In 2008, JASCO celebrates its 50th anniversary in the analytical instrumentation market. JASCO has gone from a small, local company to a global corporation located in over 57 countries. Today, as in 1958 when JASCO was founded, the company is exceptionally proud of the quality of its products and the prompt service and support provided to its customers.

In the mid-1950's researchers at the Institute of Optics, at what is now Tsukuba University, required an infrared spectrophotometer for their research. Since a commercially available instrument did not exist in Japan, they undertook the challenge of developing their own. Their combined efforts produced the DS-101 Prism Infrared Spectrophotometer. This solution-based approach became the foundation for all future JASCO instrument manufacturing endeavors.

Other research groups began asking these scientists to replicate the instrument for use within their laboratories. With increased demand for more instruments, JASCO Corp. (Japan Spectroscopic Co., Ltd.) was founded in 1958 in order to provide the scientific community with optical spectroscopy products.

After the DS-101, JASCO released subsequent models, such as the DS-201 and DS-301. The DS-301 was the most advanced prism infrared spectrophotometer of its day, its unique optical design utilized triple path, double beam, double monochromator. It is of note that specific optical elements such as the thermocouple detector were specifically developed by JASCO. These efforts and innovations made JASCO a pioneer in the manufacturing of infrared spectrophotometers.