Japanese Word Processors

Published on Dec. 6, 2007
Last updated on Sep. 4, 2023

Brief History｜ Exhibits｜

year/month Timeline
1977/05 Sharp developed the industry's first Japanese language word processor prototype .
1978/09 Toshiba announced the JW-10, the first Japanese language word processor.
1979/05 Oki Electric announced the OKI WORD EDITOR-200 Japanese electronic typewriter.
1979/09 Sharp announced the Shoin WD-3000 with the industry's first tablet type entry method.
1980/05 Fujitsu announced the company's first thumb shift keyboard.
1980/05 Fujitsu announced a Japanese electronic typewriter with the company's first thumb shift keyboard (The name OASYS 100 was publicly called for suggestions and selected).
1980/05 NEC announced the NWP-20, the company's first standalone sentence processing dedicated Japanese word processor.
1980/05 Oki Electric announced the Lettermate 80 Japanese electronic typewriter.
1981/05 Hitachi announced the BW-20 (Nickname WordPal 20) as the company's first Japanese word processor.
1982/01 Sharp announced the WD-1000, the first compact word processor in the industry.
1982/02 Oki Electric announced the Lettermate800 Japanese word processor with improved communication and graphing functions.
1982/05 Hitachi announced the BW-10 with innovative components and style that was low-priced and popular.
1982/05 Fujitsu announced the My OASYS, the first Japanese word processor below 1 million yen.
1982/10 NEC announced the VWP-100 Series of voice word processors.
1982/11 Fujitsu announced the OASYS 100G business word processor with an A4 size full screen display.
1982/11 Toshiba announced the TOSWORD JW-1 desktop all-in-one Japanese word processors with a 40 character x 2 line display.
1983/01 Sharp announced the WD-2400 true business word processor.
1983/03 NEC announced a new entry method for Japanese word processors .
1983/05 Hitachi announced the BW-30, a multifunction word processor that is the top of the line machine in the WordPal series and that can create technical documents.
1983/05 Oki Electric announced the Lettermate85 kana to kanji conversion high-performance Japanese word processor that is compact and low-priced.
1983/12 Toshiba announced the TOSWORD JW-7D, the company's first desktop Japanese word processor with a built-in hard disk drive.
1984/03 NEC announced the PWP-100 personal word processor with an M style keyboard.
1984/05 Oki Electric announced the Lettermate8 carrying type Japanese word processor.
1984/05 Fujitsu announced the company's first OASYS Lite (portable type) personal word processor.
1985/05 Casio announced the HW-100 personal Japanese word processor.
1985/05 Sony announced the HW-30 personal word processor, the company's first Japanese word processor.
1985/07 Toshiba announced the JW-R10, the first in the Rupo Series.
1985/07 Toshiba announced the TOSWORD JW-8DII, a Japanese word processor with a function for converting entire sentences.
1985/09 Fujitsu announced the OASYS Lite F, a true personal word processor with a built-in 40 character x 5 line LCD display.
1985/10 NEC announced the Bungomini3, Bungomini5, and Bungomini7i (M type) with sentence conversion and 24-dot printing.
1985/11 Toshiba announced the Rupo JW-50F Japanese word processor with a built-in 3.5 inch floppy disk drive.
1985/12 Fujitsu announced the OASYS 100R Japanese word processor equipped with personal computer functions.
1986/05 Sony announced the HW-80 personal word processor with a display.
1986/11 Hitachi announced the BW-150 all-in-one word processor in which the keyboard and printer are stored in the unit body to save space.
1986/11 Fujitsu announced the OASYS 30AF, the first word processor equipped with a personal computer communication function and the full-screen LCD.
1986/11 At the same time as the OASYS 30AF, Fujitsu announced the OASYS Lite F-ROM7/F-ROM9, a word processor equipped with a PC communication function for the first time and a tilt-type large LCD screen.
1987/02 Hitachi announced the WordPal Super 1000 with built-in desktop publishing (DTP) functions to achieve an integrated Japanese word processor.
1987/05 Sharp announced the WD-540 personal word processor.
1987/08 Sony announced the PJ-100 portable word processor equipped with the industry first 2-inch floppy disk drive.
1987/08 Toshiba announced the Rupo JW-90F Japanese word processor with a built-in 40 character x 20 line LCD display.
1987/10 NEC announced 4 machines including the mini7H with the first 48-dot printer used for a personal word processor.
1988/02 Toshiba announced the TOSWORD JW-1000AI Japanese word processor with an artificial intelligence (AI) writing polishing function.
1988/05 Casio announced the HW-7 handy word processor, which can print anywhere.
1988/07 Sharp announced the WV-500 A4 size notebook word processor.
1988/10 NEC sells the Bungo 3VIIEX and Bungo 3MII (M type) with AI functions for automatic kana to kanji conversion.
1989/02 Sony announced the PJ-1000 portable word processor with spreadsheet, graphing, and communication functions.
1989/03 Fujitsu announced the OASYS 30LX, the first laptop personal word processor in Fujitsu.
1989/05 Hitachi announced the BW-LF500, a transportable desktop word processor with business level functions.
1989/05 NEC announced the Bungo mini7HR with the first full A4 page size 12-inch vertical display in a personal word processor, and the Bungo mini5HD, a laptop model with a 40 character x 22 line LCD display.
1989/10 Fujitsu announced the OASYS 30AD, the first notebook type personal word processorin Fujitsu .
1989/10 NEC announced the Bungo mini5CARRYWORDEX, an A4 size notebook type word processor.
1990/02 Toshiba announced the DTP-7000 with desktop publishing functions.
