SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. (三洋電機株式会社, San'yō Denki Kabushiki-gaisha) (TYO: 6764, Nasdaq: SANYY) is a major electronics company and member of the Fortune 500 whose headquarters is located in Moriguchi, Osaka prefecture, Japan. Sanyo targets the middle of the market and has over 230 Subsidiaries and Affiliates.
Sanyo utilizes an extensive socialization process for new employees, so that they will be acclimatized to Sanyo's corporate culture. New employees take a five-month course during which they eat together and share company-provided sleeping accommodation. They learn everything from basic job requirements to company expectations for personal grooming and the appropriate way in which to address their coworkers and superiors.
Sanyo was founded when Toshio Iue (井植 歳男 Iue Toshio, 1902–1969), the brother-in-law of Konosuke Matsushita and also a former Matsushita employee, was lent an unused Matsushita plant in 1947 and used it to make bicycle generator lamps. Sanyo was incorporated in 1950; in 1952 it made Japan's first plastic radio and in 1954 Japan's first pulsator-type washing machine. The company's name means three oceans in Japanese, referring to the founder's ambition to sell their products worldwide, across the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans.
The Sanyo HIT (Heterojunction with Intrinsic Thin layer) solar cell is composed of a mono thin crystalline silicon wafer surrounded by ultra-thin amorphous silicon layers.
Toshiba Group's nickel metal hydride battery business, Toshiba Battery Co., Ltd. (with manufacture base was in Takasaki), was transferred to Sanyo. Toshiba Battery Co., Ltd. manufacture base was in Takasaki, newly inaugurated as Sanyo Energy Takasaki Co., Ltd.
Sanyo is the major sponsor of the Penrith Panthers Rugby League team in the National Rugby League (Australia). In football, sponsor of Club Atlético River Plate from 1992 to 1995.
