Sharp Labs Of America history

The first crystal radio sets were imported into Japan from the United States in the early 1920s.

Hayakawa's business, as well as his personal life, were dealt a devastating blow on September 1, 1923.

After only three months of study and experimentation, Hayakawa succeeded in receiving a signal from the broadcasting service which had begun programming&mdashø a very small audience--only a few months before, in 1925.

The company expanded greatly in the following years, necessitating its reorganization into a corporation in 1935.

Renamed Hayakawa Electrical Industries in 1942, the company emerged from the war damaged but not destroyed.

By 1950 more than 80 of Hayakawa's competitors were bankrupt.

The company began development of an experimental TV set in 1951, even before plans had been made to begin broadcasting in Japan.

But Hayakawa's officials personally guaranteed the company's liabilities when the company suffered a critical drop in sales, and Hayakawa Electric was able to obtain the cooperation of underwriters until the first major expansion in the Japanese economy occurred in 1952.

In 1953, television sets produced by Tokuji Hayakawa's company account for 60% of Japan’s industry total.

In 1960, with the advent of color broadcasting in Japan, Hayakawa introduced a line of color sets.

In 1962, the Company's establishes its first overseas sales subsidiary -- Sharp Electronics Corporation (SEC) -- in New York City.

Tokuji Hayakawa retired from the day-to-day operations of his company in 1970, assuming the title of chairman.

1973: Sharp introduces hand-held calculator with LCD.

In 1986, for example, Sharp's earnings plunged 42 percent to ¥20.78 billion ($137.5 million). Nevertheless, Saeki had left his company, with its 18 divisions, poised for a future of vigorous growth.

In 1992 alone, the company spent over ¥100 billion ($660 million) on research and development.

While rivals Sony and Matsushita watched their profits drop in 1994, Sharp's earnings rose by 25 percent over the same period.

As LCD technology continued to go mainstream, the prices the displays commanded began to decline sharply, falling more than 50 percent in 1996 alone.

Caught in this crunch, Sharp's profits fell another 43 percent in 1998.

In 1999, for instance, he made an American (the first ever) the head of Sharp's United States subsidiary.

In 2001 Sharp began plans to manufacture next-generation LCDs--low-temperature, liquid continuous-grain silicon display systems that incorporated semiconductor chips.

Sharp develops a 108V-inch LCD TV that it shows at the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada.