Kunihiko Iwadare, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetKunihiko Iwadare
Japanese businessman
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Kokura, Japan
About Kunihiko Iwadare
- Kunihiko Iwadare (?? ??, Iwadare Kunihiko, August 15, 1857 - December 20, 1941) was a Japanese businessman.
- A graduate of the Imperial College of Engineering (Kobu Daigaku) in Tokyo, he worked as a telegraph engineer for the Japanese government.
- He left Japan in 1886 and traveled to New York.
- He was introduced to Charles Batchelor, an assistant of Thomas Edison.
- Iwadare was hired to work in an Edison facility in Manhattan at Goerck Street.
- Iwadare was transferred to Edison Machine Works in Schenetady, New York in January 1887.
- Iwadare returned to Japan, hoping to participate in building the electrical industry in Japan.
- He first joined Osaka Dento (Osaka Electric Lamp Company) as an electrical engineer, and after eight years resigned from his post to start his own business as a general sales agent in Japan for General Electric and Western Electric companies.In 1895 Western Electric wished to expand their telephone equipment sales business in Japan and proposed a limited partnership with Iwadare.
- Their representative was Walter Tenney Carleton.
- Iwadare accepted the proposal and a new firm was created in August, 1898.
- In 1899, changes to treaties between Japan and Western countries went into effect.
- The limited partnership created in 1898 was restructured into the joint stock company, Nippon Electric Co.
- Ltd.
- Western Electric held 54% of the stock.
- Iwadare was named Managing Director of what is now known as NEC Corporation.
- He became Chairman of the Board in 1926.
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