Who is Taiyo Holdings, SFL's Sponsor for 4 Consecutive Years? An Interview Blitz at the Head Office of the Company That Makes "That Thing" the Most in the World!

Taiyo Ink Mfg. Co., Ltd., established in 1953, grew through the development and sales of solder resist, and in 2010, changed its trade name to "Taiyo Holdings."
Currently, we are expanding globally based on chemistry with three pillars: the Electronics Business, the Medical and Pharmaceutical Business, and the ICT&S (Sustainability) Business.

In particular, we boast the world's top share in "Solder Resist (SR)," an insulator applied to printed circuit boards used in all kinds of electronics products such as mobile phones, personal computers, and home gaming consoles.

This aligns with the reason for establishing the President's Office, Public Relations/Brand Marketing Department, but a major objective was to build a company brand that makes people think, "I want to work at Taiyo Holdings" or "I want to do business with them."
Especially when we considered how to make more people aware of our company, we recognized the domestic and international appeal [of esports] and its affinity with our business, leading us to focus on esports and decide to sponsor the "Street Fighter League."

Since it's the 4th year sponsoring the "Street Fighter League," we have felt that the recognition of our company name is gradually increasing, and we are very happy to see comments like "Thank you, Taiyo!" during tournament streams.
Although our core business is B2B, we saw comments on social media saying, "If you sold products for the general public, I'd buy them," and we wanted to add excitement to the "Street Fighter League World Championship 2024" held at Ryogoku Kokugikan, so we started development.

It was the first time Taiyo Holdings sold products directly to the general public, so development involved trial and error, but it was very well received.

For example, let's try making a golden "Street Fighter League" viewing ticket.

Like, "The seat and the ticket both have value!" (laughs)
Also, ideas like making apparel such as T-shirts in collaboration with "Street Fighter" or small items like charms, or creating a space for fans to sell fan-created books and goods, similar to Comic Market, were also suggested.

Our brand statement "A fun world is created by those who enjoy it." combined with Street Fighter's "I'm going to meet someone stronger than me" inspired "A fun world is created by those guys who enjoy it."
Also, since the "Street Fighter League World Championship 2024" was held at Ryogoku Kokugikan, we designed the chocolate to prominently feature E. Honda, and Blanka with the image of green, our corporate color, and electricity, the image of an insulator, respectively.

Our symbol is the "Three-Roll Mark," modeled after the cross-section of the 3-roll mill machine used in solder resist manufacturing, but this time, we created and used a special design based on that mark with added imagery of circuits and electricity.

At the booth, we offered the "Street Fighter 6" collaboration chocolate & acrylic keychain set and individual chocolate sales, as well as a gachapon where you could win an acrylic keychain.
Many people posted photos on social media, which we were very grateful for.

That's right. We designed the booth hoping that people would look at the characters, take photos, or buy chocolate.
What surprised me a little was that everyone was doing the gachapon much more than buying the individual chocolates. Even though you could buy the chocolate of your favorite character individually... (laughs)
Perhaps it's because they are gamers... it was an unexpected discovery.

Instruction manuals for games were really exciting, weren't they?
We also modeled the size and texture after the instruction manuals from that era, and under that guise, we included a lot of information introducing our company... (laughs)
I believe we were able to explain the electronics business and solder resist in an easy-to-understand way using characters.
Thanks to that, we saw posts on social media during the tournament mentioning printed circuit boards and solder resist.

Fortunately, we were able to distribute all 3,000 copies we prepared, so we would be happy if it became an opportunity for even a few people to learn about "Taiyo Holdings."

That's a good question!
Nowadays, it's mostly done by machines, but originally, during the era when circuit boards were made by hand, there was a reason for choosing green: to reduce eye fatigue and for visibility with the copper of the circuits.
Even now, there's no need to change something with a proven track record, and machines still sometimes use green as a marker.
Actually, we also make solder resist in other colors; for example, using white solder resist can reflect light better when LEDs emit light, and using black solder resist... if I talk about this, I won't have enough time, so I'll stop here (laughs).

Our desire to support people who take on challenges will continue.
In the near future, we plan to use the proceeds from this chocolate sale for activities that provide "learning opportunities" for future generations.
We are planning events with "challenge" as the keyword, so please look forward to further news!