DIGI's 100thAnniversary
A Messageof Gratitude from DIGI
A Messageof Gratitude from DIGI
"Show gratitude.
We can do it!
Let’s create what others cannot."
Since our founding in 1925,
we have been honored by the enduring
support of our customers and partners.
In 2025, Teraoka Seiko celebrates its 100th anniversary.
We offer our heartfelt thanks.
From the development and sale of the world’s first
multi-rotation automatic commercial scale,
our company has, over a century,
grown into a global provider of
solutions across retail industry, food industry,
logistics, and hospitality,
supported by service & cloud offerings—
conducting business in roughly 150 countries and regions worldwide.
Guided by our company philosophy—
“Show gratitude. We can do it!
Let’s create what others cannot.”
—we present a story of challenges that has
constantly created new standards,
together with our renewed commitment for the future.
100 Years ofDIGI's History
100 Years ofDIGI's History
1900s
The early 1900s.
It all began with the pioneer spirit of
Toyoharu Teraoka.
Toyoharu Teraoka—who would later become the company’s first president—declared that “Japan is destined to take the path of an industrial nation,” and in 1906 traveled to the United States to study mechanical engineering at Los Angeles Polytechnic High School.
Fueled by a strong pioneer spirit, he returned to Japan in 1912 and immediately founded a company. Drawing on the mechanical-engineering knowledge he had gained in America, he developed and marketed Japan’s first register-type calculator.
Calculators were virtually unknown at the time. In a society bound by old conventions, even genuinely valuable ideas were not readily accepted.
1910s
Each venture was unsuccessful.
But Toyoharu never lost hope.
“Above the clouds the sun still shines.”
In addition to calculators, he set out to develop a character-display clock, manufacture rickshaw meters, operate a bus line to Mt. Fuji, and manage a company that built homes on monthly installment plans. None of these ventures succeeded. Yet fond of the phrase “above the clouds the sun still shines,” Toyoharu kept hope alive and continued to pursue new endeavors.
At this juncture, scales caught his eye. The scales then in use had made almost no mechanical progress beyond the beam balance invented in Roman times.
1920s
Praised for ease of use,
the Teraoka Automatic Spring Scale
became the new standard in weighing.
“If there were a more accurate, easier-to-use scale, people would surely welcome its convenience.” Anticipating both technological innovation and the delight it would bring to users, Toyoharu applied spring principles to create a multi-rotation automatic scale with a pointer indicator. In 1925, he developed “Binkan,” the world’s first automatic spring scale (multi-revolution model) , marking the start of the company’s journey. From 1928 onward, patents were granted in Japan, the UK, the U.S., and France. That same year, the product received the Gold Cup at the Kanshin Exposition for the Promotion of Domestic Industry, and its performance won wide acclaim.
Because the scale was expensive, some scoffed, “Who would ever use such a product?” To lower the price barrier for food retailers—businesses that operated on daily earnings—Toyoharu introduced a groundbreaking daily-installment payment plan and created mechanisms that let customers put the product to work immediately.
As retailers experienced an unprecedented level of usability, word of mouth spread rapidly, and the Binkan quickly became the new standard in weighing.
1930s
Good fortune often invites setbacks.
Disheartened by the board’s reversal,
Toyoharu left the company.
After Toyoharu became president in 1928, Asahi Scale Works grew rapidly and the scale business flourished. Yet, as the saying goes, good fortune invites setbacks: internal strife erupted. The board, rejecting the president’s policy, decided to lower prices and expand sales rather than insist on precision
Disheartened by this reversal, Toyoharu resigned in 1936 and sold all his shares.
1930s
Mass production of household scales
begins. Takeharu Teraoka establishes
Teraoka Seikosho.
Appoints his father as its first president.
Toyoharu’s eldest son, Takeharu Teraoka, had founded the Teraoka Research Center in 1934, starting in a modest 17-square-meter, single-story building.
Although the Teraoka Sensitive Automatic Scale continued to sell briskly, Toyoharu had noticed one weakness: spring error caused by temperature changes.
At his father’s suggestion to research materials that could prevent such error, Takeharu applied the principle of bimetals to the mechanism, devising a temperature-compensation device and securing a utility model patent.
