Ever wondered what “Mitsubishi” means when written out in Japanese? Or maybe you’ve pondered over exactly how “Sanyo” came to be known as Sanyo*. What does the “shiba” in “Toshiba” mean? In this article, we dive deep into the corporate names of seven of the world’s most well-known electronics companies:

* FujiFilm
* Fujitsu
* Hitachi
* Panasonic
* Mitsubishi
* Sanyo
* Toshiba

Inside, we investigate two main areas for each company: what the characters that compose their names actually mean, and how the companies actually got their names.

Hint: The founder’s name isn’t “Mr. Sanyo.” In fact, o­nly o­ne company out of the seven listed above still uses their founder’s name as their official corporation name.

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Hat tip: Blogos