| 1920 | Iwata Matrix Co., Ltd. began production of matrix. |
| 1938 | Launched Horizontally-expanded fonts for newspaper. |
| 1941 | The Horizontally-expanded font for newspapers was developed. This was the origin of the Iwata Newspaper Font, which has been adopted by many newspaper publishers. |
| 1947 | Incorporated as Iwata Matrix Works Corporation. After that, the company increased the variations of fonts which were used by many newspapers, public agencies, publishers and typesetting machine manufacturers. From the mid-1950’s to mid-1970’s, Iwata Font became very popular and Iwata became a leading font manufacturer. |
| 1950 | Introduced the Benton engraving machines. |
| 1969 | The reorganization of Iwata Matrix Group led to the establishment of Iwata Corporation. Subsequently, the katakana font is used for Iwata when the corporate name is described in Japanese. |
| 1988 | The company name was changed to Iwata Engineering Corporation. At the same time, a special division for digital fonts was set up in Tendo, Yamagata. The company started to produce outline fonts and dotted fonts with the introduction of Ikarus typography software from URW (Germany). |
| 1995 | The company name was changed to Iwata Engineering Corporation. At the same time, a special division for digital fonts was set up in Tendo, Yamagata. The company started to produce outline fonts and dotted fonts with the introduction of Ikarus typography software from URW (Germany). |
| 1996 | Iwata Font Library PostScript Font, a font package, was released. Subsequently, CID font, TrueType font and OpenType font packages were launched and were very well-received. |
| 1999 | Became a sales agency for the Ikarus system of URW, distributing the system in Japan and giving support to large-scale newspaper publishers and printing companies. Around this time, the company contributed to the enlargement of types in newspapers, being consigned to digitalize characters by the Yomiuri Shimbun, the Asahi Shimbun, the Chunichi Shimbun and other newspapers. The company supported the open access and networking of the newspaper production system as a font maker by providing the technology for font production when these newspaper offices updated their systems. |
| 2001 | The company name was changed back to Iwata Corporation at the time of the merger with Iwata Matrix Works. |
| 2006 | Launched Industry’s First IWATA UD Font. |
| 2009 | Won the Good Design Award for IWATA UD Font |
Producing for over 90 years, the company stores over 300,000 matrices. The matrices can be regarded as a literal legacy. During its history the company has offered its products in the form of type matrices and/or digital data to many newspaper publishers, publishing companies, public offices, typesetting machine manufacturers and electrical manufacturers. The matrices are still in use.