In 1938, after completing a mass-production plant for household scales equipped with this device, Takeharu established Teraoka Seikosho and welcomed his father as its first president.
1940s
Bridging the business with
micrometers, with scale production
resuming in 1946.
Scale production became extremely difficult after the start of WWII, so the company focused on R&D for micrometers requiring advanced techniques. In 1940, it completed a precision comparator capable of measurements to one-thousandth of a millimeter and in 1942 produced the Teraoka ultra-micro length gauge capable of measurements to one-ten-thousandth of a millimeter. These instruments received high praise at the Precision Instruments Exhibition held in Ueno, Tokyo, in October 1941.
Following the end of the war in 1945, full-scale production of scales resumed in 1946.
1950s
Challenges beyond scales.
Writing a chapter in camera history—
followed by a measured exit.
In 1951, five years after fully resuming production, Teraoka launched Japan’s first mechanical pricing scale. The product was named the Neon due to its neon-tube internal illumination, and was also the first to adopt a temperature-insensitive spring—an innovative product for its time.
The company’s challenges extended beyond scales. In 1954, it released AutoTera, Japan’s first 35 mm auto-winding camera. At the time, it was the only camera capable of both continuous and rapid shooting, winning strong support from professional photographers and even special orders from the Metropolitan Police Department.
However, the sales network could not be built out quickly enough. After a decade—having achieved notable but limited results—the company withdrew from the camera business.
1960s
Japan’s first fully electric automatic door
began with a new challenge—
another pioneering story.
The company moved into new territory in 1962, when Teraoka Seikosho entered the automatic door business.
On a study tour of Europe and the U.S. in the 1950s, Takeharu noticed that even supermarkets were using automatic doors. In Japan, by contrast, such doors were limited to places like hotels and banks.
Convinced that a compact, affordable automatic door would meet strong demand, he quickly set R&D in motion.
The first unit was completed in 1960—the first fully electric automatic door in Japan. Although the company had to manage everything from manufacturing to sales, the tailwind of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics helped the business grow steadily. Sales channels expanded nationwide, and exports to the Netherlands demonstrated recognition overseas.
Today, as a separate company, Teraoka Autodoor holds about a 25% share of Japan’s automatic door market.
1960s
Multiple challenges clarified
that the weighing business
was the company’s true core.
From cameras to automatic doors, the company pursued many challenges, but by the 1960s it had become clear that weighing for the retail sector would remain its core competency.
Looking back to 1959: Japan unified its metrology system under the Measurement Act, standardizing weight units from monme to grams. This shift required the replacement of scales used in retail and other fields, creating extraordinary demand for weighing instruments.
To seize this opportunity and strengthen the recognition of “The Teraoka of Scales,” the company commissioned celebrated industrial designer Sori Yanagi. The result was the Pearl pan scale.
Combining ergonomic operability with refined aesthetics, the Pearl became the first in the industry to win a Good Design Award. Its mere presence on the store counter became a status symbol for retailers, solidifying Teraoka Seikosho’s position as industry leader.
1970s
A rare pause left the company a latecomer.
Eight years later, DIGI arrived.
In 1973, the DIGI electronic price computing scale took the market by storm.
In fact, eight years earlier in 1965, Teraoka Seikosho had succeeded in developing the world’s first electronic price computing scale. But with a unit cost of about 2 million yen—roughly 90 months of a new graduate’s starting salary—commercialization was shelved. It was the first time since the company’s founding that it paused instead of launching boldly ahead.
That decision left the company a latecomer. Competition intensified as not only scale makers but also consumer-electronics manufacturers with no prior connection to weighing entered the market. Soon more than a dozen models crowded the field.
Into this harsh environment came DIGI. Pursuing usability through meticulous research and equipped with a proprietary dedicated LSI, DIGI transformed scales from “tools for measuring weight” into “tools that support management.” It restored the company’s share to an industry-leading 30%, then propelled it to a dominant 50%.
DIGI’s success was not limited to Japan; it became a global hit. Opening doors to the world, the DIGI name took root as the company’s global brand—where it remains today.
