Kubota Air Conditioner Co., Ltd.

Kubota Air Conditioner Co., Ltd. (クボタ空調株式会社) is a Japanese manufacturer of industrial air-conditioning equipment and a wholly owned subsidiary of Kubota Corporation. Headquartered in the Kyobashi district of Chuo-ku, Tokyo, the company develops, manufactures, sells and services air-handling units (AHUs), compact and unit-type air conditioners, heat-pump air conditioners, desiccant and humidity-control outdoor-air units, VAV/CAV units and related accessories. Its stated mission is to make people's air environments more comfortable, and it serves office buildings, factories, hospitals, research laboratories, clean rooms, schools, gymnasiums, warehouses and, more recently, data centers. The company was established in October 1970 as Kubota Trane Co., Ltd., a joint venture between Kubota Iron & Machinery Works (today's Kubota Corporation) and the American HVAC maker Trane. Production began at the Tochigi Plant in Utsunomiya in 1971, and the plant has remained the company's sole manufacturing base, handling everything from computer-aided selection and CAD design to fabrication and quality control. Kubota Trane became a wholly owned Kubota subsidiary in 1980 and was renamed Kubota Air Conditioner Co., Ltd. in 1998. Over the decades it added clean-room AHUs (1974), Japan-market J-type AHUs (1978), compact AHUs (1989), a cationic electrodeposition coating line (1993), a Technical Center research facility (1994), desiccant air conditioners (2001), heat-pump AHUs (2013), agricultural greenhouse heat-pump units (2014), area air conditioners and vaporizing-humidifier sterilization modules (2016), the assembled aluminum-frame EI Compact A Series (2017), humidity-control outdoor-air units (2018), the outdoor-unit-integrated heat-pump air conditioner Ref-A-ONE (2024) and data-center air conditioners (2025). Kubota Air Conditioner positions itself as an engineering-led, order-made supplier rather than a mass-market consumer brand. Its catalog spans unit-type machines from small to large with customizable specifications, compact machines that save floor space, special-purpose machines for desiccant, clean-room, retrofit and energy-saving applications, and heat-pump machines that aim to deliver central-system comfort with individual distributed heat sources. The EI Compact A Series, built on an assembled aluminum frame, is presented as a next-generation machine pursuing high functionality, corrosion resistance, light weight and maintainability. Ref-A-ONE, launched in 2024, integrates the outdoor unit into a single heat-pump air conditioner, and the company began producing data-center air conditioners in 2025 with customization to match data-center needs. Manufacturing is concentrated at the Tochigi Plant in Utsunomiya, which has a building area covering factory and test buildings, a research and development building, the Technical Center, an office building and a warehouse. Monthly production capacity is listed at 400 air-handling units and 2,000 variable-air-volume units. The Technical Center houses a calorimeter, environmental test rooms, acoustic test rooms and an AMCA-standard fan performance test facility. The company holds ISO 9001 (since 2000) and ISO 14001 (since 2004) certification. It operates branch offices in Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka, employs roughly 380 people as of January 1, 2026, and is led by President Takashi Tamura. Its main bank is Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and its capital is 400 million yen.

Kubota Air Conditioner Co., Ltd. traces its origins to October 1970, when Kubota Iron & Machinery Works (today's Kubota Corporation) and the American HVAC manufacturer Trane established the joint venture Kubota Trane Co., Ltd. The new company's Tochigi Plant was completed and began operating in Utsunomiya in 1971, and that plant has remained the company's manufacturing base ever since. In 1974 the company started producing air-handling units (AHUs) for clean rooms, and in 1978 it developed and began producing J-type AHUs for the Japanese market. In 1980 Kubota Trane became a wholly owned subsidiary of Kubota Iron & Machinery Works, with Kubota taking a 100% equity stake. The 1980s and 1990s brought further capability building: compact AHUs with a space-saving structure entered production in 1989, a cationic electrodeposition coating line was completed in 1993, and the Technical Center research facility was established in 1994. In 1998 the company changed its name to Kubota Air Conditioner Co., Ltd., reflecting its integration into the Kubota brand. The 2000s saw a focus on quality and environmental management and on new product categories. The company obtained ISO 9001 certification in 2000 and ISO 14001 certification in 2004. In 2001 it began producing desiccant air conditioners capable of controlling temperature and humidity independently. In 2013 it started producing AHUs with heat pumps, and in 2014 it added heat-pump air conditioners for agricultural vinyl greenhouses under the product name Guppy Bazooka. Also in 2014 the Tokyo head office was relocated. A significant structural change came in 2016, when Kubota Corporation transferred its development and research functions to the company, unifying production and sales. That same year the company began producing area air conditioners and vaporizing-humidifier sterilization modules. In 2017 it started producing the EI Compact A Series, built on an assembled aluminum-frame structure. In 2018 it added humidity-control outdoor-air treatment units. In 2024 the company began producing Ref-A-ONE, an outdoor-unit-integrated heat-pump air conditioner, and in 2025 it started producing data-center air conditioners, extending its portfolio into the rapidly growing data-center cooling market. Throughout its history the company has concentrated manufacturing at the Tochigi Plant in Utsunomiya, which handles computer-aided selection, CAD design, production with advanced equipment and strict quality control. The plant's stated monthly production capacity is 400 air-handling units and 2,000 variable-air-volume units. The Technical Center within the plant includes a calorimeter, environmental test rooms, acoustic test rooms (reverberation and anechoic chambers), an AMCA-standard fan performance test facility and a gas removal experimental device. The company operates branch offices in Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka, employs roughly 380 people as of January 1, 2026, and is led by Representative Director and President Takashi Tamura. Its capital is 400 million yen and its main bank is Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.

