Kunisaburo, born to a family of farmers, concluded that he was not suited to a life in agriculture, in terms of both his physical condition and personality, so he decided to sell all his assets and use the money as capital to start some kind of business.
This was the situation when Kunisaburo came across the Ohno-type intertillage weeder, produced and sold by Ohno Store (currently Ohno Agriculture Equipment Company). Kunisaburo, who had experienced firsthand how hard weeding could be, began special sales of the Ohno-type intertillage weeder, but sales alone were an unsatisfying prospect, so he boldly made the call to start production. After receiving approval from Ohno Store, he immediately moved into the store and spent a month or so preparing to open a factory while learning how to make the products.
First off, in 1924 he established Iseki Farm Implement Mfg., a one-person business. He then decided to leave Mima Village and set up a shop in Matsuyama, then, upon dissolving Iseki Farm Implement Mfg., he founded “Iseki Farm Implement Trading Co.” in Aratama Town, Matsuyama City. As his founding product, he produced a rice huller named the “Fully-Automated Rice Huller.” It was an Iwata-type rice huller attached to a Yamamoto-type automatic rice grader, and because it was painted red, it was known as the “red machine.” With its good reputation, he produced and sold 36 of the machines in the first fiscal year, and as each year passed, that grew to 100 machines, then to 150.
With this start, Kunisaburo strived to further develop agriculture by mechanizing farming operations that in the past had relied upon manual labor and animal power, thereby saving labor. “We produce good machinery,” Kunisaburo would say, and he constantly devoted himself to providing products that satisfied customers. This passion of the founder, inherited in an unbroken line to this day, is “ISEKI’s spirit.”

On March 20, 1936, Kunisaburo established ISEKI & CO., LTD., and constructed the first factory in Minatomachi, and the second and third factories in Otemachi The main products were rice hullers and barley hullers, and it came to be from this time that the Company would use the “ISEKI” brand for all its products. In other words, in both name and practical terms, this is considered to be the start of the “new ISEKI.”
At the grand inaugural celebration held for some 200 guests, including guests of honor, people related to appointed dealerships nationwide, and employee representatives, as president, Kunisaburo gave a speech explaining the background of the Company’s establishment, and clarified its future course, promising “We will develop and produce products that are even more outstanding than others, and will energetically push forward, no matter what.”
Compared to the former ISEKI Mfg. (the first factory only), the addition of the new second and third factories proved to be a force multiplier, giving rise to a wide variety of occupations and the establishment of a production system. Getting out of a mere small factory, it has become an industry-leading manufacturer of rice hullers.

Prior to the launch of the new ISEKI, the “ISEKI” brand had yet to exist as production and sale of our products took place under such names as “Iwata-type rice hullers,” “Yamamoto-type automatic graders,” and “Yoshida-type rice hullers.” Under such circumstances, the results of a comparative examination of power rice hullers sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry were announced, a Yoshida-type rice huller was chosen as the top product for its excellence. However, it was recognized that “As it was made by the ISEKI technical team, ISEKI may also display “Award-Winning” on its products,” and the ISEKI rice hullers, developed within a consistent framework for research and production and received endorsement from a public agency as one of Japan’s finest products, raised its banner to make a fine debut. A decade after its founding, the Company created its first original brand. With the establishment of ISEKI, the Company formulated its three-diamond mark and emblem to symbolize the “new ISEKI.” The significance of the three diamonds refers to “Harmony,” “Trust,” and “Advancement.”

In 1964, ISEKI began production of the TB15-model, and in the following year, 1965, initiated production and sales of the TB20-model as a tractor built to handle full-fledged rice paddy work. Applying Porsche tractor technology to its functionality, style, and other attributes enabled an array of operations, including towing, rotary, plowing, management, and harvesting, and that cultivated numerous TB fans.
When it was first available for sale this model made people take notice of its high performance, but what really gave it wide recognition was the tractor performance test that took place in 1966 in Hachirogata reclaimed land in Akita Prefecture. Participating in the test were 17 models from 11 companies, and most of those were large-sized imported models.
The test site, still an extremely wet field after having just been reclaimed, meant most of the exhibited machines sank in and were unable to move, becoming untestable. Only our TB20-model passed the test, astonishing those in attendance.
At the time, this model had garnered much acclaim as a domestically produced tractor with outstanding performance.
Then, in the following year 1967, members of the Kyoto University, Faculty of Agriculture, Tractor Research Club, used the TB20-model to research “performance at high altitudes” and “the relationship between inclination angle and running performance.” In their testing, they successfully reached the summit of Mt. Fuji without breaking down, and in so doing reaffirmed the high performance of this model.