1970s
Leveraging weighing technology,
the company advanced into new growth fields
in manufacturing and logistics.
In the 1970s, the company also set its sights on industrial fields moving toward factory automation—areas where its weighing technology could shine.
To meet demand for automating control of parts and processes, in 1972 it developed the DC-1000 digital counting scale, applying technology from the electronic price computing scale, Han-ei. Using calculation, the scale instantly displayed totals and counts based on gross and unit weight. The following year’s DC-3000 adopted a load cell to achieve a world-first resolution of 1/250,000, becoming a hit product.
Counting scales opened the door to industrial weighing, which demands far higher precision than commercial scales. Building on this, the company introduced the DIGI COMPO, which componentized digital platforms and indicators, and the MATEX series, which systematized inventory and parts control—delivering innovative solutions to manufacturers and logistics operators seeking efficiency and accuracy.
1980s
A company-defining wager.
Aiming to be the only full-line
manufacturer, the company entered
the POS market.
In 1981, the company changed its name from Teraoka Seikosho to Teraoka Seiko. Four years later, under the leadership of Kazuharu Teraoka—who became president in 1985—it embarked on a bold, company-defining initiative: entry into the POS market.
Having already handled barcode printers as cash-wrap peripherals, developing POS systems was a natural progression and an inevitable choice. Although more than twenty major manufacturers crowded this fiercely competitive field, Kazuharu’s resolve was firm: “If we lose our spirit of challenge, we lose our reason to exist. Nothing stirs that spirit more than entering the POS arena.”
In 1984, the company released the SUPER-M3000. True to its tagline—“Analyze the past, forecast tomorrow”—it incorporated software that analyzed past sales and programmed future sales plans. Adopting the industry’s first straight, face-to-face counter format, the SUPER-M3000 won immediate market support and steadily expanded the company’s POS share.
1980s
Born from the company’s
on-site mindset:
a new backroom standard.
In supermarket backrooms of the 1980s, weighing, wrapping, and labeling were still done individually by hand. With strengths in weighing and label-printing technologies, the company conceived of the idea of integrating these functions with a food tray packaging machine. And so, the world’s first automatic weigh-wrap-labeler, the AWW-2000 was born. Beyond improving efficiency, it also saved space and enhanced working conditions—becoming the new standard for backroom operations.
In the 1990s, the company invented Super Stretch Wrapping, a technology essential to the evolution of its packaging machines. By stretching film to fit the size of the item and enveloping it, this method made it possible to package trays of various dimensions—and even bare produce without trays. Through this innovation, the company gained a foothold in all fresh-food departments—meat, seafood, deli, and produce—further advancing supermarket backroom operations.
1980s
Capturing structural shifts in retail,
the company moved into
food industry—
and grew alongside the prepared-
meal market.
As retail pursued efficiency amid changing times and lifestyles, the 1980s saw multi-store expansion and a shift to consolidate fresh-food packaging (fish, meat, and the like) from in-store to dedicated processing centers.
Sensing this shift, the company developed the HI-6000, capable of high-speed weigh-price labeling at up to 100 packs per minute—its first step toward creating new standards in food industry.
By the 1990s, the prepared-meal market (takeout and delivery) was expanding, and convenience stores were growing rapidly. Leveraging its ahead-of-the-curve fixed-amount labeling system, the company provided early support to fresh-food and deli centers at supermarkets and to bento producers. As convenience stores expanded quickly, the number of supplier customers increased, and the company’s business in food industry scaled up rapidly.
1990s
From an export-led first globalization
to a second globalization where
everything is done locally.
Scales had once been considered unsuitable for international trade because measurement units and legal standards differed by country.
As digital pricing scales capable of instantly displaying price—regardless of unit—became widespread, scales evolved into truly international products. For the company, the DIGI brand that had taken Japan by storm also became a worldwide hit, and an export-centered first globalization blossomed in the 1970s.
The company then advanced to a second globalization with global localization at its core: not merely exporting products, but conducting marketing, development, manufacturing, and sales in key regions around the world.
From exports to local creation: as pillars of this second phase, the company opened bases in Singapore (1986), the UK (1989), and China (1993). Including Japan, a four-hub global structure was in place by the 1990s.
