Fujitsu employs around 160,000 people and has 500 subsidiary companies. Internationally, Fujitsu considers IBM to be its main competitor. Its historical domestic rival is NEC.

The slogan "The possibilities are infinite" can be found below the company's logo on major advertising and ties up with the small logo above the letters J and I of the word Fujitsu. This smaller logo, (∞), represents the symbol for infinity.

History

The company was established on June 20, 1935 under the name Fuji Tsūshinki Seizō (lang: 富士通信機製造, Fuji Telecommunications Equipment Manufacturing), a spinoff of the Fuji Electric Company, this in turn being a joint venture between the Furukawa Electric Company and German conglomerate Siemens founded in 1923. Despite its connections to the Furukawa zaibatsu, Fujitsu escaped the Allied occupation of Japan mostly unscathed.

In 1954 Fujitsu manufactured Japan's first computer, the FACOM 100, and in 1961 the transistorized FACOM 222. In 1967, the company's name was officially changed to the contraction Fujitsū (lang: 富士通).

In 1955, Fujitsu founded Kawasaki Frontale (lang: 川崎フロンターレ, Kawasaki Furontāre) as a Fujitsu soccer club. Kawasaki Frontale has now been a J. League football club since 1999.

In 1990 Fujitsu took over International Computers Limited (ICL) in the UK, ultimately becoming Fujitsu Services in 2002. Fujitsu Services' business is helping its customers realize the value of information technology through the application of consulting, systems integration and managed service contracts. It serves customers in the private and public sectors across Europe including retail, financial services and Government.

In July, 1991 ICL (Fujitsu) acquired more than half of the Russian company KME-CS (Kazan Manufacturing Enterprise of Computer Systems, Kazan, Tatarstan, Russia). The agreement was signed between Peter Bonfield (President of ICL) and Mintimer Shaimiev (President of the Tatarstan Republic).

From February 1989 until the Summer of 1997 Fujitsu built the FM Towns PC variant. It started as a proprietary PC variant intended for multimedia applications and computer games, but later became more compatible with regular PCs. In 1993, the FM Towns Marty was released, a gaming console compatible with the FM Towns games.

Amdahl became a wholly owned subsidiary of Fujitsu in 1997 and with it the DMR consulting group, based in Canada.

The active partnership with Siemens AG was revived in 1999 in the form of Fujitsu Siemens Computers, now one of Europe's largest IT hardware suppliers, and owned 50/50 by Fujitsu and Siemens.

Plasma displays In 1992, Fujitsu introduced the world's first 21-inch full-color display. It was a hybrid, based upon the plasma display created at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and NHK STRL, achieving superior brightness. Many people will be familiar with Fujitsu through such consumer products - they are sold through a subsidiary joint venture company Fujitsu General, along with air conditioners.