Sleeping-goods manufacturer Nishikawa Sangyo Co. Ltd., founded in Omi Province (modern-day Shiga Prefecture) in 1566, got its start in business selling mosquito netting. The company's Tokyo retail outlet, on the opposite side of the Nihonbashi Bridge from the Mitsukoshi department store, has been in operation since 1615.
Not content to, er, rest on its laurels, the 446-year-old company established the Japan Research Laboratory of Sleep Science in November 1984, marking a first for the bedding industry to involve itself directly in the efficacy of sleep.
"Bedding is not only a furnishing for sleep, but a thing that helps consumers feel rested and comfortable the next day," its president, Yasuyuki Nishikawa, is quoted as saying in the July issue of Japan Close-Up, an English-language magazine published by the PHP Institute in Kyoto.