Fujitsu Limited

Fujitsu Limited was founded in June 1935 as Fuji Tsushinki Manufacturing, taking over from Fuji Electric Manufacturing (today's Fuji Electric) the rights to make and sell telephone switching equipment, telephones and loading coils. According to its annual securities report, it moved its head office to Kamikodanaka in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, in November 1938, listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in May 1949 when the exchange reopened, and changed its name to Fujitsu Limited in 1967. It had 99,203 consolidated employees at the end of March 2026.

From telephones to computers, and to the world's fastest supercomputers

According to the Computer Museum of the Information Processing Society of Japan, Fuji Tsushinki completed the FACOM 100 in October 1954, described as Japan's first practical relay-based automatic computer. Its main unit used about 4,500 relays and read its programs from paper tape. A company that began by making telephone switching equipment had become a computer maker in less than twenty years.

Its later supercomputers, developed jointly with RIKEN, twice took first place on the TOP500.

TOP500 lists Fujitsu as the vendor of both systems. The story of how each was built, and the details of their performance, are left to their own entries.

Buying, selling, and staying in services

Line up the corporate history in the annual securities report and the shape of the company comes from acquisitions abroad and the separation of manufacturing businesses at home.

In the financial results for the year ended March 2026 only three reportable segments remain: Service Solutions, Hardware Solutions and Ubiquitous Solutions. Of ¥3,503.0 billion in revenue from external customers, Service Solutions accounted for ¥2,314.8 billion, about 66%.

The UK Post Office Horizon scandal

The thing Fujitsu is now best known for in Britain is not a computer but Horizon, the branch accounting system of the Post Office. What follows is limited to what the UK statutory inquiry, the courts and legislation have found or provided.

• The system: According to Volume 1 of the statutory inquiry's report (published 8 July 2025; chair Sir Wyn Williams), the Post Office began rolling out Horizon to branches in about September 1999. The first version (Legacy Horizon) was developed and supplied by ICL Pathway; HNG-X (Horizon Online) in 2010 and HNG-A in 2017 were developed and supplied by Fujitsu. The report states that it uses "Fujitsu" to include ICL Pathway and Fujitsu Services.
• The inquiry's findings: The report finds that before roll-out some Fujitsu employees knew that Legacy Horizon could show losses or gains in branch accounts that were illusory rather than real, because of "bugs, errors and defects". Of Horizon Online, the chair says he is satisfied that a number of employees of Fujitsu and the Post Office knew this was so. As a consequence, it says, many hundreds of people were wrongly convicted and many thousands were held responsible for losses that did not exist. The evidence behind these statements is left to later volumes.
• Prosecutions and the courts: The prosecutions were brought by the Post Office (in England and Wales, from 2000 to the autumn of 2013). On 23 April 2021 the Court of Appeal quashed the convictions of 39 of 42 appellants, finding that the Post Office knew there were serious issues about Horizon's reliability yet failed to make disclosure.
• Legislation: The Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act 2024, enacted on 24 May 2024, quashed by statute convictions in England and Wales and Northern Ireland for certain offences alleged to have been committed while Horizon was in use.
• Fujitsu's position: In its annual securities report for the year ended March 2026, Fujitsu notes that its UK subsidiary Fujitsu Services is responding to the statutory inquiry and will work with the UK government on the basis of its findings, and that the impact on the consolidated financial statements is difficult to predict for now.

According to the inquiry's list of publications, Volume 1 was still the only report published as of October 2026; the chair gave a progress update on the remaining volumes on 8 July 2026. The extent of Fujitsu's responsibility as an institution is to be set out in those later volumes.

Key events

• June 1935: Founded as Fuji Tsushinki Manufacturing, taking over communications-equipment rights from Fuji Electric Manufacturing.
• May 1949: Listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange when it reopened.
• October 1954: FACOM 100 completed (Information Processing Society of Japan).
• 1967: Renamed Fujitsu Limited.
• November 1990: Brings Britain's ICL into the group.
• 1999: The Post Office begins rolling out Horizon to branches (statutory inquiry).
• October 1999: Fujitsu Siemens Computers founded.
• June 2011: The K computer ranks first on the TOP500.
• May 2018: Consumer PC business transferred to Lenovo.
• June 2020: Fugaku ranks first on the TOP500.
• April 2021: The Court of Appeal quashes 39 Horizon convictions.
• May 2024: A UK statute quashes Horizon convictions en bloc.
• July 2025: The statutory inquiry publishes Volume 1 of its report.
• 2025: Shinko Electric Industries (June) and Fujitsu General (August) transferred.

Key figures

Year ended March 2026 (April 2025 to March 2026), IFRS, from the financial results of 28 April 2026. Device Solutions has been classified as discontinued operations since the fourth quarter of FY2024, so revenue and operating profit are for continuing operations.

• Revenue: ¥3,503.0 billion (-1.3% year on year) / operating profit: ¥348.3 billion (+31.4%) / adjusted operating profit: ¥390.6 billion (+27.1%)
• Profit for the year attributable to owners of the parent: ¥449.4 billion (+104.5%)

Changes are calculated from the prior-year and current-year figures in the financial results. Adjusted operating profit is the company's measure that removes one-off items such as business restructuring and acquisitions from operating profit.

Most of the growth in profit comes from Service Solutions. With revenue up only 4.5%, its adjusted operating profit rose 24.7%, a margin of 15.4%. Hardware and PCs lost revenue while earning more, a lean toward margin rather than volume. The company that built computers from FACOM to Fugaku now earns most of its money building and running other organisations' systems.