"If I had first been shown contact lenses, I may have never made them myself, and merely become an owner of an optometrist's store." reminisces Kyoichi Tanaka, the founder of Menicon. His major turning point came while working at an optometrists store after the war. The wife of a US military officer who was a regular customer of the store boasted to him saying, "I have a pair of contact lenses, too." He didn't know what they were made of, nor the shape of them. All he knew was, that they were something people applied directly to their eyes.
Being in post-war Japan, Kyoichi wholeheartedly devoted himself to producing contact lenses.
He examined his own eyes and his family's eyes, and then using a small second-hand lathe, after disassembling, repairing and modifying it, he shaped round pieces of plastic about the size of the iris, and then finished them with polish.
He made himself his own guinea pig. In order to investigate by repeated trial and error how the lenses affected his eyes, he rode his bike and even swam in a nearby river, with the lenses in.
It was only three months later when he completed a prototype. He had come up with his own original lenses that were almost the same shape as current hard contact lenses, and then succeeded in commercializing them.
Tanaka says; "Failure is a failure because you give up in the middle, so it won't become a failure if you keep on working until achieving the goal".

Menicon's spirit of "craftsmanship" can be said to have originated with the late Kazan Tanaka, the first chairman of Menicon. Kazan, the father of Kyoichi Tanaka, was a bamboo carving artisan, who crafted various items out of bamboo.
Kazan's children assisted their strict father from a young age, cleaning his workshop and in preparations for his work. They grew up always attentively observing their father as he diligently worked bamboo.

This diligent craftsmanship philosophy, with a mindset of being intolerant of compromise, and devising creative solutions, visualizing the product in the hands of the user, also came to be passed down.

From raw material research, through to production and inspection, our company works on the entire process of producing contact lenses. "Menicon-style DNA" is our spirit to take on any challenge, along with our sense of ingenuity and creativity, and has been passed down to this day under our corporate slogan of "Contributing to society by providing superior visual correction".

For the Delivery of Safe and High Quality Contact Lenses to People throughout the World.
Menicon has set up bases around the world, and produces contact lenses tailored to local eye care needs. From Menicon in Japan, to Menicon around the world ― our challenge continues.