Taiyo Yuden Co., Ltd. (太陽誘電株式会社, Taiyō Yūden Kabushiki-gaisha, translated as Sun Dielectric Co., Ltd.) is a Japanese materials and electronics company, situated in Kyobashi, Chuo, Tokyo, that helped pioneer recordable CD technology (CD-R) along with Sony and Philips in 1988. Founded 60 years ago, Taiyo Yuden currently operates factories in Japan, Singapore, Korea, China, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Malaysia.
They were well known for their recordable optical media, and were regarded by many to be the very best in the industry. In June 2015, Taiyo Yuden announced their intention to discontinue their recording media business by December of that year, citing market shrinkage, changing market conditions, difficulty while improving earnings and a hike in the cost of raw materials.
The company employs almost twenty thousand people worldwide and reports annual sales of more than $2 billion. The current CEO and President is Shoichi Tosaka. The company is a constituent of the Nikkei 225 stock market index.