Ichitaro (word processor)

"{{Nihongo|Taro|太郎}}" was named by {{Nihongo|Kazunori Ukigawa|浮川 和宣}}, a founder of JustSystems. When he worked part-time as a tutor, one of his learners' names was Taro. He died of sickness when Kazunori worked at the company. Taro is also a common Japanese given name used for the eldest son.{{Cite book|title=蘇るPC-9801伝説 永久保存版 第1弾|publisher=ASCII|year=2004|isbn=4-7561-4419-5|pages=87–92|language=ja|chapter=「一太郎」が知っているPC-9801シリーズの軌跡}} Sanyo Electric already had a trademark right of the name,{{Cite book|title=パソコン革命の旗手たち|last=関口|first=和一|publisher=Nihon Keizai Shimbun|isbn=4-532-16331-5|publication-date=2000-03-06|pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9784532163310/page/118 118-123]|chapter="一太郎の産声"|year=2000|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9784532163310/page/118}} so JustSystems added a prefix "{{Nihongo|Ichi|一}}" as they hoped the software won the best.{{Cite web|url=http://www.ichitaro.com/history/tw01.html|title=一太郎Web：一太郎ヒストリー 一太郎|date=2010-09-01|website=一太郎Web|publisher=JustSystems|access-date=2019-03-31}}

JustSystems was founded in July 1979 by {{Nihongo|Hatsuko|初子}} and Kazunori Ukigawa, and was incorporated in June 1981. Kazunori worked at a subsidiary company of Toshiba, and he was interested in Japanese-language computing. Toshiba released {{Ill|JW-10|ja}} in February 1979, the first word processor for the Japanese language, but it sold less than their business computers. He founded the company as a dealer of business computers, and they started selling Japanese language software. After the release of PC-8801, they developed an invoicing software for it, which printed out estimations and invoices in Japanese. They demonstrated it at trade fairs, and received a positive response.

When they contacted to ASCII Microsoft about a run-time license fee of the BASIC compiler used for their farm management software, ASCII had known JustSystem's Japanese software, so they asked JustSystems to develop a Japanese word processor software for PC-100. It was released as JS-WORD in 1983. It was followed by JS-WORD 2.0 ported for PC-9801. Both were published by ASCII under their name. JS-WORD featured mouse support and a graphical icon-based interface, but it resulted in poor performance.{{Cite journal|last=国友|first=正彦|year=1989|title=最新日本語入力FP対決 ATOK 7 VS VJE-β Ver.2.1|journal=ASCII|language=ja|volume=13|issue=9|pages=249–256|issn=0386-5428}} The jX-WORD for the IBM JX was released and in 1985, jX-WORD Taro was released for PC-9801. jX-WORD Taro was priced at ¥58,000, which was the middle price among Japanese word processor software, and sold 9,700 copies.{{Cite journal|year=1992|title=一太郎累計出荷本数|journal=マイコン|publisher=電波新聞社|volume=16|issue=2|pages=159|issn=0387-9593}}

File:Ichitaro 3.jpg]]

The same year, Ichitaro was released as its definite successor. Ichitaro's system disk contained ATOK 4 and a runtime version of MS-DOS 2.11. It allowed users to use other MS-DOS applications with Japanese language support. The biggest competitor, {{Nihongo|Matsu|松}}, was released in 1983 by {{Nihongo|Kanri Kōgaku Kenkyūjo|管理工学研究所}}. It gained speed from being written in assembly language and natively ran on PC-9801, but Matsu's Japanese input method couldn't be used for other applications. Ichitaro had plenty of typesettings options, but Matsu did not. Also, Matsu was priced at ¥128,000 before Ichitaro came out.{{Cite book|title=パソコン驚異の10年史―その誕生から近未来まで|last1=片貝|first1=孝夫|last2=平川|first2=敬子|publisher=Kodansha|year=1988|isbn=4-06-132721-6|pages=55–85|language=ja|chapter=日本語ワードプロセッサの歴史}}

The first version of Ichitaro has shipped 29,000 copies. Ichitaro Ver.2 has shipped 80,000 copies. Ichitaro Ver.3 was the first version ported for other Japanese DOS platforms. It has shipped more than 300,000 copies until 1991. Total shipments of Ichitaro reached one million in November 1991. Contrary to the Japanese personal computer market expanding into beginners, Matsu oriented for power users, so Ichitaro overtook it.

