Japanese Glass Industry: Innovation and Global Expansion
Japan’s glass industry has evolved through continuous innovation and strategic global integration. While general-purpose production is shifted overseas, high-performance glass remains domestically manufactured, capturing major global shares in semiconductors and medical sectors. SMEs collaborate across industries, secure intellectual property, and target niche markets through global exhibitions. Advanced manufacturing processes—such as 0.1°C-level cooling control and AI-based defect detection—ensure traceability and reliability. This integration of skilled craftsmanship and digital precision underpins a manufacturing base that commands global respect and is difficult to replicate.
Modern Technological Innovation and Changes in Industrial Structure
Since the 1990s, the Japanese glass industry has reached a major turning point. While facing price competition from overseas for general-purpose glass products, Japanese manufacturers have established competitive advantages in the field of high-performance glass.
By 2005, the market size for high-performance glass in the information and communication sector reached 850 billion yen, equivalent to the traditional general-purpose glass market (800 billion yen).
As the manufacture of high-performance glass requires advanced technology, major production bases are located within Japan. For example, AGC (formerly Asahi Glass) has established main factories with the latest manufacturing facilities in Shizuoka Prefecture and the Kansai region, while Nippon Electric Glass has set up its main factory in Shiga Prefecture.
These factories produce high-performance products such as optical fibres, glass for liquid crystal displays, and glass for semiconductor manufacturing. The manufacturing process requires strict temperature control and quality management, making the expertise of skilled technicians and cutting-edge manufacturing equipment essential.
While the production of general-purpose products and some downstream processes are carried out in China and Southeast Asia, manufacturing processes requiring core technologies are still maintained in Japan.
The Introduction and Development of Technology in the Edo Period
The Edo period was Japan's feudal era that lasted from 1603 to 1867. During this time, Japan implemented a policy of national isolation. This isolation policy strictly limited contact with foreign countries, prohibiting Japanese people from travelling overseas and foreigners from entering Japan. The only exception was trade with the Netherlands and China, which was permitted exclusively at Nagasaki port.
Japan's glass industry developed through technology transferred from the West via Nagasaki port. At that time, glass products were manufactured as decorative and practical items, and were called "biidoro" (derived from the Portuguese word "vidro") or "gyaman" (from "diamante").
At that time, Japan was divided into approximately 300 local administrative regions (domains). Glass manufacturing began in powerful domains in western Japan, such as the Satsuma domain (present-day Kagoshima Prefecture) and the Hizen domain (present-day Saga Prefecture).
In 1818, Kyubei Kagaya established a glass workshop in the Fukagawa district of Edo (present-day Tokyo), the capital. This workshop became a hub of technological innovation. Kyubei developed his own melting furnace and succeeded in manufacturing highly transparent glass. Furthermore, he established techniques for manufacturing coloured glass. These technologies formed the foundation for Edo Kiriko, a traditional cut glass technique. Modern traditional Japanese cut glass crafts such as Edo Kiriko and Satsuma Kiriko inherit these techniques.
Additionally, researchers of "Rangaku" (Dutch studies), who studied Western science and technology through the Netherlands, researched glass manufacturing techniques for medical equipment and other items. This contributed to the formation of Japan's unique glass culture.
Industrial Modernisation in the Meiji Period
With the beginning of the Meiji period (1868-1912, the era when Japan's modernisation began in earnest), the Japanese glass industry entered a major turning point. In 1873, Shinagawa Glass Works, Japan's first Western-style glass factory, was established in Tokyo. The government actively promoted industrial modernisation by importing the latest equipment from Britain and inviting foreign technicians.
In Osaka, Chigin Ito (1834-1902), a merchant from Sakai (an ancient commercial city in southern Osaka), established the Japan Glass Company, laying the foundation for the glass industry in the Kansai region. Ito visited Europe during the late Edo period and studied the latest glass manufacturing technologies. He introduced the most advanced glass melting furnace from France and achieved stable high-temperature manufacturing by switching fuel from firewood to coal. Additionally, he introduced the mould-blowing technique, enabling mass production of uniform products.
Ito's commitment to developing human resources was particularly noteworthy. He invited French technicians to provide technical guidance to craftsmen and reformed the traditional apprenticeship system by introducing a systematic technical education programme. Furthermore, he established a system for sending young craftsmen overseas, promoting the acquisition of the latest techniques. On the sales front, he built a nationwide distribution network, established a product line exclusively for exports, and established a stable supply system through exclusive contracts with wholesalers throughout the country.
The reason Osaka was able to achieve three times the scale of Tokyo in glass production was due to several important regional advantages. The procurement of raw materials such as silica sand and soda ash was easily facilitated through the Seto Inland Sea (the inland sea between Honshu and Shikoku), and an efficient product transportation system utilising the harbours was established. Additionally, the convenience of distribution throughout western Japan became a major advantage.
In terms of industrial foundation, Osaka had an accumulation of existing ceramic technology and abundant skilled labour. Technical collaboration with the pharmaceutical and chemical industries also contributed to the development of glass manufacturing technology. From an economic perspective, there were advantages such as ease of financing as a commercial city, access to overseas markets through active trade, and reduced manufacturing costs due to procurement of raw materials within the region.
In this way, the production of tableware, bottles, and flat glass developed mainly in Tokyo and Osaka, but Osaka in particular took full advantage of its geographical and industrial advantages, growing to boast a production volume three times larger than that of Tokyo. The combination of Ito's progressive management policies and Osaka's favourable location and industrial foundation enabled the Kansai region to establish a firm position as the centre of Japan's glass industry.