For details on the TB20-model(Japanese)

We had unparalleled experience and technology in automated threshers and harvesters. In 1966, we developed the “auto-threshing combine harvester,” an unprecedented type of machinery that blended the functionality of automated threshers and harvesters. This was a completely ISEKI-original product. Then, a year later in 1967, we began production and sales of the HD50-model, the world’s first mass-produced auto-threshing combine harvester, as the vanguard of domestically produced auto-threshing combine harvesters.
This combine harvester, developed based on the slogan of “Let’s make a combine harvester that satisfies farmers,” offered a threshing and body configuration suitable for japonica rice, which has low threshability, and was able to operate without problem even in Japan’s rice paddies of the time. Moreover, its high efficiency reduced operating time from harvesting to threshing to one-sixteenth, and by being compact and lightweight, as well as availability at a reasonable price, we received orders that substantially surpassed the target number of units for trial sales that we had initially anticipated. Indeed, they were sold as soon as the factory produced them, and there was no end to the orders from affiliated sales companies and agricultural cooperatives, with more than a few people waiting in the factory or office for their order.
The success of the HD50 was what spurred the spread of the auto-threshing combine harvester domestically in Japan.

For details on the HD50-model(Japanese)

It was the passion of the founder when he said, “I want to free farmers from exhausting labor,” with which we began basic research in 1953, setting aside a test field of a dozen or so square meters nearby the factory, even while other companies competed with each other to research rice transplanters. We initially worked on a single-row rice transplanter for transplanting mature seedlings, and in 1963, we shifted our focus, continuing to research with a multiple-row-type attachment.
It was no simple matter to make a practical rice transplanter for mature seedlings, but we continued to research, and spurred on by the prospect of rural areas being open to accepting young seedling transplantation, in 1967 we developed the P4A-model, our first rice transplanter geared toward transplanting young seedlings, a string seedling-type four-row rice transplanter with a tiller attachment system, and began test sales. Although production was discontinued due to a number of issues at the time, it was a major first step that led to the later development of the “Sanae,” a two-wheeled rice transplanter equipped with a backward-tilting seedling tank.

For details on the P4A-model(Japanese)

ISEKI has long focused its efforts on overseas expansion toward the countries of Asia, mainly with products such as rice hullers and rice cleaners. As the Company entered the 1960s, we expanded our primary targets to include European countries and other markets, and began to handle tillers and tiller equipment as our main products. In the latter 1960s, we entered the North American market with a focus on 20-30 horsepower-class tractors.

From the early 1960s, we began to focus on France, a critical market in our export strategy as one of the leading agricultural countries in the EEC region and a destination for agricultural machinery exports. We exhibited our tillers at the Paris Agricultural Show, and continued to strive to select the right agency and to open sales channels. This was the situation when in 1967 Yvan Beal S.A.S., which had selected our products after thorough preliminary research and surveys in Japan, offered us a business meeting. We took an urgent review of the French market as well as Yvan Beal and concluded a distributorship agreement.
The General Manager of the Overseas Department at the time recounted the business meeting with Yvan Beal, saying, “They were knowledgeable of both the French and Japanese markets, Japanese manufacturers and their products, and I thought they were the real deal,” then added, “It was a combination of several fortunate events: they came to us after being rejected by another company, and I and other Overseas Department members happened to be at the company after work.” This was an unexpectedly large business deal, considering that only a few companies had shipped as much as several hundred tillers to France as of that time in 1966.
Thereafter, there were a few ups and downs due to changes in their economic environment, the rebound by the other company, and the devaluation of the franc, but our aggressive activities, including advertising, resulted in export unit volume trending upward on the right side of a V-shaped graph.

In 1970, we conducted new research on float-type ultralight rice transplanters, and after much trial and error in researching ways to reduce the weight of the machine body, balance the center of gravity, and materials for the float, we finally succeeded in making it float by using a plastic float.
From 1971 we started production of “Sanae PF20,” a symbol of rice transplanter.
The Sanae enjoyed immense popularity right from the start, and that gained even more momentum in 1973 when the “Sanae-matic” hydraulic automatic machine height control mechanism was introduced, and the series was expanded to include two-, four-, and six-row machines.
The popular singer Junko Sakurada’s appearance in the advertising campaign, with her beautiful voice singing and her native Akita dialect: “Of course, it’s ‘Sanae’,” spread Sanae’s image to every corner of the farming community.

