How a small Japanese rubber company became the lifeblood of the tech industry

Noted: JSR’s decision to get into that market was bold but Mr Koshiba seemed like the right person for the job. He’d spent two years studying materials science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on a Rotary Club scholarship, was one of the few English speakers at the company and was eager to work abroad. In 1990, JSR sent him to Belgium to set up a photo-resist joint venture with the country’s biopharmaceutical giant UCB. The goal was to target the American market.