2000s
Solving workplace challenges.
Earning solid trust
from hospitality industry.
By the 2000s, restaurants and specialty stores faced fundamental workplace challenges: chronic labor shortages, inefficient workflows, and hygiene concerns.
True to its on-site mindset, the company recognized the opportunity to create new standards in this field and focused on dedicated systems and ticketing machines.
One such result was Delious, a cloud-based integrated system launched in 2006. By unifying data across the dining floor, kitchen, and head office, it dramatically improved store operations and was widely adopted by national chains—building firm trust for the company in the hospitality markets.
2010s
A cash register revolution for
supermarkets—
the Checkout Revolution.
In 2010, the company declared a Checkout Revolution—a revolution at the point of sale aimed at eliminating lines, easing labor shortages, and reducing the service burden at supermarkets.
Checkout Revolution 1.0 centered on semi-self-checkout: staff scan items; shoppers handle payment. Initially, supermarkets pushed back—“You can’t make customers handle payment themselves,” “Checkout is our one point of contact”—and adoption lagged: just two installations in the first year and ten the next.
Over a decade later, however, queue-free shopping through semi-self-checkout had become standard, and even full self-checkout—where shoppers both scan and pay—had become everyday reality in Japan. What was once unthinkable was now the norm.
2010s
Service & Cloud—
pursuing the creation of new standards.
In the 2010s, the company also accelerated its service & cloud initiatives. It fused services rooted in a long-cultivated on-site mindset with networked data management—advocated even before “cloud” became a common term—promoting one-stop deployment, operation, and management.
Examples include a 24-hour remote monitoring system that tracks system status and the Payoss cashless-payment service—both helping to advance business processes and drive DX on the front lines. Anticipating customer needs, the company continues to create new standards through distinctive service & cloud offerings.
2020s
New challenges toward a future
that excites—
Grow with Green.
Starting with scales and staying close to on-site realities, Teraoka Seiko has continued to shape the solutions each era needs—from automatic weigh-wrap-labelers and labeling systems to POS. Beyond evolving technologies lies a single, consistent aim: to solve real-world challenges and delight customers.
Building on environmental initiatives pursued through various products since the 1990s, in 2023 the company adopted a major business theme: Grow with Green. The phrase expresses a commitment to grow together with customers by solving the environmental and social issues they face.
The company’s SX solutions address challenges such as reducing CO₂ emissions, achieving zero waste, cutting food loss, and reducing plastic use. Its DX initiatives lighten the burden on workers. Together, these efforts drive business growth. With Grow with Green as its theme, the company continues to take on new challenges toward a future that excites customers.
Our Key Storiesof DIGI
Across 100 years of history,
our company has seen countless
challenges and
innovations.
The stories behind these encounters are
brought to life here through
manga.
Please enjoy seven episodes that
embody our company philosophy: “
Show gratitude We can do it!
Let’s create what others cannot.”
the Commercial Automatic Scale
That Became the New Standard:
— The Dawn of TERAOKA The Brilliance of a Pearl
Born from the Enthusiasm of
Two Men From the World's
First to an Industry Leader:
Our Wrapping Machine Journey The Birth of DIGI:
A Scale Embraced
by the World Four Innovations
Shared across
Four Global Bases Speed Is a Service:
Teraoka's Cash
Register Revolution Grow with Green:
Working toward a
Sustainable Future
DIGI’sBusiness Fields
TERAOKA/DIGI contributes to its customers’
businesses in four main business fields—
retail industry,
food industry, logistics, and hospitality—
all supported by Service & Cloud offerings.
To convey a real-world sense of our
activities, we present each field through manga.
Towardthe Next 100 Years
Towardthe Next 100 Years
For a Future Filled with Excitement
Our vision remains unchanged:
searching for a new balance.
We strive to break free from the
conventional wisdom of existing markets,
to forge new markets ourselves,
and to continually redefine what is considered standard.
We must always keep in mind that at the heart of this challenge is the
desire to excite our customers.
Our journey has no end.
For a future filled with excitement,
promise, and fulfillment,
we will continue moving forward—together with our customers.
