Nissho Iwai

Founded: 1968^[1]

Merged with: Nichimen Co., Ltd.

Headquarters:

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Nissho Iwai Co., Ltd. (日商岩井株式会社) was a Japanese trading company, electronics manufacturer, and video game distributor. It's computer division was known as Nissho Iwai Infocom.

Company

In the early 1990s, Nissho Iwai was appointed by Sega Europe as exclusive distributor of Sega products in some of the Eastern Europe countries. However, in late 1993, Sega of Japan gave full license for all Eastern Bloc countries to Nissho Iwai, which meaned replacing Sega Europe in that region. Japanese trading house began to appointing exclusive sub-distributors for every territories.^[2] They also had contract for other regions were Sega wasn't distributing video games directly like Latin America (besides 4 countries of Mercosur where Sega had Tec Toy). Sub-distributors strategy damaged potential of Sega in the regions because distributors weren't prepared to invest in Sega's marketing, knowing that they would share benefits with other sub-distributors. In mid-1995, contract with Sega of Japan experienced and license was given back to regional distributors like Sega Europe in Eastern Europe or Sega of America in South America, which began to rebuilding of distribution network using only the most effective and experienced former sub-distributors.^[2]

Nissho Iwai is notable for assisting Sega with development of the early internet gameplay service XBAND.

In 2004, Nissho Iwai and fellow trading company Nichimen Co., Ltd. (ニチメン株式会社) merged to form Sojitz Co., Ltd. (双日株式会社).