Furukawa Electric Review No.55A Logbook Across the Ocean of Electrons
A Story of Material Technology in Furukawa Electric: Now and Then

Toru Fukushima

We commercialized copper wire cables through the refining of pure copper at the dawn of the Meiji era. We have been deeply involved in the modernization of Japan, helping to develop power cable networks, to popularize motors and generators, and to expand telephone and telegraph networks.
These origins of our founder’s business generated the driving force for the industry development and became one of the sources for social contributions, which the company should make, while lighting up the city with safe electric lights, and encouraging interactions among people beyond time and space. Since then, we have been proposing the world a variety of material, which was derived from our founder’s business, and have started the beginning of a new information society, for example, by adding optical fibers and semiconductor lasers to material technologies.
On the other hand, the climate warming and its resulting large-scale natural disasters are becoming a new threat to our planet. In the search for effective and permanent means, attempts to realize a fusion power generation as soon as possible are increasing. The material that supports this is superconducting wires, which we have cultivated over many years. We will continue to pursue material technologies to make a new contribution to the society.
In this article, I would like to describe about our “Now and Then”, starting with our exploration of copper materials, and aiming to commercialize new materials such as superconductors.