Innovation - A Ricoh Tradition

The old head office building in late 1930s RicohFlex III

Ricoh Co., Ltd. was founded in 1936 by Kiyoshi Ichimura. Ichimura was the son of a poor farmer. He was born with no privileges or advantages. Quite the contrary, all that he achieved was born of his own intelligence, determination and vision. Ichimura's first major innovation was the RicohFlex III. Introduced in 1950, this was the world's first mass-produced twin-lens reflex camera. This level of technological innovation was very significant and gives us an important insight into Ichimura's vision and ambitions for the future. He followed with many other innovations, like the 1955 introduction of our first desktop copy machine, the Ricopy 101. In 1973 we introduced the world's first fully-digital facsimile machine, the RIFAX 600S.

Innovative Answers to Challenges People Face

However, technical innovation was only part of our founder's vision. He also developed a sense of corporate social responsibility that is talked about a great deal today, but was almost unheard of fifty years ago. Essentially, he recognized that his ambitions would touch the lives of thousands and then millions of people in countries and communities around the world. He made an early and genuine commitment to social and environmental sustainability in every aspect of Ricoh's business activities.

Today we are a global company, but still hold true to our origins and the visions of our founder. To understand Ricoh is to recognize the twin visions of Kiyoshi Ichimura: to innovate on behalf of our customers; to pursue sustainable business practices on behalf of every life we touch.

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