1990/02 NEC announced the Bungo mini5RD with a large backlit 40 character x 22 line black and white LCD display.
1990/06 Toshiba announced the TOSWORD JW-830AI, a Japanese word processor equipped with AI and the V2 association dictionary.
1990/06 Sharp announced the WD-A340, a personal word processor.
1990/11 Hitachi announced the " with me BP-10 ", a compact A4 file size personal word processor.
1991/01 Hitachi announced the BW-TH910 / LH910 business word processors that featured enhanced functions for printing pre-printed forms, real-time displays, and an internal hard drive
1991/02 NEC announced the Bungo mini 5RC with a built-in auto-feeding print mechanism
1991/03 Fujitsu announced the ultra-compact, ultra-light OASYS Pocket word processor
1991/05 Toshiba began selling the Rupo JW98UP, a personal word processor equipped with Lotus 1-2-3
1991/06 NEC announced the Bungo Hyper 7, a compact, space-saving business word processor
1991/09 Hitachi announced the with me BF-1 personal word processor with a separate printer that at just 1.8 kg and 29.7 millimeters thick was one of the lightest and most compact word processors in the industry
1991/10 NEC announced three new models, including the Bungo mini 5SX, with high-speed document printing in Heisei typefaces
1991/11 Toshiba announced the Rupo JW95HV with a three-line printer
1992/02 NEC announced the Bungo mini 5Si notebook-sized personal word processor
1992/10 NEC announced five new personal word processor models, including the Bungo mini 5SH, that made it easy to create color-by-number pictures and many other types of printed materials
1992/11 Hitachi announced the BW-LH550 word processor, the first laptop word processor with an internal hard drive and running an 80C286 CPU for quick processing speeds
1992/11 Hitachi announced the with me BF-20L, a laptop-sized personal word processor with a 640 x 400 pixel LCD screen and a built-in printer
1993/07 Toshiba rolled out the Rupo JW04N notebook-sized word processor
1993/09 Toshiba rolled out the Rupo JWR1, the Rupo seriesﾕ entry-level model
1993/10 Hitachi announced the with me BF-60 personal word processor that came with a function to modify the shape of characters and an enhanced dictionary function powered by a ROM-based Japanese dictionary
1993/12 Hitachi announced the BW-TH960M business word processor with a mouse and convenient DTP functions and an original form-maker feature
1994/05 Fujitsu announced the OASYS 30-AP101, the first personal word processor with a built-in hard drive
1994/07 Fujitsu announced the OASYS 5000G series, a total document system
1994/07 Hitachi announced the with me PRO LN560M personal word processor that featured computer data importing, document management, support for LAN systems, and simplified mouse-driven graphics functions
1994/09 NEC announced four personal word processors, including the Bungo mini 5ZV, with a video input function
1994/10 Fujitsu announced the OASYS LX-3000 series, the first word processor to feature a touch-sensitive screen
1994/11 Toshiba launched the Rupo JW06H word processor with a standard PC card slot
1994/12 Fujitsu announced the OASYS V series of AT-compatible word processors that ran Windows 3.1
1995/02 Hitachi announced the with me BF-220, a personal word processor with a color LCD screen and connectivity with color inkjet printers
1995/07 Hitachi announced the BW-TH970M business word processor with an OCR system for more efficient re-entry of data and a form image print function that took advantage of the word processor’s support of 400 dpi image scanning
1995/09 NEC announced the Wen Hua 5SV Chinese-language word processor
1995/10 NEC announced five new models, including the JX5300AC, designed around the concept of realizing rich document expressions in a comfortable operating environment
1995/10 Fujitsu announced the OASYS LX-3500CT, the first word processor with a built-in 16.7-million-color scanner
1995/11 Toshiba rolled out the Rupo JW-V700, the first word processor with an English-Japanese translation function
1996/01 Toshiba launched the Rupo WPC5000, a word processor computer running Windows 3.1
1996/04 Toshiba launched the Rupo JW-V610, the first word processor with Internet connectivity
1996/06 Toshiba rolled out the TOSWORD JW-3550, 3570, and 3580 word processors with a built-in Japanese dictionary
1996/06 Hitachi announced the with me PC WPC120 personal word processor that ran either the word processor operating system or Windows 95 and was able to edit both word processor documents and computer documents
1996/10 NEC announced the JX70MA and JX50MA with an array of multimedia functions, such as color copying and Internet and fax communications, in addition to paper-document printing
1996/10 Hitachi announced the with me BF-240 personal word processor with support for the new seven-digit postal codes, a color DSTN LCD screen, and a color bubble-jet printer
1997/01 Toshiba launched the Rupo JW-V850 word processor with an internal 33.6 Kbps modem
1997/05 Fujitsu announced the OASYS Mariott plus multifunctional personal word processor with Internet functionality and digital camera and scanner connectivity
1997/07 Hitachi announced the BW-CH700P business word processor with a Pentium CPU, an 8x CD-ROM drive, PC card slots, and Internet capability
1997/10 NEC announced the JX-S700 and the JX-S500 super multimedia word processors centered on simplicity, comfort, and security
1998/10 NEC announced the JX-A500 in October, followed by the JX-A300 in November and the JX-A200 in January 1999, that were developed to create a better user experience
1999/09 NEC announced the JX-750, the final model in the Bungo series
1999/11 Toshiba launched the Rupo JW-G7000, the companyﾕs final Japanese word processor

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