• 2025

  Started production of data-center air conditioners.

• 2024

  Started production of Ref-A-ONE outdoor-unit-integrated heat-pump air conditioner.

• 2018

  Started production of humidity-control outdoor-air treatment units.

• 2017

  Started production of the assembled aluminum-frame EI Compact A Series.

• 2016

  Kubota Corporation transferred development and research functions to the company, unifying production and sales; started production of area air conditioners and vaporizing-humidifier sterilization modules.

• 2014

  Started production of Guppy Bazooka heat-pump air conditioners for agricultural vinyl greenhouses; Tokyo head office relocated.

• 2013

  Started production of AHUs with heat pumps.

• 2004

  Obtained ISO 14001 certification.

• 2001

  Started production of desiccant air conditioners with independent temperature and humidity control.

• 2000

  Obtained ISO 9001 certification.

• 1998

  Company name changed to Kubota Air Conditioner Co., Ltd.

• 1994

  Technical Center research facility established.

• 1993

  Cationic electrodeposition coating line completed.

• 1989

  Started production of compact AHUs with a space-saving structure.

• 1980

  Became a wholly owned subsidiary of Kubota Iron & Machinery Works (100% equity).

• 1978

  Developed and began production of J-type AHUs for the Japanese market.

• 1974

  Started production of air-handling units (AHUs) for clean rooms.

• 1971

  Tochigi Plant completed and began operating.

• 1970

  Established in October as Kubota Trane Co., Ltd., a joint venture between Kubota Iron & Machinery Works and Trane of the United States.

Engineering-led, order-made industrial HVAC supplier within the Kubota Group, focused on custom air-handling and heat-pump solutions for buildings, factories, clean rooms, schools and data centers.

• Ref-A-ONE

  Outdoor-unit-integrated heat-pump air conditioner; catalog released in 2025.

• EI Compact A Series

  Assembled aluminum-frame compact air conditioner pursuing high functionality, corrosion resistance, light weight and maintainability.

• Data-center air conditioners

  Air conditioners customizable to data-center needs; production began in 2025.

• Area air conditioners

  Air conditioners for heat countermeasures in factories, workshops, warehouses and gymnasiums.

• Heat-pump air conditioners

  Individual distributed heat-source air conditioners delivering central-system-like comfort.

• Desiccant air conditioners

  Air conditioners controlling temperature and humidity independently; production began in 2001.

• Humidity-control outdoor-air treatment units

  Compact desiccant air conditioners for efficient outdoor-air treatment and indoor humidity control.

• VAV/CAV units

  Devices controlling the air volume of air conditioners.

• Clean-room air-handling units

  AHUs with HEPA filters for semiconductors, LCDs and pharmaceuticals requiring high cleanliness.

• Guppy Bazooka

  Heat-pump air conditioner for agricultural vinyl greenhouses; production began in 2014.

1. 1クボタ空調株式会社kubota-airconditioner.co.jp
2. 2会社概要・沿革｜会社案内｜クボタ空調株式会社kubota-airconditioner.co.jp
3. 3空調機について｜製品案内｜クボタ空調株式会社kubota-airconditioner.co.jp
4. 4事業内容｜会社案内｜クボタ空調株式会社kubota-airconditioner.co.jp
5. 5Kubota Air Conditioner Co., Ltd. (Japan) - Wikidatawikidata.org