Since the 1990s, as major manufacturers expanded overseas production, domestic small and medium-sized enterprises found a way forward through technological innovation in collaboration with companies from different industries. These companies secured competitiveness in specialised product areas that were difficult for large companies to address by combining their own glass processing technologies with specialised techniques from other industries.
Innovation in Forming Technology
Small and medium-sized enterprises are developing innovative forming technologies through cooperation with mould manufacturers. A prime example is Matsunami Glass Ind., Ltd. in Osaka (https://www.matsunami-glass.co.jp/), which developed precision press forming technology capable of ultra-fine processing in collaboration with a mould manufacturer. This technology has enabled the mass production of medical microfluidic devices, particularly achieving mass production of glass substrates with 50-micron wide grooves for blood testing microchips. As a result, the company has secured orders from medical device manufacturers in Europe and North America.
Digital Transformation and Automation
Small and medium-sized enterprises are also achieving results through the introduction of digital technology. Nihon Kohnetsu Industrial Co., Ltd. in Aichi Prefecture (https://www.nihonkohnetsu.co.jp/) has introduced IoT sensors to glass melting furnaces and automated temperature management. This has improved stability in quality, with the defect rate decreasing to one-third of the previous level. Additionally, manufacturers in the Kanto region have combined collaborative robots with image recognition technology to automate the transport process of hot molten glass and the visual inspection of products, thereby improving work efficiency and inspection accuracy.
New Material Development
New material development through collaboration with different industries is also being actively pursued. Okamoto Glass Co., Ltd. in Chiba Prefecture (https://ogc-jp.com/) has developed special coating technology in conjunction with a chemical manufacturer. This technology achieves an anti-fogging effect by applying super-hydrophilic nano-coating to the glass surface, expanding business with automobile manufacturers for vehicle camera lenses.
Efforts to Maintain Competitiveness in the Global Market
Supporting these technological innovations are systematic efforts to maintain competitiveness. Specific measures include: countermeasures against imitation products through patenting of developed technologies and acquisition of intellectual property rights overseas, prevention of technology leakage by treating technical know-how as a black box, and establishment of joint development systems with customers from the product design stage. Furthermore, they are developing products for special applications by leveraging their ability to develop customised products and actively participating in overseas exhibitions to explore global niche markets.
Global Market Development
Japan's glass industry has significant export performance in both industrial and consumer fields. The export scale of major industrial glass products includes approximately 250 billion yen for glass substrates for LCD displays, about 80 billion yen for optical fibre glass, and approximately 60 billion yen for automotive tempered glass.
Special glass for semiconductor manufacturing equipment in particular accounts for about 40% of the global market share and is supplied to major manufacturers in Taiwan, South Korea, and China. Special glass for medical devices exports approximately 30 billion yen annually and receives high evaluation from medical device manufacturers in Europe and North America.
Manufacturing bases for these industrial glass products are positioned both domestically and internationally according to product characteristics and market needs. Glass substrates for LCD displays require advanced manufacturing technology and quality control, so they are mainly manufactured in domestic main factories such as AGC's (formerly Asahi Glass) Kansai plant and NEG's (Nippon Electric Glass) Shiga Takatsuki site. Some products for the Asian market are also produced in local factories in South Korea, Taiwan, and China.
Glass for optical fibres is mainly manufactured in specialised domestic factories due to the extremely high purity control required. Tempered glass for automobiles has manufacturing bases in North America, Europe, and Asia in line with overseas expansion of finished vehicle manufacturers, but the development and manufacturing of high-performance products are handled by domestic factories.
Special glass for semiconductor manufacturing equipment and medical devices is manufactured almost entirely in specialised domestic factories due to high precision and quality requirements. In this way, Japanese glass manufacturers employ a strategy of placing mass production lines for standard products near markets while concentrating the manufacturing of high value-added products and advanced technology products domestically. In particular, domestic manufacturing is expected to continue for products that require new product development and advanced quality control due to the presence of skilled technicians and the ease of collaboration with research and development departments.
In the export market for consumer glass products, the Asian region accounts for approximately 10 billion yen, North America for about 4.3 billion yen, and Europe for approximately 2.2 billion yen. By product category, tableware accounts for 45%, premium crystal products for 25%, and commercial tableware for 30%.
Important technical features in Japanese glass manufacturing are thin-making technology and quality management systems. In thin-making, technology is required to uniformly form glass to a thickness of around 0.9mm. The following elements are important in this manufacturing process:
Temperature management:
• Maintaining the melting temperature at around 1,500°C within ±2°C
• Controlling the cooling process in 0.1°C increments
Forming technology:
• Achieving complex shapes while maintaining uniform thinness
• Defoaming technology to remove fine bubbles
• Polishing technology to achieve uniform surface gloss
Quality management:
• Constant measurement of thickness by laser
• Defect detection using AI image analysis
• Complete traceability of the manufacturing process
Traceability of the manufacturing process is a system that manages information from all processes, such as raw materials, manufacturing conditions, worker information, equipment information, and quality inspection results, with product-specific IDs. This enables identification of the causes of quality issues and improvement of manufacturing processes.
Meeting these technical requirements requires a combination of experienced skilled technicians and the latest digital control systems. This advanced manufacturing technology and quality management system has been established through years of experience and development and cannot be easily imitated.
Such technological advantages, designs that blend tradition and modernity, and high durability and practicality form the foundation of the international competitiveness of Japanese glass products.