Gallery
Description
Based in the city of Mitaka in western Tokyo, Mitaka Kohki Co.Ltd., is a small company specializing in high-precision measurement tools. Its creativity and ideas have enabled it to carve out a remarkable market share in micro- and macro-optical products, from the wide expanses of space to the most intricate of neurosurgical procedures.
Mitaka Kohki has just 50 employees, but despite its size the company is a major presence in the field of astronomical observational equipment. From its base next to the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan in the city of Mitaka, the company has developed a succession of innovative astronomical observation devices, culminating in the development of a special camera that was used by NASA onboard the Space Shuttle. Jovial company president Nakamura Katsushige (67) explains the company’s unique background.
“It all started before the war, when the Tokyo University observatory [the predecessor of today’s National Astronomical Observatory] relocated from Azabu to Mitaka,” Nakamura explains. “My father, a facilities administrator at the university, worked on acquiring the rights for the new observatory from the landowner. He had a gift for making things, and after the war he turned his talents to building and installing telescopes and other precision equipment at the observatory. My father passed away during my first year at an industrial high school in Tokyo—but his example inspired my elder brother and me to start Mitaka Kohki. My brother became the first president of the company. Like me, my brother had honed his skills at the Mitaka observatory. Together, we carried on our father’s work, making astronomical telescopes and equipment for use in spacecraft.”
Since its beginnings in 1966, the company has worked on an astonishing array of advanced technical equipment, including observation and measurement devices for research ships in Antarctica, solar observation devices for the University of Tokyo Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, and observation equipment used on space rockets. Perhaps the company’s crowning achievement so far came when one of its cameras was used on the NASA Space Shuttle. Mitaka Kohki has an outstanding reputation as a small company producing limited-order, high-tech devices tailor-made for clients including universities, research laboratories, and leading companies in Japan and around the world.
Mitaka Kohki has just 50 employees, but despite its size the company is a major presence in the field of astronomical observational equipment. From its base next to the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan in the city of Mitaka, the company has developed a succession of innovative astronomical observation devices, culminating in the development of a special camera that was used by NASA onboard the Space Shuttle. Jovial company president Nakamura Katsushige (67) explains the company’s unique background.
“It all started before the war, when the Tokyo University observatory [the predecessor of today’s National Astronomical Observatory] relocated from Azabu to Mitaka,” Nakamura explains. “My father, a facilities administrator at the university, worked on acquiring the rights for the new observatory from the landowner. He had a gift for making things, and after the war he turned his talents to building and installing telescopes and other precision equipment at the observatory. My father passed away during my first year at an industrial high school in Tokyo—but his example inspired my elder brother and me to start Mitaka Kohki. My brother became the first president of the company. Like me, my brother had honed his skills at the Mitaka observatory. Together, we carried on our father’s work, making astronomical telescopes and equipment for use in spacecraft.”
Since its beginnings in 1966, the company has worked on an astonishing array of advanced technical equipment, including observation and measurement devices for research ships in Antarctica, solar observation devices for the University of Tokyo Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, and observation equipment used on space rockets. Perhaps the company’s crowning achievement so far came when one of its cameras was used on the NASA Space Shuttle. Mitaka Kohki has an outstanding reputation as a small company producing limited-order, high-tech devices tailor-made for clients including universities, research laboratories, and leading companies in Japan and around the world.