Shueisha, the predecessor of DNP, was founded on Oct. 9, 1876, shortly after the beginning of the "cultural awakening” that accompanied Japan's Meiji Restoration.
Teiichi Sakuma and three partners began the company based on their keen awareness of the need to spread knowledge and culture by means of printing. They started by printing newspapers aimed at spreading Buddhist and Shinto teachings, as well as ordinary daily newspapers.
Shueisha also printed a revised edition of “Self-Help” -- the first book manufactured completely in Japan using Western-style bookbinding -- an advance that was made possible by the development of heavy paper. The book lifted the spirits of the Japanese people as they battled the confusion of a new era, and became a best seller. Further developments in printing technology then gave rise to a boom in the launching of new magazines.
Shueisha grew larger primarily through printing books and magazines, and merged with Nisshin Printing Co., Ltd. to form Dainippon Printing Co., Ltd.

Tokyo was devastated by fire in World War II, but the Ichigaya district where DNP’s First Plant was located narrowly escaped damage.
With the end of the war, a new era once again demanded that information be conveyed by means of the printed word. Publishing companies began issuing weekly magazines, which only newspaper companies had been equipped to print in the past. DNP beefed up the facilities at its Ichgaya plant in order to support this trend and allow publishing companies to issue magazines.
Also during this period, DNP came out with its “Five-year Reconstruction Plan.” The company entered the fields of paper containers, flexible packaging, building materials, business forms and electronics, in addition to its main business of printing, and soared to the top of the printing industry.

In 1963, DNP introduced a new structure whereby business and manufacturing units that addressed the same product field began to work together as distinct business divisions, with corporate directors assigned responsibility for managing specific divisions. This gave DNP a management system that could successfully steer the wide variety of businesses in which the company engaged. DNP was able to overcome the effects of the oil crisis of 1973, which acted like a sudden brake on Japan’s rapidly growing economy, because it had been quick to foresee the advent of the information era and had improved production efficiency by introducing computerized typesetting, and because the company had taken steps to improve its management practices. Also during this period, DNP actively expanded overseas.
DNP worked at creating a corporate structure that made the most of all of its capacities -- sales, technology, and planning -- in order to ride out this period of slow growth.

Yoshitoshi Kitajima became president in 1979 and faced a harsh economic environment in the aftermath of the second oil crisis. Right after he assumed the presidency, Mr. Kitajima announced to all DNP employees his intention to implement three key management policies: 1) Improve management efficiency, 2) Bolster communication, and 3) Devise and promote a medium-term business plan. He asked DNP's workers to all pull together in order to overcome the difficult period.
In 1981, DNP set about strengthening the company under the motto “Take on the future.” The goal of 1 trillion yen in net sales that was set at that time was achieved in the fiscal term ended March 1991. This period represented yet another step forward, from comprehensive printing company to information processing company.

For Japan, 1989 marked the end of the turbulent Showa Era, the reign of Emperor Hirohito. From the beginning of the Heisei Era that followed it, a string of new information technologies were introduced, including satellite communications, high-definition television, and widespread use of the Internet. In an address at the 1991 Comprint International Conference, DNP President Kitajima noted that although DNP has been refining its technologies for expressing and processing information in the form of printed media recent changes in information communication were among the factors behind the reshaping of world markets.
DNP was quick to computerize its operations. Positioning ourselves as an "information communication provider,” we quickly developed technologies for handling a variety of new types of media, including electronic books, CD-ROMs, DVDs, and high-definition systems. The company also built a framework for acquiring expertise in these areas.

In 2001, we unveiled the “DNP Group’s 21st Century Vision,” which cited contribution to emergently evolving society as our management concept. We aim to contribute to the development of emergently evolving society through our business vision, which we call “P&I solutions." In other words, our goal is to combine printing and information technologies with the knowledge, experience, and expertise that we have accumulated over the years in order to offer appropriate solutions to problems faced by corporate clients and consumers.
In 2006, we completed construction of the DNP Gotanda Building as a base for promoting our solutions business. In addition, we have actively promoted mergers and acquisitions in order to accelerate growth in our existing businesses. As of March 2009, DNP Group employees numbered over 40,000 worldwide.

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