Victor Company of Japan (JVC)
1927...1971 timeline

A little remembered fact for starters: the Nippon Victor Phonograph Company was founded in Japan with northern-american funds issued by Victor USA in 1927, at the height of the stock-exchange madness and the economical evergreen everbody was so confident about. Yep.

Although almost everywhere known for various appliances, TVs and cheap audio, JVC was a major brand in Japan: first as a member of the industry -and a very old one at that- as well as for the quality of its audio components and turntables. Victor was absorbed in full by the Matsushita empire in 1963. Under the guidance of Kounosuke Matsushita, Victor remained free of developing its own products and market strategies. Matsushita only very recently freed JVC which suffered a gradually off-balance financial health because, well, mmmmm, well - apart from VHS, JVC didn't produce another market hit and VHS was in... 1976. Victor Company of Japan is now investigating a partial merger with Kenwood.

One of the main instigators of the QUAD adventure, along Sony, Victor collaborated with the latter on the U-Matic video standard and fought same on the VHS vs. Betamax war ! If Victor got a supreme victory on the consumer video market, Sony got a 60% market share on the whole of professional video - you can't win all, everything and all the time. Albeit a technically feeble format, VHS is undoubtedly Victor's biggest success, the digital variant of which, D-VHS, unfortunately came too late on the market to carry significant royalties income beyond the 1990s... Victor always was and still is very active in the music publishing field and organized many jazz festivals throughout the world.
Victor also served as OEM supplier for other audio and video brands but more about that later.

The timeline below comes from two rare 1971 USA catalogs ; I hope to be able to add the 1972...1992 segment soon, and a more precise one, too. The image above shows Victor's Yamato plant.

09/1927
Establishment as Nippon Victor Phonograph Company, Ltd. by capital investment from Victor USA.

12/1930
Completion of the Yokohama plant for phonographs and records

02/1938
Withdrawal of capital by RCA Victor

12/1945
Change of company name to the Victor Company of Japan

03/1953
Admiral Kichisaburo Nomura named president

08/1954
Completion of plant for LP and EP record production

09/1956
Development of 45/45 stereo records and players

04/1957
Development of electric organs

11/1957
Completion of plant for black&white TV production

06/1958
Development of VTR and color VTR

12/1958
Development of color Eidophor

05/1959
Development of echo unit for application to stereo

11/1959
Development of perfect pick-up for application to stereo

12/1959
Completion of Technical Research Institute in Yokohama

02/1963
Mr Matsushita and Mr Momose named chairman and president, respectively

03/1963
Development of panoramic speakers

10/1963
Completion of plant for stereo production

07/1964
First successful demonstration replacing actual sound by reproduced sound from tape

07/1965
the second "Victor Stereo Perfect Sound Festival"

10/1965
completion of the plant for special sound equipment and musical instruments

07/1966
the third "Victor Stereo Perfect Sound Festival"

10/1966
completion of the Iwai plant for production of color TVs

09/1967
Celebration of the brand's 40th anniversary
Completion of a plant for tape recorders

05/1968
Establishment of JVC America, Inc. as a fully owned subsidiary in New York

03/1969
Completion of the Maebashi plant for color television

06/1969
development of Video Cartridge Recorder

08/1969
Completion of the new recording studio

11/1969
Completion of the Kohriyama plant for speakers

08/1970
Completion of the Ohkurayama plant for radio

09/1970
development of CD-4 system, a 4-channel disc and reproducing unit

11/1970
Mr Momose and Mr Kitano named chairman and president, respectively

12/1970
Completion of the new Audio Engineering Research Center in Yamato

02/1971
Development of 4-channel Cassette tape and Recorder...