Casio

WorldBrand briefing

AI supplement

Original synthesis to sit alongside the encyclopedia article below. Not part of Wikipedia; verify facts on Wikipedia when precision matters.

Casio is a Japanese multinational consumer and commercial electronics manufacturing company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 1946, it has grown into a globally recognized brand known for innovative products including rugged digital watches, electronic calculators, musical keyboards, and various consumer electronics devices.

Key moments

April 1946Tadao Kashio founds Kashio Seisakusho, the precursor to Casio Computer Co., Ltd.
1957Launches the world's first compact all-electric calculator, the Casio 14-A, and formally incorporates Casio Computer Co., Ltd.
1967Opens its first European sales office and enters the North American market
1983Reveals the iconic G-Shock line of durable digital watches
1995Unveils the QV-10, the world's first consumer digital camera with an LCD screen
2018Exits the compact digital camera market
2024Launches the Moflin smart pet robot
2025Releases a limited-edition Evangelion collaboration watch model

Casio competes across several key electronics segments:

Watch Industry: The G-Shock series leads the global rugged digital watch market, competing with established brands like Seiko and Citizen in the mainstream space, and Swiss luxury watchmakers for premium segments. Budget smartwatch brands from Chinese manufacturers such as Amazfit also challenge Casio's basic smartwatch offerings.
Calculators & Educational Tools: Casio is a top global provider of graphing and standard calculators, with direct competition from Texas Instruments and Hewlett-Packard in the STEM education device market, especially in North American schools.
Musical & Office Electronics: In electronic keyboards and digital pianos, Casio competes with market leader Yamaha. Its office labeling tools and electronic dictionaries also face competition from global office supply brands.

G-Shock is one of the most recognizable rugged watch franchises worldwide with a loyal consumer following
Dominates the affordable educational calculator market used in schools across many countries
Faces increasing competition from Chinese consumer electronics brands in budget smart devices
Maintains a dedicated niche market for electronic musical instruments and office labeling products

Casio is a long-standing Japanese consumer electronics brand with robust overall brand strength built on a foundation of consistent innovation, durable product design, and accessible pricing across diversified product categories. The brand has cultivated strong equity by focusing on functional, niche segments that many larger electronics firms have ignored, allowing it to capture leading positions in multiple high-priority global markets.

Iconic product lines such as the G-Shock rugged watch series have elevated Casio from a purely functional electronics manufacturer to a recognized cultural icon, with cross-generational appeal that spans practical everyday users, fashion enthusiasts, and dedicated product collectors. This blend of utility and cultural cachet gives Casio a unique competitive edge across its core operating segments.

While Casio faces growing competition from low-cost manufacturers in entry-level segments and established luxury brands in the premium watch market, its established global distribution networks, loyal customer base, and history of adaptive innovation support its ongoing brand strength. The brand’s diversified product portfolio across watches, calculators, musical instruments, and commercial electronics also helps mitigate risks associated with shifting consumer demand in the fast-changing consumer electronics industry.

Brand leadership

Score: 82/100

Casio holds clear leading market positions in multiple core segments, including dominant share in the global rugged digital watch market via its G-Shock line, and a top-two ranking among global suppliers of graphing calculators for K-12 and higher education markets. Its clear focus on product durability and accessible innovation creates strong differentiation that sets it apart from competing brands across categories.

Customer interaction

Score: 75/100

Casio maintains active engagement with customers through lifestyle-focused social media campaigns, particularly for its G-Shock line, which has a large global community of collectors and enthusiasts. The brand incorporates user feedback to refine product features, though most customer interaction remains product-focused rather than highly personalized across its full product range.

Brand momentum

Score: 70/100

Casio generates consistent consumer buzz through limited-edition G-Shock collaborations and ongoing line expansions, and has adapted its watch offerings to include basic smart features to compete in the growing wearables market. Growth remains steady rather than explosive, as the brand faces increasing pressure from low-cost Chinese smartwatch brands in entry-level segments.

