IBM’s plant in Fujisawa, Japan, began operating
and was officially dedicated in 1967. Initially,
the facility produced the IBM 029 card punch,
IBM 059 card verifier, IBM 083 sorter and IBM
3912 Model 10 paper tape read-punch (which was
developed in Japan). The plant also manufactured
the IBM System/360 Model 20 and Model 40 processors
for customers inside and beyond Japan. By 1971,
Fujisawa was manufacturing the IBM System/360,
IBM System/370 (seen here) and IBM System/3 computers,
as well as banking and other terminals, and punched
card equipment. In 1978, the plant began shipping
IBM 3000-series processors to customers in the
Far East.
In the late-1970s, a development laboratory in Fujisawa was responsible for communication products and systems, and products to meet the unique requirements of Japan and other countries in the Far East (for example, banking terminals and systems that process information in national languages). At the same time, the plant was manufacturing disk files and controllers, distributed processors, communications terminals, multiplexors, industry systems, system printers and tape drives.
In 1986, Fujisawa was one of four IBM plants manufacturing the company’s midrange System/36. Five years later, the Fujisawa facility was producing IBM personal computer and workstation products as one of seven manufacturing sites around the world supporting IBM’s Personal Systems line of business. At the same time, the plant was also turning out IBM storage products. (VV8001)