【Fujitsu】 The Japanese Language Information System JEF

The Japanese Language Information System JEF (Japanese processing Extended Feature) was announced by Fujitsu in April 1979. Previously, a special-purpose system was required for processing Chinese characters, but by adding JEF to an existing system, it became possible to create Japanese language processing for a mix of Chinese characters and kana. This feature was highly valued by the market. This was truly the beginning of the computer age for the Japanese. Products offered with JEF support included Japanese line printers, Japanese displays and Japanese data entry systems, which exploited semi-conductor technology to keep price a maximum of 20% higher than previous systems. JEF had a comprehensive range of software, with OS support, and was used in everything from ultra-large systems to office computers and terminals. JEF went beyond the boundaries of just simple Chinese character processing, with its illustration and graphing functions, and was highly evaluated for its user-oriented system development, ease-of-use, high performance and low price. It sparked a sudden boom in Japanese language processing systems, and competitors followed Fujitsu's lead.
In February of 1983, JEF was enhanced to JEFII, with integrated document processing, image processing and audio processing. This made it possible to commercialize products such as Japanese displays with document and image processing capabilities, and Japanese printers capable of graph and image output.