Our History

As the situation deteriorated in the final stages of World War II, various commodities were in short supply in 1943. The Japanese government took inspiration from the wooden bombers utilized by Britain’s Royal Air Force and set in motion a plan to manufacture wooden aircraft in Japan as well. Nicchitsu Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. (currently known as Asahi Kasei Corporation) was asked to manufacture aircraft jigs by the Japanese government and launched production at its Yong-an Factory in Korea under Japanese rule.
The Yong-an Factory was created via the merger of NIPPON CHISSO HIRYO K.K. and CHOSEN CHISSO HIRYO K.K. on December 26, 1941. At that time, it carried out low-temperature carbonization of coal and manufactured products such as methanol and formalin. After the merger, as directed by Shitagau Noguchi, it carried out research into the manufacture of Bakelite resin from the acidic oil residue produced during that manufacturing process. Leveraging that technology, jigs made from wood treated with Bakelite resin emerged as a substitute for metal jigs.
However, the Yong-an Factory’s production capacity could not keep up with the Japanese government’s demand for mass production, and a plan was implemented to transfer Bakelite resin manufacturing technology to Nobeoka, a city in Miyazaki Prefecture, Japan. Shigeru Kawabata, former executive director of Asahi Organic Chemicals Industry, was the head of analysis at the Nobeoka Factory, and moved forward with research into the manufacture of jigs with Bakelite bonded to the celluloid that was the main material.
That same year, the Japanese government announced the mass production of wooden aircraft. As a result, in addition to the manufacture of jigs, production began of the plywood to make fuselages, and employees were kept busy with the installation of the Aircraft Materials Factory in the Rayon Factory (in Nobeoka, Miyazaki Prefecture).

Early in the following year of 1944, Mr. Kawabata went to the Yong-an Factory to learn the production technology. He returned to his post in late January after completing the factory blueprint. The Rayon Department was swiftly installed in the Rayon Factory from March, and construction of the Aircraft Materials Factory began.
Aircraft manufacturers from all over Japan (including Mitsubishi Nagoya and Nakajima Aircraft Company) gathered at the factory construction meeting held in May. The production equipment at that point was one 500 ton press that was in operation to manufacture jigs. As the construction work progressed, the Rayon Factory’s Rayon Department was renamed the Organic Materials Department Aircraft Materials Section.
The original plan for the manufacture of special reinforced plywood for aircraft was to source veneer (wooden boards) from Korea under Japanese rule (from Taisei Veneer in Incheon) and treat it with Bakelite resin manufactured in Nobeoka. However, the deteriorating war situation made crossing the Tsushima Straits dangerous, and it was difficult to procure veneer. It was therefore proposed to establish a company with the purpose of manufacturing veneer since Miyazaki, as a timber producing prefecture, offered self-sufficiency. The company would consist of influential parties connected with the timber industry and within Nicchitsu Chemical Industry. Accordingly, Nicchitsu Kozai Kogyo Co., Ltd. (our company) was founded on March 12, 1945.

Sadao Iijima, managing director of Asahi Chemical Industry and manager of the Nobeoka Factory, was appointed as our second president in October 1946. AV was established as our trademark on December 12 of that year.
It was created by combining A (for Asahi and the first letter of the alphabet) with V (for veneer and for victory). The brand name of the phenolic resin molding materials we had marketed since our founding was changed from Asahi Lite Compound to AV Lite when our new trademark was established.
There would be many renowned AV products thereafter.

At the same time as our veneer business, the synthetic resin molding materials business which is our main line of business was steadily boosting its performance. In 1950, our phenolic synthetic resin molding materials business was accredited by the Ministry of Telecommunications Research Institute of Electronic Communication. We succeeded in the trial manufacture of a high-grade product for telephone use, which was adopted by Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. for its Type 4 telephone, which was molded by Oki Electric Industry using AV Lite molding materials supplied by us. Approximately 4 million Type 4 telephones had been manufactured as of 1963, of which 1.5 million were made by Oki Electric Industry. (From the Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. website “OKI and the Changing Times: Part 5 Post-war efforts to restore the telephone infrastructure”)
The excellent reputation of our phenolic synthetic resin molding materials business continued to grow and demand continued to expand. For example, we received orders for Asahi Chemical Industry spinning machine parts.
It was decided to make synthetic resins that have wood and other organic matter (phenol) as their raw material our core business, and we changed our trade name from Asahi Veneer Industry Co., Ltd. to Asahi Organic Chemicals Industry Co., Ltd. on November 27, 1950. The industry was entering a new post-war era.

Stop valves that welded pipes and plates were already being manufactured in the world at large by around 1953, but the problem was their bulk and low seal pressure. So we discussed the practical application of our joint molding technology. We used metal valves for reference and determined that metal molding was structurally possible, since the structure of the stop valve was similar to the shape of the joint. We set to work on a prototype using hydraulic compression molding. In March 1956, we were the first in the world to successfully manufacture an all-plastic stop valve that uses no metal components at all, and launched sales of valves with apertures up to 50 mm. The products, with their dramatically improved strength, were favorably received and we expanded the lineup as far as an aperture of 100 mm in 1961. Thus begins the history of ASAHI AV, which has become our main brand in the piping systems business.