Our Roots
The founding of Mitsue-Links in 1990 coincided with what some say was the dawn of the IT industry in that same year. Our company concept has been "handling new media confronting mass media," "concentrating on content that serves as an intermediary where people input information and then that input is transformed into output (action)," and "by doing so, enabling new communication between the company and individuals."
The origin of our name is an interesting story about who we are. "Mitsu," which means three in Japanese, stands for people, objects, and information, the three key components of our business. "Links" refers to the networking of these three components, while the "e" following "Mitsu" is an abbreviated pronunciation of the Chinese character for "prosperity," and it refers to our development along with society. Even as time passes by, the spirit embodied in our name remains the same and continues to serve as the rock steady backbone of our corporate culture.
The Course of History
Since the founding of our company, the environment surrounding our industry has transformed dramatically. Amid technological developments such as voice response systems, FAX information systems, PC-based telecommunications, the Internet, and broadband, Mitsue-Links has been quick to identify important trends, thereby enabling us to refine our technology in the field of content provision as well as commercialize and systematize associated peripheral functions through our proprietary techniques.
The most stunning jolt we received was Japan's connection to the Internet in 1993. Compared to the pre-Internet days, business has become overwhelmingly input-based, low-cost oriented, strikingly bidirectional, and globalized. Any one of these could easily be called an epoch-making development. Realizing that the Internet was a vital business area for us, we returned to our roots, launching research projects before anyone else in an effort to find out what exactly the Internet was and what it could do for our company and clients. From that point on, we have been building up our capabilities by selecting ability over fame.
Future Development
From 1999 to 2004, Mitsue-Links has transformed itself into one of the top Japanese companies both at home and abroad in terms of compliance to international standards for process management. We were the first in Japan to comply with three of the standards, and later, the first in the industry to comply with all of them. Furthermore, our transformation into a company possessing superior operational know-how by building our own unique and creative organizational structure and constructing an in-house information system is considered to be of major significance for our future development. From here on, while valuing our organizational foundation, we would go forward undauntedly to assist our client companies to achieve 'Maximizing value', 'Maximizing opportunities', and 'Expanding reliability.
Based on everything we have accomplished thus far, Mitsue-Links now stands at the threshold of initiating its strategy for overseas markets.
| 1990 | 7 | Mitsueilinks Co, Ltd. founded (2 million yen capital) |
| 1991 | 3 | Business office moved |
| 5 | Audio recording studio opened | |
| 1992 | 4 | Capital increased to 6 million yen |
| 6 | Participated in International Audio Systems Exhibition | |
| 7 | Capital increased to 10.5 million yen | |
| 8 | Digital audio recording studio opened | |
| 1993 | 9 | Business office expanded |
| 1994 | 11 | Internet Business Preparatory Office opened |
| 1995 | 3 | Web Design Department created on the Internet |
| 7 | Company name changed from Mitsueilinks to Mitsue-Links | |
| 8 | Business office moved | |
| 11 | System (program development) business launched on the Internet | |
| 1997 | 7 | Capital increased to 15 million yen |
| 1998 | 4 | Capital increased to 20 million yen |
| 5 | Business office expanded | |
| 9 | Capital increased to 30 million yen | |
| 9 | Outsourcing Division expanded | |
| 1999 | 5 | Streaming content (video delivery) production service launched |
| 7 | Business office expanded | |
| 9 | Capital increased to 35 million yen | |
| 2000 | 3 | ISO 9001 (Quality Management System) certification acquired, an industry first |
| 3 | Business office expanded | |
| 8 | Contribution to Japanese Red Cross Society started to commemorate 10-year anniversary since company's founding | |
| 10 | Capital increased to 45 million yen | |
| 12 | New personnel system comprised of process-based salary, MBO-based salary, and results-based salary developed (MBO: Management by objectives) | |
| 2001 | 1 | ISO14001 (Environmental Management) certification acquired, an industry first |
| 5 | New business office opened with launch of IT operations service | |
| 9 | Self-declaration of conformance with JIS Z 9920 (Complaints Handling Standard), a first in Japan | |
| 9 | BS7799 (Information Security in the U.K.) certification acquired, a first in Japan | |
| 2002 | 2 | Six sigma introduced as a problem-solving technique (Start of in-house training) |
| 3 | Capital increased to 60 million yen | |
| 5 | Business office expanded | |
| 8 | ISMS (Information Security Management System) certification acquired | |
| 11 | Self-declaration of conformance with ECS2000 (Ethics Compliance Standard), a first in Japan | |
| 2003 | 3 | Capital increased to 75 million yen |
| 7 | Privacy Mark System certification acquired | |
| 2004 | 4 | Registration as W3C member |
| 6 | Business office expanded | |
| 8 | World's first declaration of voluntary compliance with ISO10002, the international standard for complaints handling management systems | |
| 10 |
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| 2005 | 3 | Capital increased to 99.8 million yen |
| 8 | Business office moved | |
| 10 | Studio moved | |
| 2006 | 7 | Business office expanded |
| 2007 | 4 | Business office expanded |
| 2008 | 1 | Business office expanded |