Ichitaro Ver.4 was released in April 1989. It had a proprietary operating environment called {{Nihongo|Just Window|ジャストウィンドウ}}, like Lotus Symphony. Three minor versions were released because it was buggy. The stable version was 4.3 released in December 1989.{{Cite web|url=http://www.ichitaro.com/history/tw04.html|title=一太郎Web：一太郎ヒストリー 一太郎Ver.４|date=2010-09-01|website=一太郎Web|publisher=JustSystems|access-date=2019-03-31}} ATOK 7 was bundled with Ichitaro 4, and was available as a standalone product in 1992.{{Cite web|url=http://www.justsystem.co.jp/atok/story/index.html|title=先進の日本語システム「ATOK」の進化|date=1998-10-23|publisher=JustSystems|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990202014635/http://www.justsystem.co.jp/atok/story/index.html|archive-date=2 February 1999|access-date=2019-04-22|url-status=dead}}

Microsoft released the first Japanese version of Microsoft Word for Windows in 1991. Four years passed before Ichitaro 5 was released for Japanese DOS platforms in April 1993. The next month, Microsoft released the Japanese Windows 3.1 and the first Japanese version of Microsoft Office, which included Word 5.0 and Excel 4.0.{{Cite news|title=マイクロソフト、ウィンドウズ3.1対応ソフト―パッケージを投入|date=1993-06-17|work=Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun|page=6}} Its successors shipped 200,000 copies per month in late 1994.{{Cite news|title=マイクロソフト、「オフィス」「ワード」増産―倍の月20万本に。|date=1994-10-18|work=Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun|page=6}} JustSystems barely completed a Windows adaptation of Ichitaro in December 1993,{{Cite journal|year=1993|title=ジャストシステムが日本語Ｗｉｎｄｏｗｓ３．１用の一太郎を発表|journal=ASCII|volume=17|issue=11|issn=0386-5428}} but Microsoft took over the market dominated by Ichitaro and Lotus 1-2-3.

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As of 1997, a Japanese media website reported that 64% of readers using Microsoft Word, and the main reason was that they used it in offices and schools. The rest of 35% were using Ichitaro, and the main reason was that the IME of ATOK was convenient.{{Cite web|url=https://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/article/970326/result.htm|title=プレゼント付き読者アンケート第16回「対決！？一太郎 VS Microsoft Word」集計結果発表|date=1997-03-26|website=Impress PC Watch|access-date=2019-04-24}}

In 1998, the Japan Fair Trade Commission informed Microsoft of an unfair trade that they forced personal computer manufacturers to bundle with Excel and Word against the request of a bundle with Excel and Ichitaro.{{Cite web|url=https://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/article/981124/koutori.htm|title=公正取引委員会、マイクロソフトへの勧告内容をPDFファイルで公開|date=1998-11-24|website=Impress PC watch|access-date=2019-03-31}}

Ichitaro Ver.5 was ported to the Macintosh and to OS/2. In May 2003, the release of a Linux version was announced. Compact versions, "Ichitaro dash" and "Ichitaro lite" are produced for laptop PCs. As office suite, "Just home" is also available. "Ichitaro smile" is targeted at elementary school students and "Ichitaro jump" at middle and high school students.

On 1 February 2005, sales and production of the software were frozen pending an appeal by the company against a ruling of the Tokyo District Court which states that there is a breach of a patent owned by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.The Yomiuri Shimbun, pp.1 Tokyo morning edition, 2 February 2005. However, on 30 September 2005, Intellectual Property High Court of Japan, which was newly formed in April 2005, has granted JustSystems’ appeal. Because this judgement became a final decision in October 2005, the original decision sentenced by the Tokyo District Court was overturned.The decision of case 2005 (Ne) 10040, Intellectual Property High Court of Japan - 30 September 2005

In 2009, JustSystems became a subsidiary company of Keyence. In the 2010s, they focus on correspondence education and enterprise software although Ichitaro and ATOK continue to be developed.{{Cite web|url=https://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/160652|title=あのジャストシステムが大変貌を遂げていた―今や収益柱は｢一太郎｣｢ATOK｣ではない|last=島|first=大輔|date=2017-03-05|website=Toyo Keizai|access-date=2019-03-31}}

In 2013, Symantec revealed that Ichitaro had the potential to be targeted by trojan horse programs.[https://community.broadcom.com/symantecenterprise/communities/community-home/librarydocuments/viewdocument?DocumentKey=1bd7e358-b2e5-49a3-aee3-b00b65c6e952&CommunityKey=1ecf5f55-9545-44d6-b0f4-4e4a7f5f5e68&tab=librarydocuments Symantec: "Yet Another Zero-Day: Japan Hit with Ichitaro Vulnerability", 14 November 2013]. Accessed 3 March 2014 A gang of Chinese hackers was widely blamed for the incident.[https://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/18/new_york_times_hackers_linked_to_japan_ichitaro_attacks/ "New York Times hackers linked to Japan Ichitaro attacks", The Register, 18 November 2013]. Accessed 3 March 2014

• ATOK
• Office Open XML software
• OpenDocument software

• [http://www.ip.courts.go.jp/eng/documents/pdf/g_panel/10040_eng.pdf 2005 (Ne) 10040 Appeal Case of Seeking Injunction against Patent Infringement] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303193129/http://www.ip.courts.go.jp/eng/documents/pdf/g_panel/10040_eng.pdf |date=3 March 2016 }} - the Intellectual Property High Court of Japan

{{Reflist}}

• {{Official website|name=Ichitaro official website}}

{{word processors}}

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