Brand stability

Score: 90/100

Casio has maintained consistent financial performance and a coherent brand identity across nearly 80 years of industry shifts, with no major scandals that have eroded long-term consumer trust. Its diversified product portfolio across multiple unrelated electronics segments insulates it from demand downturns in any single category.

Brand age

Score: 95/100

Casio was founded in 1946, giving it nearly 80 years of operating history and widespread consumer recognition across multiple generations of global customers. Its long market presence has allowed it to build deep brand equity and established retail distribution networks in most major markets.

Industry profile

Score: 80/100

Casio holds a strong reputation within the global consumer electronics industry as a pioneer of affordable, reliable digital innovation. It is credited with democratizing access to digital technology from early electronic calculators to consumer electronic keyboards, setting industry standards for accessible functional electronics.

Globalization

Score: 85/100

Casio distributes its products across nearly all major global markets, with strong sales penetration in North America, Europe, East Asia, and fast-growing emerging markets. It adapts product offerings to regional needs, such as graphing calculator models tailored to local educational curricula, and maintains fully operational regional marketing and distribution centers worldwide.

AI can support reasoned analysis of a brand’s value based on publicly available market position and brand equity data. All value-related inferences included in this supplement are illustrative only, and do not represent an official audited brand value assessment. For a fully verified, audited brand value calculation for Casio, contact the World Brand Lab directly.

Overview

Casio Computer Co., Ltd.

native name	カシオ計算機株式会社
romanized name	Kashio Keisanki Kabushiki-gaisha
type	Public
traded as	tyo: 6952
foundation	April 1946 (as Kashio Seisakujo)‡R1R‡ June 1957 (as Casio Computer Co., Ltd.)
founders	Tadao Kashio Toshio Kashio
location	Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan‡R2R‡

History

area served	Worldwide

industry	Electronics

products	Watches clocks calculators digital cameras electronic musical instruments label printers page printers office computers

revenue	¥268.8 billion (2024)‡R4R‡

operating income	¥22.01 billion (2024)‡R4R‡

net income	¥14.21 billion (2024)‡R4R‡

assets	¥349.9 billion (2024)‡R4R‡

equity	¥203.3 billion (2024)‡R4R‡

num employees	9,594 (2024)‡R5R‡

subsid	Casio (China) Co., Ltd. Casio (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd. Casio Electronic Technology (Zhongshan) Co., Ltd. Casio Electronics (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. Casio Timepiece (Dongguan) Co., Ltd. Casio Electronics (Shaoguan) Co., Ltd. Casio Taiwan Co., Ltd. Casio India Co., Pvt. Ltd. Casio Taiwan Co., Ltd. Casio Singapore Pte., Ltd. Casio (Thailand) Co., Ltd. Casio Marketing (Thailand) Co., Ltd. Casio Malaysia, Sdn. Bhd. Casio Canada Ltd. Casio America Inc. Casio Mexico Marketing, S. de R. L. de C.V. Casio Brasil Comercio de Produtos Eletronicos Ltda. Casio Latin America S.A. Casio Electronics Co. Ltd. Casio Europe GmbH Casio France S.A.S. Casio Benelux B.V. Casio Espana, S.L. Casio Italia S.r.l. Casio Middle East and Africa FZE

homepage	https://world.casio.com

In April 1946, Tadao Kashio (1917–1993), an engineer specializing in fabrication technology,[1] established Kashio Seisakujo, taking subcontracting jobs, with three employees and his younger brothers, Toshio, Kazuo, and Yukio helping.[6]

Kashio Seisakujo's first original product was the yubiwa (finger ring) pipe,[7] that would hold a cigarette, allowing the wearer to smoke the cigarette down to its nub while also preventing burned fingertips and leaving the wearer's hands free.[8] Japan was impoverished following World War II, so cigarettes were valuable, and the invention was a success.

