NKK CORPORATION

formerly (until 1988) Nippon Kokan Kk, major Japanese industrial company and one of the country's largest steelmakers. Headquarters are in Tokyo. Nippon Kokan KK was founded in 1912 to make products using the steel from Japan's first steel mills. The company's innovative seamless steel pipe proved superior to conventional welded pipe, and Nippon Kokan eventually also began producing raw steel from iron ore. Nippon Kokan expanded greatly in the decades after World War II, with large steelmaking complexes at Fukuyama (in Hiroshima prefecture) and at Kawasaki and Yokohama (the Keihin Steel Works, near Tokyo). In the late 1970s the company expanded its Keihin complex by building an ultramodern steelworks on man-made Ogi Island in Tokyo Bay. The NKK Corporation is the second largest steelmaker in Japan (after the Nippon Steel Corporation). In addition to producing a great array of finished and semifinished steel products, the company designs and builds industrial plants, ships, and other large-scale steel structures; produces specialty metals, ceramics, plastics, and chemicals; and makes computer hardware and software.