Japanese Pioneers

Teruyuki Nishijima was born in 1918. After graduating from the Faculty of Technology at Tokyo Imperial University in 1941, he entered Tokyo Shibaura Denki Co., Ltd. in 1942. He served as general manager of the transistor factory in 1970, general manager of the semiconductor business division in 1974, an executive vice president of Toshiba Corporation in 1982, and an auditor of Toshiba in 1984 until his retirement in 1988.

After working on tubes for transmitters, Toshiba’s best known product in East Asia at the time, he became the director of the transistor factory and then the first general manager of the semiconductor business division as Toshiba came to see semiconductors as its core business. While serving as an executive vice president, he set up a company-wide movement called Project W (standing for win world-wide) that included decisive investments to raise the competitiveness of Toshiba’s semiconductor business, which had earlier lagged behind many of its competitors, to world-class levels.

He maintained the air of an old soldier having perfect composure and constant faith in his men while working in the semiconductor business, with its rapid changes in terms of management and technology. In maintaining a favorable corporate culture and continuing as one of the world’s leading semiconductor companies for more than half a century, Toshiba owes much of its success to Nishijima.