Seiuemon Inaba
Graduated from the University of Tokyo with an engineering degree in 1946 and joined Fuji Tsushinki Manufacturing (later Fujitsu). In 1955, Fujitsu tapped him to lead a new project team developing numerical control technology — the seed that would become FANUC. He spun the division out as Fujitsu Fanuc in 1972, serving as its founding executive director and later its first president in 1975. Prior to founding FANUC, he had no formal startup experience; he built the company from within a corporate R&D project into the world's dominant supplier of CNC systems and industrial robots. Known for a demanding, authoritarian management style, he famously adopted yellow — his least-favorite color — as FANUC's signature hue because it made the robots and factory uniforms highly visible.











