Stanley Electric

Stanley Electric Co., Ltd. (スタンレー電気株式会社; Sutanrē Denki Kabushiki-gaisha) is a Japanese manufacturer of electric lights. Stanley has 36 consolidated subsidiaries, three associated companies, 67 factories and offices in 18 countries, and over 16,000 employees.

The main customers for its core business, automotive lighting, are Honda and Nissan. Other customers using Stanley's products include Toyota, Mazda, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Ford and Chrysler. Stanley is listed in the TOPIX of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Initially Kitano Shokai (北野商会), the company was founded in 1920 by Takaharu Kitano. At the time, only about 8,000 cars were present in Japan, all of them imported.^{[citation needed]}

In 1933, the company became incorporated as a kabushiki gaisha and was renamed after explorer Henry Morton Stanley, who was famous for exploring Africa. As the company states, Kitano was impressed by Stanley's vision, courage and pioneering spirit. A branch in Osaka was established the following year. From 1943 to 1949, the company was known as Kitano Denki Kogyo Co., Ltd. (北野電気工業株式会社; Kitano Denki Kōgyō Kabushiki-gaisha).

Stanley was first listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1961. The company established its first international branch in 1968 in Taiwan, followed by an American branch in 1979 and a French branch in 1984. Stanley founded a joint venture based in Melbourne in 2002 with the German company Hella.

Stanley's products include HID and LED headlights. Stanley developed the world's first LED high-mount stop lamp.

Stanley also produces all types of automotive lighting, backlighted LED displays, camera flashes, automotive interior displays, sensors, light fixtures and streetlights, as used in Shanghai and Tokyo.

In 2013, Stanley announced plans to concentrate more on the development of LED headlights and planned to raise the LED share from 1% to 20% by 2017.