Global Graphics has increased its commitment to the Japanese and Asia Pacific market by establishing a registered company or Kabushiki Kaisha (KK) in Japan. The new office in Tokyo is staffed by a Japanese national, Yoshiyuki Hagiwara, and will provide local support for the company’s existing Japanese customer base, as well as new business opportunities in the Far East.

Global Graphics has been supplying the Harlequin RIP (raster image processor) to the Japanese graphics arts market for many years via Original Equipment Manufacturers including Ryobi, Konica, Mitsubishi, Fujitsu and Morisawa. In October 2002 it announced a three-year agreement with JustSystem, Japan’s largest developer and supplier of software to integrate
Global Graphics’ Portable Document Format (PDF) creation software, Jaws PDF Creator?, into Justsystem’s top selling word processing application Ichitaro.

There are also an increasing number of opportunities in Japan and the Far East for the Company’s Jaws RIP among manufacturers of digital printers, digital photocopiers, multi-function devices, and controller boards, a market segment whose growth is accelerating due to a sharp increased demand
for speed, reliability, colour and quality.

Jim Freidah, Global Graphics Software’s president and chief operating officer, comments, “Currently the market in Asia accounts for 20 per cent of our total revenues but we can see that steadily increasing. A local presence demonstrates our serious commitment to the area and will enable us to provide Japanese language support more easily to our existing customers.”

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