The Manufacturing Outlook: Specials Magazine

What philosophy guides Okamura Corporation’s approach to manufacturing essential industrial components? “What is essential is invisible to the eye.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry wrote that line in The Little Prince, and it has resonated deeply in Japan ever since, becoming one of the most quoted lines in the language. It also reads as a precise manufacturing philosophy, one Okamura Corporation has built 110 years of production around. It produces nuts, the small fastening components that hold together automobiles, electrical assemblies, construction frameworks and rail-mounted connector systems. “We manufacture nuts and fastening components known as the salt of industry. Salt may not be conspicuous, but it is an essential ingredient. We are a small company, and we value doing things honestly and with integrity that only we can do,” says Tomoki Okamura, representative director, president and Chief Executive Officer. That philosophy drives every stage of production, from raw material consultation through final inspection and Manufacturing Outlook APAC names Okamura the Top Square Nuts Manufacturer in APAC 2026 as a direct reflection of that standard. A Manufacturing Method Worth Preserving How does Okamura maintain competitiveness using traditional press processing techniques in modern manufacturing? Press processing is an older technique, and the industry has largely moved on. Okamura has not. It designs and manufactures its own tooling in-house, giving it direct control over quality at the earliest stage of the production chain while passing cost advantages to clients. That pairing of process ownership and pricing efficiency is something few competitors can match, and it has kept it relevant across automotive, electrical, construction and connector markets where procurement teams balance spec compliance against unit cost. Annual output exceeds 200 million nuts, a volume that makes visual inspection not just impractical but statistically inadequate. Roughly 20 years ago, complaints from an automotive client about defective products reaching the assembly line prompted Okamura to invest in full-camera inspection systems. The decision changed it. Camera inspection machines now screen virtually all outgoing products, identifying dimensional anomalies and incomplete tapping before any unit leaves the facility. Camera inspection has reduced defect outflow to near zero. Downstream clients no longer face the production stoppages that sporadic defects routinely cause, and this has built credibility across its customer base.