For details on the PF20-model(Japanese)

Under the long-term management policy announced on December 1, 1974 was the statement: “Fiscal year 1975 will mark the 50th anniversary of our founding. Having benefited from the great accomplishments of those who came before us, we must further redouble our efforts and start making the next 50 years of our history. We would like to make fiscal 1975 ‘the year of our departure on a journey to develop the new ISEKI’ based on the results of having reviewed the 50-year history of ISEKI.” To mark the 50th anniversary of the Company’s founding, in January 1975 we held a celebration, a commemorative ceremony, the 50th Anniversary ISEKI National Convention, and an overseas distributor meeting. From the autumn of 1974, we produced, announced, and presented commemorative posters, a symbol mark, a commemorative anthem, and a commemorative video, among other activities. In addition, we produced the booklet “ISEKI’s 50th Anniversary History” and a special issue of the internal magazine, and solicited slogans to raise morale and thoroughly convey the significance of the Company’s activities.

We have announced the “ISEKI Vision,” our future vision that we created involving management, executives, and young employees. Amid a changing environment, the ISEKI Group has set its basic policy as providing customers with greater value, and contributing to the development of a new culture and society through the creation of a more affluent lifestyle environment.

● Our path forward…Creating a new culture and society
Having positioned agricultural machinery as our core business, which we have been engaged in since our founding, we intend to develop and expand our businesses in the following directions.
1. The creation of a rich “food” culture
 ・A top company in the general agribusiness
 ・Expansion into the “food”-related domain
2. The building of a new local community

● Vision for the future…“soft engineering” approach
As we seek to create a new culture and society, we are working to shift from a stance of simply making and selling “hard” tangible products, to being oriented more toward providing “soft” intangible “new value” such as proposals to enhance lifestyles. Our goal is a “soft engineering” approach where we more broadly offer greater value by integrating “hard” tangible products centered around intangible “soft” aspects that better the lives of our customers.

● Aspiration for corporate culture…a group of people that strives to “acquire knowledge”
The cornerstone upon which we achieve this vision is our “people,” and the ISEKI Group has positioned the development of our human resources as its top priority while we make every effort to achieve this goal. We will also create a culture in which everyone is free to actively propose and discuss ideas in an open atmosphere, and to unite our thoughts to tackle challenges without fear of failure. We are committed to becoming a group of people that constantly strives to study and learn for personal growth and energetically take on new endeavors.

ISEKI held a Company-wide competition for the design of a product symbol mark, with 1,062 participants and 1,457 entries, from which we selected the Grand Prize-winning entry that determined the product symbol mark. The creator of the Grand Prize-winning design stated what was intended by the work, saying “The oval at the top represents ‘goals,’ the s at the bottom represents ‘people,’ and the circle that connects them represents the ‘global circle of the heart.’ What it means is that we should always create products that will satisfy our customers and develop our company.”

With the aim of family communication (fureai) depicting working families and agriculture from children's perspectives, a drawing contest on agriculture-related themes was held for children of elementary school age and younger. The project was held nationwide, and a total of 670 works were submitted from 22 districts throughout Japan. A selection committee chaired by a special lecturer at Musashino Art University at the time and a director of the Japan Craft Design Association was established to select the national grand prize winners.
This project garnered such high acclaim that, thinking, “we want to continue to move it forward,” it has become an established annual event still held to this day.

For details on the Sanae Nationwide Drawing Contest(Japanese)

Agriculture is in the midst of a challenging environment, and given this, we developed the Hatsuratsu Agriculture Support Campaign that proposes low-cost agricultural and other solutions that help customers engage in vibrant farm business. In specific terms, the campaign supports low-cost agriculture by promoting “soil preparation,” which is the basis of agriculture, and energy-saving agricultural machinery and sparse planting technology, which contribute to low-cost rice production. In addition, we established the “Low Cost Agriculture Support Section” to accelerate the promotion of inexpensive agriculture.

[Sparse planting cultivation]
In “sparse planting cultivation,” the number of seedlings used for transplanting is reduced by about half by widening the space between the sprouts, thus halving the management of seedling nursery materials, and it also cuts in half the transportation and replenishment of seedlings during rice planting, thus enabling more streamlined operations. Moreover, light and air currents penetrate to the base of the plant during its growth, resulting in vigorous, thick-stemmed rice plants that not only stand up well to disease but are also less prone to collapse.

