Fujifilm: Beating Kodak at LA '84, a Yakuza Murder and Film-Based Skincare

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Fuji Photo Film Company was founded in 1934 as a subsidiary of chemical maker Daicel to produce film in Japan, mastering silver halide crystals suspended in gelatin. In the 1980s it pushed into Kodak's home market by taking the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics sponsorship after Kodak hesitated, forcing American retailers to stock its film, then undercutting on price and building a U.S. plant. Kodak petitioned the U.S. Commerce Department in 1995, and the World Trade Organization rejected its claims in 1998. In 1994 vice president Juntaro Suzuki publicly ended payments to sokaiya extortionists tied to the yakuza, who threatened to disrupt shareholder meetings, and he was murdered outside his home.

As film fell to about 3 percent of sales, Fujifilm formed Fujifilm Holdings in 2006 and repurposed its chemistry. About 4,000 antioxidant compounds developed to stop photos fading, plus its expertise in collagen and nano-scale layering, became the Astalift skincare line. It bought Hitachi's diagnostic imaging business for $1.63 billion in 2019 and a Biogen biologics plant in Denmark for nearly $900 million, then invested $928 million to double it. Subsidiary Toyama Chemical's antiviral Avigan, or favipiravir, was tested and approved by several countries against COVID-19.

• Fujifilm invented computed radiography in the 1980s, replacing analog X-rays with reusable digital plates.
• In 2020 it demonstrated a 400-terabyte magnetic tape cartridge using strontium ferrite particles.
• A 2018 $6.1 billion bid for control of Xerox was blocked by investors including Carl Icahn; in 2019 Fujifilm bought Xerox's 25 percent stake in Fuji Xerox and renamed it Fujifilm Business Innovation.
• Demand for the X100V outstripped production, and Instax won younger buyers.
• By 2025 Fujifilm had nearly 12 percent of digital camera shipments among major Japanese makers, passing Nikon for third place.