Originally built on reclaimed land, Kurashiki was up until the mid 1800s a village that grew cotton, which is more resistant to salt than rice is, and enjoyed a thriving trade in cotton products. However, as a new social system was emerging in Japan in the late 1800s, Kurashiki had no industries to speak of apart from being a distribution center for rice and cotton. When it was hit by high taxes, floods, and epidemics, Kurashiki fell into poverty with few employment opportunities. Around this time, the Japanese government was leading efforts to establish spinning mills around the country, and several young men in their 20s who were concerned about Kurashiki’s situation decided that the village was precisely the place to build such a mill. They launched a plan and secured the blessings and investment of Kurashiki’s wealthiest family, headed by Koshiro Ohara. Many residents of Okayama Prefecture were firmly behind this plan for the establishment of this new business, and they rushed to buy shares in the company. With Koshiro making up the remainder of the necessary investment, the mill’s realization was in sight. On March 9, 1888, Kurashiki Spinning Works was launched with Koshiro as its inaugural president. The following year, the head office mill (today’s Kurashiki Ivy Square) was built and was furnished with state-of-the-art spinning equipment from the U.K. This marked a giant leap forward for Kurabo.

Current textile business

Following the enactment of Japan’s Commercial Code, the company was renamed Kurabo Industries Ltd.

When Kurabo began exporting cotton fiber to China, the company created the Mitsuuma (meaning “three horses”) trademark. This mark came to symbolize proven, high-grade cotton yarn.

Based on Kurabo’s labor idealism that “Business cannot prosper unless employees are happy,” the company strove to provide employees with basic education and personal development by establishing facilities inside the mill such as an elementary school and a handicrafts school.

Foreseeing that electricity would inevitably revolutionize industry, Magosaburo Ohara established Kurashiki Dento (now the Chugoku Electric Power Company, Inc.). The power plant contributed to the region by providing electricity to Kurashiki.

The origins of biomass power generation

Around this time, many employees of spinning mills in Japan were suffering from mental and physical health problems due to things like late nights of work and a harsh work environment. Magosaburo Ohara, Kurabo’s second president and a proponent of “labor idealism,” was concerned about this situation. Convinced that these problems could be solved through scientific techniques, he launched a program of experiments and surveys. This was the impetus for the establishment of the Kurashiki Labor Science Institute (now the Ohara Memorial Institute for Science of Labor), a hub of all areas of science related to labor.

Learn more

Kurabo president Magosaburo Ohara decided to build a hospital so that he could take care of his employees, who numbered almost 10,000. He also couldn’t bear the fact that there were insufficient medical facilities to treat local residents who had contracted the Spanish flu, which was sweeping through western Japan at the time. Kurabo Central Hospital (now Kurashiki Central Hospital) opened with state-of-the-art facilities and equipment and staffed by highly skilled medical personnel. Dedicated to providing the very best care, the hospital boasted facilities including a greenhouse where patients could enjoy seasonal flowers. Built at first to care for Kurabo employees, it soon opened its doors to all citizens requiring care.

Learn more

Looking to steer the company towards diversifying its synthetic fiber business, Magosaburo established Kurashiki Kenshoku Co., Ltd. (now Kuraray Co., Ltd.) to get into the field of rayon, a chemical fiber.

Japan’s very first museum to feature Western art, the Ohara Museum of Art was established by Magosaburo Ohara in memory of his lifelong friend, painter Torajiro Kojima. Torajiro studied art in Europe and wanted to give students in Japan the chance to see Western art, so he purchased European paintings with the full support of Magosaburo. The works he brought back, including Monet’s Water Lilies and El Greco’s Annunciation, had a huge impact on Japan at that time.

Learn more

While most Japanese companies were operating only in Japan, Lanificio Kurashiki do Brasil S.A. (now Kurashiki do Brasil Textil Ltda.) was established as Kurabo’s first overseas production base.

Kurabo built its business foundation in textiles but began to plan entry into new fields. Its first foray was into polyurethane products, which at that time were beginning to be used for things like bedding in Europe. Focusing on flexible polyurethane foam, which had significant potential for use in mattresses and furniture, we decided to go into the chemical products business.
Before long, our development and manufacture of polyurethane foam extended into applications such as car seat cushions and building insulation material. This led us to combine the technologies we had built up to create synthetic wood that did not corrode or change color, and that had impact resistance and excellent durability and weather fastness. This development coincided with increasingly advanced needs in industrialized housing, prompting us to enter the field of housing construction material. Today, our chemical products division collaborates with other Kurabo divisions to fuse technologies for the semiconductor-related products field. We are focusing on the business of functional film that utilizes resin-blending technology in order to create high-value-added products.

Current chemical products business　The origins of chemical products

Kurabo entered the food business when the group acquired Japan Instant Foods (now Japan Jiffy Foods, Inc.), pioneers in the development of freeze-dried food in Japan.

Current food and services business

The Technical Research Laboratory was established as an in-house, independent technological research institute in order to secure research equipment and facilities and human resources.

