Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. · Fiscal year ended March 2026
From printing plates to semiconductors: how DNP moved its technology.
DNP's full name is Dai Nippon Printing, so printing is the obvious starting point. It is still economically important: Smart Communication, which includes publishing, BPO, authentication and imaging, is the largest segment. But another figure changes how the company looks. Electronics generated only ¥251.8 billion of sales, the smallest of the three business segments, while its segment operating profit of ¥50.7 billion was the largest. That business includes semiconductor photomasks, OLED metal masks and optical films. The connection becomes clearer when printing is understood not just as ink on paper, but as the process technologies used to make plates, coat materials and build precise patterns.
This is not investment advice or a stock recommendation. We reorder company-published primary-source facts to make the shape of the business easier to see.
DNP’s full name is Dai Nippon Printing.
That naturally suggests ink and paper.
Printing is still part of the company, but FY2025 reveals a much wider meaning behind the word.
Sales are ¥1.5125 trillion
The largest segment is the one closest to the familiar printing image.
Smart Communication is ¥750.3bn
Packaging, building materials and battery-related products form another large pillar.
Life & Healthcare is ¥512.3bn
The third segment is Electronics.
Electronics is ¥251.8bn
Electronics is the smallest segment by sales
FY2025 segment sales.
The ranking changes when operating profit is compared.
The smallest segment by sales has the largest segment profit
Profit ranks differently from sales
FY2025 segment operating profit.
Why does a printing company have semiconductor and OLED materials?
The answer begins at the company’s origin.
It began as a letterpress printer in 1876
Printing requires a plate before ink can reach paper.
That plate-making expertise moved into other materials.
Photographic plate-making moved into precision metal parts
DNP still describes the connection explicitly.
Printing-plate microfabrication became micro- and nano-forming
In 1970, DNP demonstrated just how fine that processing could become.
100 years of dates on a 15mm square
Microfabrication was not the only printing capability that moved into new fields.
Coating and film processing moved into different markets
Photomasks, OLED components and battery pouches look distant from books and magazines.
The process technologies make them less distant.
THE VIEW AFTER THE NUMBERS
What the numbers suggest
DNP generated ¥1.5125 trillion of sales in FY2025.
Smart Communication was the largest segment at ¥750.3 billion, followed by Life & Healthcare at ¥512.3 billion and Electronics at ¥251.8 billion.
Yet Electronics, the smallest by sales, generated ¥50.7 billion—the largest segment operating profit of the three.
That Electronics business did not arrive as something unrelated to printing.
DNP began with letterpress printing, then moved photographic plate-making and microfabrication into shadow masks and semiconductor photomasks. The same lineage now reaches OLED metal masks. Precision coating moved into optical films, while film processing moved into battery pouches.
DNP did not abandon printing to become a different company.
It repeatedly moved the process technologies behind printing—making plates, coating surfaces and laminating films—beyond paper.
Primary sources used
FY2025 Results and 2026-2028 Medium-Term Management Plan Presentation
Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. · 2026-05-13
Pages used: p.3 / p.5
Open source →Business Fields
Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd.
Open source →DNP History
Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd.
Open source →1970 Osaka Expo: Microfabrication
Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd.
Open source →Electronics
Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd.
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