Virtually overnight ballooning inflation hit the Japanese economy. The money we had raised to start our electrolytic capacitor manufacturing business lost a large percentage of its value. In the end, we had to abandon our business plans and saw the hope of making a fortune with our "quality and production standardization system" disappear. However, this did not hold us back for long. We decided that if we could not make capacitors, we would produce and market the pH meter we had invented to monitor the manufacturing process. In March 1950, we made our first glass electrode pH meter. Our initial customers included Kanto Denka Kogyo Co., Ltd.'s Shibukawa factory, Beppu Chemical, and Toyobo Co., Ltd.'s Inuyama factory.

The war in Korea fueled the world economy and stimulated demand for Japanese exports as well as demand in the domestic market. Against this background, the need for pH meters for use in manufacturing processes grew rapidly, particularly in the chemical industry. A major fact supporting that industry was worldwide growth in demand for fertilizers as food production increased. In response chemical companies strengthened their ammonium sulphate production capabilities; a move that, in turn, spurred orders for pH meters, which had become indispensable to the manufacture of high quality products.

Our first pH meter, the model N only registered the difference in the superconducting force of a solution. However, we forged ahead with our research and released a series of pH meters that improved on this original product: the model M, which gave numeric pH readings, and the model H. In 1951, we commenced full-scale marketing of pH meters as a sale agent for Osaka Kitahama Seisakusho.

A substantial capital investment is not required to manufacture pH meters. However, it was not my intention to continue operating as a "one man business" but to start out anew as a company. Fortunately, we received financial support from the Kyoto business community, and on January 26, 1953, HORIBA Ltd. was established. A pH meter had launched a company.