Epoch Co., Ltd.

Epoch Co., Ltd. (株式会社エポック社, Kabushiki Gaisha Epokku Sha) is a Japanese toy and computer games company founded in 1958 which is best known for manufacturing Barcode Battler and Doraemon video games, and the Sylvanian Families series of toys. Its current Representative President is Michihiro Maeda. They also made Japan's first successful programmable console video game system, the Cassette Vision, in 1981. Founded in May 1958 by Maeda Taketora and three others in Tokyo with ¥1 million, Maeda Taketora is made president, eleven months later, it had increased its capital to ¥2.5 million. Epoch participated in the first Japanese international toy trade fair in 1962. It moved to its headquarters to its current location in Tokyo in 1963. After 20 years of its founding in 1978, Epoch had increased to ¥200 million - 200 times the original startup cost. In the 1980s it briefly had a United States office in Englewood, New Jersey, which sold imported English versions of its products. In September 2001 it founded an international branch. It is most famous for its Doraemon and Sylvanian Families toy and video game productions.