The Strange World of Japanese IBM PCs

When I think of American IBM PC history, I think of button-down shirts, pocket protectors, and expensive but very well-built machines. I think "industry" and "productivity"—of machines with very little built-in capability for graphics and sound.

But in Japan, things were different. In a culture that seemed unafraid to embrace adult playfulness and creativity, many Japanese IBM PCs shipped in a wide variety of whimsical form factors and often catered to multimedia and gaming audiences. Unsurprisingly, these machines officially never made their way to the US.

Creativity differences aside, other Japanese IBM localization issues included smaller living spaces, the need to support a character set that required high-resolution graphics to be readable on a screen, and the fact that the Japanese were physically smaller people on average than most Americans. Each of these factors dictated Japanese PC design.

In the slides ahead, we'll take a look at a handful of odd, interesting, and fun Japanese IBM PCs that were never marketed in the US. If you're anything like me, you'll probably wish that at least of a few of these machines had made their way across the Pacific.

1. IBM Personal Computer JX (1984)

The IBM PC JX was essentially a version of the IBM PCjr configured and packaged to appeal to the Japanese PC market (although it did see release in Australia as well). The primary distinction from its American counterpart was an industrial design that offered a dark gray color scheme at a time when all other IBM PCs were beige. It also included two 3.5-inch floppy drives and a higher-quality infrared wireless keyboard than the PCjr. Like the PCjr, it included two cartridge ports and supported extended colors and sound capabilities, while limited compatibility with the IBM PC hampered its commercial appeal.

2. IBM Palm Top PC 110

The Palm Top PC 100 was a small, Japanese-only x86 PC that weighed a mere 715 grams. It packed a 33MHz 486 CPU, 4MB of ram, 4MB of onboard flash storage, an integrated soundcard and speakers, a 4.7-inch 256-color display at 640-by-480 resolution, and a compact keyboard into a tiny package that you could fold up and place in the palm of your hand. It accepted expansion via a PCMCIA slot, and one could optionally purchase a separate 3.5-inch floppy drive to sit under the PC 110 that was as big as the computer itself.

3. IBM PS/55E Green-PC (2000)

The IBM Green PC began as an environmentally friendly concept PC announced as early as 1993, but as far as I can tell, it didn't actually hit the Japanese market until around 2000 (and this particular machine never made it to the US, although a different precursor, the PS/2E did). The idea was to use ThinkPad-derived technology such as a flat panel display and an integrated sleep mode to keep everything as low-power as possible. Also, the reduced physical footprint of the machine (and keyboard) meant that fewer materials would be consumed during its manufacture.

4. IBM ThinkPad 550 BJ (1993)

The ThinkPad 550 BJ is not nearly as naughty as its name suggests -- the "BJ" in this case stands for "BubbleJet," which was a trademark for inkjet printing technology developed by Canon. As the picture illustrates, the 550 BJ shipped with an integrated inkjet printer in its base that allowed printing on the go. A similar approach was also used in Canon's NoteJet laptop.

5. IBM PS/55Z 5530U (1991)

In Japan, the PS/2 was known as the PS/55 series, and it included many models not released in the West. This suspiciously Mac-looking PS/55 family member appealed to the Japanese market due to its compact size and integrated nature (they have small apartments over there). In its 1993 iteration, seen here, the 5530U was a Micro Channel-based machine that included a 32MHz 386 CPU, 2 to 14MB of RAM, an integrated 13-inch color XGA display (1024 by 768), and Windows 3.1. A fold-down panel on the front concealed a 3.5-inch floppy disk drive and an optional CD-ROM drive. I want one.

6. IBM PS/55 5530Z02 (1988)

While the US saw a launch of the IBM PS/2 Model 25, an underpowered all-in-one machine with a 8086 CPU, IBM Japan released a long series of integrated computers such as the 5530Z02 (catchy name, I know) seen here. This particular machine was the low-end model of the 5530Z series, sporting a 10MHz 286 CPU, 1 to 4MB of RAM, two 3.5-inch 1.4MB floppy drives, and no hard drive. Other units included an integrated hard disk, and still later units incorporated more powerful microprocessors.

7. IBM PS/V Vision Model 2408 (1992)

The IBM PS/V series took its name from DOS/V (V for VGA), which was an industry standard that allowed computers to display Japanese script in higher resolution VGA graphics using software-defined character sets (as opposed to specialized hardware chips that preceded DOS/V). As a side effect of supporting higher-resolution graphics by default, the machines were generally well equipped for multimedia, often supporting CD-ROM drives, integrated sound hardware, and higher resolution graphics than most PC compatibles at the time. The Vision model seen here is an example of that multimedia emphasis.

I hope you've enjoyed our little tour through these Japanese IBM oddities. If anybody needs me, I'll be flea-market shopping in Japan.