Japanese Word Processors

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 (first full-screen LCD display) and OASYS Lite F-ROM7 and F-ROM9 word processors with the first functions for communicating with personal computers.
1986/11 Fujitsu announced the OASYS 30AF (first full-screen LCD display) and OASYS Lite F-ROM7 and F-ROM9 word processors with the first functions for communicating with personal computers.
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.

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