JustSystems
Encyclopedia
is a major Japan
ese software development house. The company is also known as "JustSystem." Its main products are Ichitaro
(roughly "JohnnyOne"), a word processor, and Hanako, a graphics package that remains competitive in the Japanese market, despite strong and controversial competitive pressures from Microsoft
in the 1990s.
JustSystems is based in Tokushima
, the capital city
of Tokushima Prefecture
on Shikoku island of Japan
. Its early success was founded on its development of one of the first input methods for Japanese
, allowing QWERTY
keyboards to be conveniently used to enter Kanji
characters. Its input method editor ATOK
is recognized as one of the most accurate and reliable Japanese IME
s. In recent years it has been active in Java
- and XML
-themed technology development. JustSystems is the only Japanese company participating in the Unicode
Consortium as a full member.
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese software development house. The company is also known as "JustSystem." Its main products are Ichitaro
Ichitaro
is a Japanese word processor produced by JustSystems, a Japanese software company. Ichitaro occupies the second share in Japanese word-processing software, behind Microsoft Word. It is one of the main products of the company. Its proprietary file extension is ".JTD"...
(roughly "JohnnyOne"), a word processor, and Hanako, a graphics package that remains competitive in the Japanese market, despite strong and controversial competitive pressures from Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
in the 1990s.
JustSystems is based in Tokushima
Tokushima, Tokushima
is the capital city of Tokushima Prefecture on Shikoku island in Japan.As of May 1, 2011, the city had an estimated population of 263,372, with 114,325 households, and a population density of 1,377.25 persons per km². Its total area is 191.23 km²....
, the capital city
Cities of Japan
||A is a local administrative unit in Japan. Cities are ranked on the same level as and , with the difference that they are not a component of...
of Tokushima Prefecture
Tokushima Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on Shikoku island. The capital is the city of Tokushima.- Tokushima Prefecture and Myodo Prefecture :Long ago, Tokushima City belonged to a region known as Myōdō-gun...
on Shikoku island of Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. Its early success was founded on its development of one of the first input methods for Japanese
Japanese input methods
Japanese input methods are the methods used to input Japanese characters on a computer.There are two main methods of inputting Japanese on computers. One is via a romanized version of Japanese called rōmaji , and the other is via keyboard keys corresponding to the Japanese kana...
, allowing QWERTY
QWERTY
QWERTY is the most common modern-day keyboard layout. The name comes from the first six letters appearing in the topleft letter row of the keyboard, read left to right: Q-W-E-R-T-Y. The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden typewriter and sold to Remington in the...
keyboards to be conveniently used to enter Kanji
Kanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
characters. Its input method editor ATOK
ATOK
ATOK is a Japanese input method editor produced by JustSystems, a Japanese software company.ATOK is an IME with roots from 1983 and DOS, but it now supports a large number of platforms including Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, Android, and iOS....
is recognized as one of the most accurate and reliable Japanese IME
Input method editor
An input method is an operating system component or program that allows any data, such as keyboard strokes or mouse movements, to be received as input. In this way users can enter characters and symbols not found on their input devices...
s. In recent years it has been active in Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
- and XML
Extensible Markup Language
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
-themed technology development. JustSystems is the only Japanese company participating in the Unicode
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
Consortium as a full member.
History
- JustSystems was founded in 1979 by Hatsuko and Kazunori Ukigawa and incorporated on June 2, 1981.
- In the mid 1990s JustSystems founded and supported Justsystem Pittsburgh Research CenterJustsystem Pittsburgh Research CenterAlso known as JPRC and Just Research, Justsystem Pittsburgh Research Center was a late-1990's computer science research laboratory in Pittsburgh, loosely associated with Carnegie Mellon University. Its director was Dr...
to benefit from computer science research at the nearby Carnegie Mellon UniversityCarnegie Mellon UniversityCarnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....
. In 1996, JustSystems bought a Carnegie-Mellon start-up called Claritech, currently called JustSystems Evans Research, Inc.(JSERI), directed by David EvansDavid Andreoff EvansDavid A. Evans is the president, CEO, and chief scientist of JustSystems Evans Research, Inc. . He is a prominent figure in the field of computational linguistics, best known for research on work in indexing using natural language processing, and in ontology learning, especially in medical...
, which still performs research for the company. - In 1997, the company became public following listing on the JASDAQ Securities ExchangeJASDAQ Securities ExchangeThe was a securities exchange headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, now the name of the market by the Osaka Securities Exchange in Kitahama, Osaka.JASDAQ is not related to NASDAQ in the United States, but operates an electronic trading system similar to NASDAQ.-History:...
. - In 2006, JustSystems purchased the XMetaLXMetaLXMetaL, or XMetaL Author, is a software application used for creating and editing documents in XML and SGML. It has some features common to word processors, but is a native XML editor that can be configured to work with various standard and custom DTDs and XML Schema...
XML authoring suite from Blast RadiusBlast radiusA blast radius is the distance from the source that will be affected when an explosion occurs. A blast radius is often associated with, but not limited to, bombs, mines, explosive projectiles , and other weapons with an explosive charge....
to complement its xfy XML development platform. - On June 23, 2006, the company changed its English name from "Justsystem Corporation" to "JustSystems Corporation."
- On April 3, 2009, the company announced that it would increase the capital by allocating new shares to Keyence CorporationKeyenceis a company which produces sensors, barcode readers, vision systems, measuring equipment and digital microscopes.-Global:Keyence Corporation is a global company with a network of 16 international organizations that specializes in factory automation...
. Effective on April 20, 2009, Keyence became the largest shareholder. - On October 29, 2009, the co-founders Kazunori Ukigawa and Hatsuko Ukigawa resigned as Chairman and Vice Chairman, respectively. They also resigned from the board.