Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd. (太陽誘電) (translated as Sun Dielectric) is a Japanese materials and electronics company, situated in Ueno, Taito, Tokyo, that helped pioneer recordable CD technology (CD-R) along with Sony and Philips in 1988. Founded 59 years ago, Taiyo Yuden currently operates factories in Japan, Singapore, Korea, China, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Thailand. The company employs over ten thousand people worldwide and reports annual sales of more than $1 billion.

The current president of Taiyo Yuden is Yoshiro Kanzaki, who replaced Tomiji Kobayashi. Mitsugu Kawada is Honorary Chairman.

History

Taiyo Yuden was established by Hikohachi Sato on March 23, 1950 in Suginami, Tokyo.
That's branded Audio tape was introduced to the market in 1982.

Since 1985, Taiyo Yuden annually published Needs & Seeds (Taiyo Yuden Technical Report, ISSN 0911-5439).

In October 1988, the world's first CD-R was made by Taiyo Yuden and presented to the public under the brand name That's CD-R, however development already began as early as in summer 1985.

In 1989, START Lab Inc. was founded as a joint venture between Sony Corporation and Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd. for the CD-R recording media business in Japan.

Taiyo Yuden introduced That's Double Density CD-R with 1.3 GB storage space in 2000.

Effective March 1, 2006, the power supply factory in Mexico (formerly Taiyo Yuden de Mexico) was sold to Tamura Corporation.

The acquisition of Shoei Electronics Co., Ltd., formerly a subsidiary of Shoei Co., Ltd., took place March 1, 2007.

Products

• Bluetooth modules

• Capacitors

• CCFL Inverters

• Ferrite Beads

• High Frequency Multilayer Chip Antenna

• High Frequency Multilayer Chip Filter

• Inductors (multilayer, wire-wound chip, axial/radial leaded)

• Power Supplies (now redirected to Tamura Corp.)

• Recording media (made by That's Fukushima for START Lab)

• Resistors

• Simulation Tools

• Piezoelectric speakers

Recording media

Blank CD and DVD media is made by That's Fukushima for the distributor START Lab.

Taiyo Yuden's cakeboxes usually have a special form and a printed shrinkwrap foil (unlike other manufacturers using transparent shrinkwrap and printed paper cylinder). The inner rings of the CD-R products are frosted.

Taiyo Yuden branded products are not common outside of Japan (where Taiyo Yuden media has a market share of about 60%) but unbranded CDs and DVDs are available from some online retailers. Rebranded Taiyo Yuden media can be found under Fujifilm, Fusion, Maxell, Miflop, Panasonic, Plextor, Sony, TDK and Verbatim Corporation brands . In Japan, Korea and Greece, Taiyo Yuden is distributing its own brand "That's".
Taiyo Yuden makes Sony Music CD-R (discontiued 2008), Maxell Music CD-R and Maxell CD-R Pro and Maxell CD-R Music Pro (discontinued).

DVD media manufactured by Taiyo Yuden has the following media codes:

Infosmart of Hong Kong, Optodisc of Taiwan and other manufacturers from Hong Kong, Macau and China have been making discs which illegitimately use Taiyo Yuden's mediacodes and are prone to degradation and data loss. If those discs do not have one of these hub codes, they are most likely fakes and should not be used.

Taiyo Yuden has also developed the Autostrategy technology, a learning mode for DVD burners, for Plextor.

Companies

The following companies belong to the Taiyo Yuden group:

Japan

• , anorganic chemicals

• Chuki Seiki Co., Ltd., electronics

• Tsukiyono Denshi Co., Ltd.

• , manufacturing services

• Taiyo Fukushi Co., Ltd.

• START Lab Inc. (49.9% joint venture with Sony Corporation), distribution of That's brand optical media

• That's Fukushima Co., Ltd., manufacturing optical (CD-R, DVD+R, DVD-R DL) media in Date, Fukushima

• S.E.T. Co., Ltd.

• Kankyo Assist Co., Ltd., polycarbonate recycling

U.S.A.

• Taiyo Yuden (U.S.A.) Inc.

• (Taiyo Yuden R&D Center of America), R&D on Bluetooth technology

Europe

• Taiyo Yuden Europe GmbH

Korea

• Korea Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd., production of circuitry products (inverters for LCD panels, battery protection modules for mobile devices, high-density surface mount boards)

• Korea Tong Yang Yujun Co., Ltd., production of conventional capacitors and inductors

• Korea Kyong Nam Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd., production of multilayer capacitors

China(Mainland)

• Dongguan Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd.

• Taiyo Yuden (Guangdong) Co., Ltd.

• Taiyo Yuden (Shanghai) Trading Co., Ltd.

• Taiyo Yuden (Tianjin) Electronics Co., Ltd., part of Korea Tong Yang Yujun Co., Ltd.

Hong Kong

• Hong Kong Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd.

Taiwan

• Taiwan Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd.

Singapore

• Taiyo Yuden (Singapore) Pte Ltd

Thailand

• Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd. Bangkok Representative Office

Philippines

• Taiyo Yuden (Philippines) Inc.

Established in 1988 and located at the MEPZ 1 industrial hub at Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu.
Primarily pioneered the assembly and mass production of several semiconductors for various companies namely Sony, Nokia, Panasonic, Matsushita Electronics, Seagate, etc.

• Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd. Manila Representative Office

Malaysia

• Taiyo Yuden (Malaysia) SDN. BHD.

• Taiyo Yuden (Sarawak) S