Japan's history of paint dates back to ancient times, the best-known example being traditional lacquer. The use of Western paint began in 1881, when Moteki brothers, Haruta and Jujiro, succeeded in producing zinc oxide and developing an original paste-type paint. With the efforts of Heikichi Nakagawa, chief paint engineer of the Imperial Navy, the brothers founded Komyosha. The company was incorporated and renamed Nippon Paint in 1898, marking the birth of a full-scale modern paint industry in Japan. Nippon Paint has led the industry ever since, conducting R&D, accumulating technical expertise, and supplying excellent paint products and coating systems for broad uses in all fields.
Drawing on its wealth of paint technologies, Nippon Paint continues to diversify, expanding into new business fields such as fine chemicals and electronics.
The Nippon Paint Company Museum, on the first floor of our head office building, replicates this history with a collection of documents and artifacts. Visitors are invited to survey the past, experience the present, and glimpse the future of Nippon Paint's business activities as well as Japan's paint industry.