In 1917, Japan was in the midst of an unprecedented economic boom. The shipping and shipbuilding industries, in particular, achieved significant development, and Japan grew into the world’s third-largest maritime power after the U.K. and the U.S. However, the development of domestic hull coatings did not keep pace with this progress, and Japan relied heavily on imported products. As these events unfolded, our predecessor, China Chemical Industry Limited Partnership, was born in Hiroshima City. The founder, Iwao Suzukawa, put his skills as an engineer to work toward his goal of developing excellent domestic hull coatings. The company got off to a smooth start through such initiatives as acquiring patents for oil-based hull coatings in Japan, the U.S., and the U.K. shortly after the founding.

In recognition of their high quality, our coatings were exhibited at the Hiroshima Prefectural Commercial Exhibition Hall (later the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall) as representative industrial products of Hiroshima.
The exhibition hall was later devastated by the atomic bomb. It still exists today, as the “Atomic Bomb Dome.” Our products remained on display there until the time of the bombing.

In 1929, we deployed equipment such as an electrolysis bath and started in-house production of high performance cuprous oxide, which is used as a biocide. We also actively promoted the in-house production of raw materials, including the manufacturing of Novolac phenolic resin and iron oxide pigment (red iron oxide).

President Suzukawa took part in an observational study tour of Europe sponsored by a newspaper company in 1930. During the tour, he took an interest in an oxygen generator in Germany and urea resin in France, purchased the rights for a large fee, and advanced research on these after returning to Japan.

The resin developed through the research on urea resin was marketed under the name “Organic Glass / PRISSLITE” by Toyo Gosei Kagaku Kogyo K.K., a company established exclusively for this product. “PRISSLITE” was used for ornaments and other items due to its beauty and ease of processing, but when the war began, the company voluntarily suspended its sales of decorative objects, and Toyo Gosei Kagaku Kogyo was merged into our company.

President Suzukawa, who had been developing an air purifier since immediately after the founding, accelerated his research after seeing an oxygen generator in Germany during his observational study tour of Europe, and developed a unique oxygen generator. After being launched as a product, its applications were expanded to treating wounded soldiers and use with aircraft, and it became our main product toward the end of the war when the construction of naval vessels stagnated.

Our company had been continuing to develop various products other than hull coatings, but under the government’s industrial control policies that began just before the Pacific War, we were initially targeted for abolition due to insufficient manufacturing capacity. As a result, our company was allowed to survive, albeit just barely and under the pretext of being a dedicated factory for hull coatings. Nevertheless, 305 coating manufacturing factories in Japan were abolished due to this factory consolidation, leaving only 106.