Along with rapid economic growth comes environmental pollution in industrialized countries. At Kurabo, we struggled with the treatment of alkaline wastewater and flue gas from our factories. To bring alkaline wastewater down to within pH standard values, expensive acid neutralizer would be required. In addition, sulfur oxides (SOx), the cause of air pollution and acid rain, would have to be removed from the flue gas of the factory boiler and incinerator.
To solve these problems, we developed our own revolutionary KBCA flue gas desulfurization system, in which flue gas is dissolved in alkaline wastewater to neutralize the wastewater and at the same time effectively remove the SOx in flue gas. By thinking outside the box, we turned a negative into a positive—eliminating pollution while creating an environmentally friendly waste treatment system. This system not only solved Kurabo’s problem of how to treat sludge in plant wastewater; it also launched our start as an environmental plant manufacturer. We went on to successful developments like the KISCAM system for removing dioxins from exhaust gas and an in-water treatment system. We continue to develop basic technologies to help customers achieve the most environmentally friendly plants.

Current advanced technology business (engineering field)

Jeans and denim fabric in Japan used to come exclusively from American imports. But Kurabo foresaw jeans as a global fashion trend and early on began research into denim raw yarn. In 1970 we became the first company in Japan to launch a denim manufacturing business. In 1973 we installed spinning machinery to make denim yarn and began selling Japan’s first denim fabric, KD-8.

The origins of the denim business

Kurabo entered the hotel business with completion of Kurashiki Ivy Square, a hotel and cultural complex housed in Kurabo’s very first head office spinning mill. No longer in use after World War II, the mill was restored to its original late-1800s look, with an impressive ivy-covered red-brick exterior. Back when the building was a spinning mill, the ivy—like in the name “Ivy Square”—served president Magosaburo Ohara’s desire to create a healthy work environment in harmony with nature: it blocked the sun in summer to keep the interior cool, but in winter its leaves fell to allow the sun to warm the mill’s interior.

Learn more

In 1976, Kurabo launched the Information Systems Development Department (now the Electronics Field, Advanced Technology Division). The impetus for this was our successful development of electronic technologies to control color in our in-house textile dyeing plant. This was realized when we successfully made computer color matching (CCM) systems that use computers to do the work of preparing color, a job which had been conventionally done by physically blending dyes.
This technology has come to be used in all sectors that deal in colors, providing a strong tool for color adjustment and measurement. Furthermore, the software technology and sensing technology created in this field has provided the basis for advancements in information processing and inspection and measurement. For example, in information processing, the technology links with CAD/CAM for use in imaging solutions and production control systems; and in inspection and measurement, the technology is used in high-speed precision inspection and measuring systems.

Current advanced technology business (electronics field)

The biotechnology boom arrived with the ability to handle genes inside test tubes. Research institutes everywhere began extracting genes, but at that time it was still all done by hand. Gene extraction was a delicate process that had to proceed with the utmost care, and many researchers had to take significant time to carry out this menial work. To make this work easier, Kurabo launched its biomedical project. Using our technical foundation comprising the bioengineering and mechatronics technologies of our Technical Research Laboratory, through trial and error we eventually developed our first automated nucleic acid isolation system. This system was compatible with laboratory automation, which was rapidly spreading at the time, and it earned praise from many researchers. This creative and low-cost system responded to the needs of the times, especially with the start of the Human Genome Project a few years later. This made it lauded as one of the three most important pieces of equipment in the gene analysis field. Today, its use has spread to include gene analysis reagents and cell culture reagents in the food and medical fields.

Current advanced technology business (biomedical field)

Kurabo launched the Assets Promotion Project (now the Real Estate Division) in order to make use of idle land.

Current real estate business

To commemorate the company’s 100th anniversary, on March 9, 1988 “Kurabo” was adopted as the official company name and a new corporate logo was designed.

Kurabo completed construction of the Tokushima Plant (in Anan, Tokushima), a facility furnished with the latest environmental equipment for developing and carrying out dye processing.

Construction was completed on the Mie Plant (in Tsu, Mie), expanding the company’s film business and marking entry into the super engineering plastic film business.

Kurabo established the Kumamoto Development Center (now the Kumamoto Office and R&D Center, in Kikuchi, Kumamoto). The site develops and manufactures highly functional resin products for use in semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

Construction was completed on the Kurabo Advanced Technology Center (Neyagawa, Osaka), a technological research laboratory aimed at creating technologies and developing products that differentiate us from competitors. The site paves the road to Kurabo’s future by bringing together engineers from various fields who collaborate using state-of-the-art testing and evaluation equipment. The center also links with the development divisions of Kurabo and its group companies to drive the creation of new businesses.

R&D policy

Utilizing proprietary technologies built up in the engineering business, Kurabo completed an environmentally friendly wood biomass power generator at the Tokushima Plant. Using timber from forest thinning and other wood as fuel, this wood biomass power generator combines steam turbines with a fluidized-bed boiler using an improvement on Kurabo’s fluidized incinerator technology. By mainly using forest thinnings from Tokushima, the generator helps maintain forests and boosts the local forestry business.

Focusing on measures against heat stroke as a new business area that could help solve a problem in society, we began developing a risk management system in which wearable devices on smart clothing are used to give real-time analysis of big data such as physical information about the wearer. The following year, Smartfit for Work went to market.

Smartfit for Work (Japanese only)

We established the first R&D base in our textile business in the Anjo Mill (Anjo, Aichi). Managed directly by the Textile Business Division, the TIC comprises specialists in spinning, weaving, dye processing, and sewing. It conducts R&D for Kurabo’s next generation and fosters engineers.