Follow the Tracks

The establishment of Asahi Kasei dates back to May 1931 at Nobeoka Ammonia Fiber Co., Ltd. In 1933, Japan Bemberg Fiber Co., Asahi Fabric Co., and Nobeoka Ammonia Fiber Co., merged, adopting the name Asahi Bemberg Fiber Co., Ltd., and this was the predecessor to today’s Asahi Kasei Corporation. The new company was Japan's largest Rayon manufacturer at the time, equipped with chemicals such as liquid ammonia, synthetic nitric acid, caustic soda, fertilizers such as ammonium sulfate, and private power generation in addition to man made fiber such as rayon and Bemberg®.

The head office was in Osaka, and the Tokyo office was opened in 1944, then Fukuoka (1945), Hokuriku (1950), Sapporo (1954) ,Nagoya (1957) and as well as others, and also the manufacturing site expanded from the 1960s to the 1970s continuously. Currently, the Asahi Kasei Group has offices all over Japan.
In January 2001, our company name was changed from Asahi Kasei Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. to Asahi Kasei Corp., centered on the operating holding company Asahi Kasei Corp. and Seven core operating companies, the Asahi Kasei Group operates in the three business sectors of Material, Homes, and Health Care.

The base of the United States, the New York office was put in March 1959, located on the 79th floor of the Empire State Building in Manhattan, New York. The staff was only six, the director, five expatriates, and one American secretary. They conducted market research, information gathering, and various marketing activities for textile products for the Americas. PCs and mobile phones, which are now almost everyone has them as commonplace work tools, haven't exist yet. They were extremely busy, because they had to cover the Americas with 5 people.

Asahi Kasei America, Inc. (AKA), established in Dec. 1971, is the North American Regional Headquarters of Asahi Kasei Group. The current Asahi Kasei America office is located on the 30th floor of a building facing 3rd Avenue between 49th and 50th Streets.

Asahi Kasei's first base in Latin America is Peru, founded a joint venture named Quimica Sol S.A. in 1968 and began producing industria explosive dynamite.
In the textile business, as a base for textile dyeing of acrylics in Central and South America, Industrias Acrilicas de Centro America S.A., in Guatemala in 1973, and Amitex Industria in Brazil in 1974 were started. Both companies have been selling to local manufacturers due to industry reorganization.

In 1966, Asahi Kasei put the Hong Kong office, locating on the 18th floor of a skyscraper overlooking Kowloon, in charge of the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Singapore. Asahi Kasei started Tai Shin Textile Industry(Taiwan) in 1968, made a capital participation of Tong Suh Petrochemical(Korea) in 1974 and in 1988 opened the Beijing Office.

Currently, Asahi Kasei (China) Co., Ltd., at Shanghai head office is the China regional headquarters ,and having branches in Beijing, Shenzhen, Jiading, Bao'an and Guangzhou.

In 1961, Asahi Kasei put an office at Bangkok, established a resident in Bangkok. It was around the time when International Telex was introduced in Osaka office. In the same year, Kagayaki Miyazaki was appointed as the president. In1969, the Jakarta office, and in 1972, a joint venture, P.T. Indonesia Asahi Kasei as a base for manufacturing and selling nylon 6 and spinning and dyeing acrylic fiber were established.

In 2013, Asahi Kasei Chemicals established PTT Asahi Chemical Co., Ltd. (PTTAC) started production of AN plant which is the world’s first propane-process plant. Asahi Kasei Asia Pacific Co., Ltd. has been started operation in Bangkok Thailand in 2019, as Asahi Kasei's regional headquarters for business in the ASEAN region.

It was about 40 years ago that we started exporting "Bemberg" to India. In 1979, we opened the Bombay office (Mumbai, India) and provided technical guidance directly to textile companies, but the office was closed in 1985. Entering the 2000s, India has been attracting attention as a huge market due to continued population growth and economic growth. Asahi Kasei has established Asahi Kasei India Pvt. Ltd. in Mumbai, India, as a base for market research and sales support in India in 2012.

The European office started in 1964 in Hamburg, Germany. The director and five expatriates, as well as one expatriate in Frankfurt, were dispatched.
Five expatriates, including the director, were also dispatched to Frankfurt. The expatriates oversaw each of the countries and conducted textile promotion activities in 25 countries with close teamwork utilizing the communication network.

After the establishment of Asahi Kasei Europe at "Am Seestern", Düsseldorf in April 2016, the companies have been accelerating the activities towards the European automotive industry. In November 2020, Asahi Kasei Europe GmbH started office operation at the new "C-View Offices" at Düsseldorf Harbour, Germany, starting a new chapter of its business expansion on the European market.

The first step in the Middle East was to set up an office in Beirut, Lebanon in 1969. Around the same time, the Polyester plant in Nobeoka, Japan was completed. Later, the office in the Middle East changed countries from Beirut to Tehran, Iran, and then the office was closed in 1979. In 2011, Asahi Kasei set up a joint venture for the production of acrylonitrile in Saudi Arabia. As of 2021, there is an office of acute critical care business in Israel.