He and seven friends started Kyoto Ceramics in 1959. Renamed Kyocera, Inamori's company listed on the Tokyo stock exchange in 1974, when it was already a large ceramic-parts supplier with plants at home, in the U.S. and Germany. Kyocera's research labs kept developing new uses for ceramics. Kyocera started making electronics components and products like Contax cameras. Inamori formed DDI with Sony and other companies in 1984, when Tokyo liberalized the long-distance market.
Business people buy cellular phones, which can be used to make overseas calls to selected cities.
The technology is untested and Iridium will not have the market to itself. British-based ICO Global Communications and Global Star and Odyssey, both backed by U.S. interests, are developing similar satellite systems. That's fine with Inamori, a free marketer. He strongly urged the Japanese government to dismantle monopolies and open up the country to foreigners when he chaired a business group advising on deregulation from 1993 to 1995. Inamori has chosen a successor in Kyocera president Ito Kensuke and hand-picked the CEOs of DDI and other subsidiaries.