listed on 2nd section of Osaka Stock Exchange.
1970 February Upgraded from 2nd to 1st section of Tokyo and Osaka stock exchanges.
1970 April Opened head office at Dogenzaka, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
1970 December Corporate name changed to Clarion Co., Ltd.
1970 December First overseas factory (CM) established as joint venture in Malaysia.
1975 June Started Clarion Girl campaign, with Agnes Lum becoming first grand prix winner.
1976 August Business-use karaoke "Karaoke 8" and cassette editing deck "Dubbing X" are marketed.
1978 October Tohoku office opened in Koriyama-shi, Fukushima, Japan.
1980 November Head office moved to Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
1983 July Factory established in France(CF).
1983 November Gumma office established in Oura-gun, Gumma-ken. / Manufacturing company established in Mexico.
1987 July CD5000 car CD player marketed.
1989October Manufacturing company established in the Philippines.
1992 February Voice-guidance car navigation system NAC-200 is marketed.
1993 April Clarion's SS wireless modem clears for the first time the technical standards set by Japanese government, and is marketed.
1995 January Clarion Orient Co. (COC) established in Hong Kong.
1995 April ISO-9001 certification obtained for all Clarion establishments in Japan.
1995 April Factory completed in China (DCOE).
1996 May VICS-compatible car navigation system marketed
1997 April Hamamatsu branch office opened.
1997 October Manufacturing company established in Hungary.
1998 January Joint development of invehicle personal computer “AutoPC” with Microsoft® Corp.
1998 December “AutoPC™” marketed for the first time in the U.S.
1999 August ETC terminal jointly developed with Hitachi.
1999 December OEM supply of "AutoPC" to French automaker Citroen® begins.

Return to the top of the page