In 1949, after seeing the electric calculators at the first Business Show in Ginza, Tokyo, Kashio and his younger brothers (Toshio, Kazuo, and Yukio) used their profits from the yubiwa pipe to develop their calculators. Most of the calculators at that time worked using gears and could be operated by hand using a crank or using a motor (see adding machine). Toshio possessed some knowledge of electronics and set out to make a calculator using solenoids.

In 1954, after dozens of prototypes were tested, the desk-sized calculator was finished and was Japan's first electro-mechanical calculator. One of the central and more important innovations of the calculator was its adoption of the 10-key number pad; at that time other calculators were using a "full keypad", which meant that each place in the number (1s, 10s, 100s, etc. ...) had nine keys. Another distinguishing innovation was the use of a single display window instead of the three display windows (one for each argument and one for the answer) used in other calculators.[1][9]

In June 1957, Casio Computer Co., Ltd. was formed by the four Kashio brothers, Tadao, Toshio, Kazuo, and Yukio.[1] That year, Casio released the Model 14-A, sold for 485,000 yen,[10] the first all-electric compact calculator, which was based on relay technology.[11]

In 1974, Casio released its first digital wristwatch, called the CASIOTRON. It was the first wristwatch in the world to include an automatic calendar function.[12] In 1977, it released a retro-futuristic wristwatch, called the F100. The watch was one of the first wristwatches in the world to be made primarily out of resin, making it very light compared to other companies' heavy metal-made watches and enabling future Casio watches to enter mass production more easily.[13] In 1989, Casio released another important wristwatch: the F-91W, the most sold wristwatch in the world with an annual production of 3 million units.[14] During the 1980s and 1990s, Casio introduced a wide range of innovative watches featuring advanced and futuristic functions for their time. Among these was the Casio AT-550, a model equipped with a built-in calculator and a touchscreen interface, reflecting the company’s emphasis on integrating emerging digital technologies into wristwatch design.[15]

In the 1980s, Casio's budget electronic instruments and its line of affordable home electronic musical keyboard instruments became popular. The company also became well known for the wide variety and innovation of its wristwatches. It was one of the earliest manufacturers of quartz watches, both digital and analog. It also began selling calculator watches during this time. Casio also introduced one of the first watches that could display the time in many different time zones of the world and with features like recording temperature, atmospheric-pressure and altitude. In the later years, Casio's wristwatches were fitted with receivers to synchronise with radio towers around the world and Global Positioning System for timekeeping accuracy.

A number of notable digital camera innovations have also been made by Casio, including the QV-10, the first consumer digital camera with a liquid-crystal display (LCD) on the back (developed by a team led by Hiroyuki Suetaka in 1995), the first consumer three-megapixel camera, the first true ultra-compact model, and the first digital camera to incorporate ceramic lens technology, using Lumicera.[16]

In July 2019, the company's UK arm, Casio Electronics Co. Ltd, was fined £3.7 million after admitting resale price maintenance (a form of price-fixing) on its line of digital keyboards and digital pianos between 2013 and 2018, in breach of the United Kingdom's Competition Act 1998.[17][18]

Products

Casio's products include watches, calculators, electronic keyboards and other digital products such as digital cameras (Exilim series), film cameras, cash registers, laptops and sub-notebook computers, mobile phones, PDAs (E-Data Bank), electronic dictionaries, digital diaries (early PDAs), electronic games, personal computers (e.g. FP-1000, FP-200), computer printers, clocks, and portable televisions.

In the 1970s and 80s, Casio was best known for its electronic (including scientific) calculators, electronic musical instruments and affordable digital watches incorporating innovative technology. Today, Casio is most commonly known for making durable and reliable electronic products.[19] The G-Shock range of shock-resistant watches is also very popular, with the original 1983 G-Shock DW-5000C being highly sought after by collectors. The scientific calculators made by Casio especially the CLASSWIZ series of calculators are known for being affordable while incorporating a host of functions as compared to its competitors.[20]