As we welcomed the 85th anniversary of our founding, we positioned that milestone year as the start of the ISEKI Group’s new development, and kicked off “Dream Agriculture Supporters! ISEKI” activities to support farmers. The environment in which agriculture is conducted is undergoing immense change, and given that, Dream Agriculture Supporters endeavored to support customers with the entire ISEKI Group working as one so as to realize profitable agriculture. In specific terms, we are making Dream Agriculture Supporters! ISEKI a watchword around the dual axes of “energy conservation and low cost,” and “service capabilities,” and will contribute to improvement in the rate of food self-sufficiency.
In 2010, the Grand Pacific LE DAIBA in Tokyo’s Odaiba area was the scene of our ISEKI Nationwide Awards Ceremony (an event commemorating the 85th anniversary of our founding), where, based on the concept of “Dream Agriculture Supporters! ISEKI,” we exhibited our low-cost agriculture support technologies, the pride of ISEKI, featuring “new JAPAN,” “the Elena electric mini-tiller (KDC20),” “low-cost farm machinery,” and “37-seedling sparse planting cultivation.”

We accelerated overseas development with such initiatives as establishing subsidiaries in Europe and Asia.
In 2011, we established Dongfeng Iseki Agricultural Machinery (Hubei) Co., Ltd., then PT. ISEKI INDONESIA was the next established in 2012 and ISEKI SALES (THAILAND) in 2013. In 2014, we made the French distributor Yvan Beal S.A.S. a subsidiary, and the Thai distributor IST Farm Machinery Co., Ltd. and ISEKI Germany became subsidiaries in 2020 and 2022, respectively.

For details on the history of the overseas business

In November 2013, ISEKI joined the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries’ “NOGYOJOSHI (female farmers) project” to support a more active role for females in agriculture, who account for about 40% of the total number of farm workers in Japan, and as a separate project has been implementing the “Dream NOGYOJOSHI (female farmers) Project” to encourage their further success.
Major efforts have included holding seminars on the handling of agricultural machinery across Japan and online seminars on the farming business and cultivation techniques, preparing easy-to-understand manuals on the handling of agricultural machinery using photos and illustrations, and developing agricultural machinery.
In the development of agricultural machinery, we commercialized the “Shiropuchi” small-sized tractor in 2015, the “Chokopuchi” mini-tiller in 2016, and the “Puchimower” walking mower in 2017, while exchanging opinions with the members of the NOGYOJOSHI (female farmers). The “suspension seat with front/rear adjustment function” that allows the seat position to be adjusted according to body size, and the “handling guide” that enables users to check how to use the machine with a smartphone via a two-dimensional barcode on the machine, are examples of agricultural machinery that incorporate the opinions of female farmers and are well received as they make things easy to use for everyone. Some of the functionality that emerged from listening to the comments of agricultural women have been extended to other agricultural machinery, and in recent years, this has become a focus of attention as a “gendered innovation” initiative to create innovation by taking gender and differentiation by sex into account.
Thanks to all of the support, more than 1,000 female farm workers have participated in the Dream NOGYOJOSHI (female farmers) Project. The ISEKI Group will continue to implement initiatives to support female farmers who are active as leaders in both agriculture and their communities, with the aim of realizing sustainable agriculture.

For details on the “NOGYOJOSHI (female farmers) project” (Japanese)

In our pursuit of realizing agriculture with dreams, ISEKI has in the past made various proposals with a focus on low-cost cultivation such as with sparse planting. At the same time, Japanese agriculture is undergoing major changes, including large-scale farming operations, corporate entry into agriculture, and a shift in crops to fully utilize paddy fields.
In anticipation of ever-increasing demands for proposals to address these changes, we established the “Dream Agricultural Research Institute” in Tsukubamirai City, Ibaraki Prefecture, to conduct research, trials, and dissemination of advanced farming technologies aimed at further labor-saving and low-cost farming, as well as advanced agricultural machinery utilizing ICT technology.

In 2021, we determined that the long-term vision of the ISEKI Group would be to be a “solution provider for agriculture & landscape” and to support a farming industry full of dreams and beautiful landscapes and create a future of sustainable agriculture and landscape. In 2022, we formulated our Environmental Vision to achieve a carbon-neutral and sustainable society by 2050, and we are committed to sustainability initiatives.

● Sustainability initiatives
In keeping with the passion of our founder when he exclaimed “I want to free farmers from exhausting labor,” ISEKI Group sets forth its corporate philosophy as “Striving to contribute to the creation of a prosperous and sustainable society by ‘providing innovative products and higher quality of services to the customers.’” Working together with all of our stakeholders, we have established our basic policy for sustainability as the pursuit of a sustainable society, “agriculture and landscape,” and we are implementing Group-wide sustainability initiatives, including addressing climate change, respect for human rights, and employee health.
As part of our endeavors to reduce environmental burden, our efforts to strengthen environmental initiatives included launching a variable fertilizer rice transplanter(Japanese) in 2016 and the Aigamo-Robo(Japanese) in 2023, formulation of our Environmental Vision in 2022, and the endorsement of TCFD recommendations.

For details on the Sustainability initiatives