QR code: From Toyota factory to Vietnamese restaurant, thank you Japan
QR codes appear everywhere today: from restaurant menus, mobile payments, airline tickets to medical certificates. Few people know that this technology was invented in 1994 at a company belonging to the Toyota group, stemming from the practical needs of the automobile production line. Masahiro Hara, a Japanese engineer, led the development of QR codes with a very specific initial goal: to help track components more effectively in a factory environment.
Reason for QR code appearance
In the early 1990s, the Japanese auto industry was shifting to a flexible production model with many types and small quantities. Toyota's kanban system requires detailed tracking of information about each component. Traditional one-dimensional barcodes can only contain about 20 alphanumeric characters. Therefore, a complex component often requires many different barcodes, sometimes up to 5–10 codes. Workers must scan each code one by one, leading to thousands of scans per day during peak season. Furthermore, a greasy factory environment can easily cause barcodes to be smudged, causing production disruption. Denso - a subsidiary of Toyota specializing in electronics and automation - took on the task of improving this system. In 1992, Masahiro Hara, then working in Denso's barcode and optical recognition (OCR) development department, was tasked with developing a new type of code. The goal was to create code with greater information capacity, faster read speeds, and the ability to withstand harsh factory conditions. During the development of QR codes, Hara realized that one-dimensional bar codes had reached their limits in capacity and speed. He and his colleagues turned to developing two-dimensional (2D) codes. The biggest challenge is getting the scanner to quickly determine the position and orientation of the code without needing precise alignment.
Inspiration for creating QR codes
The first inspiration came from the board game Go (Go) that Hara often played on her lunch break. A chess board with black and white pieces arranged on a grid suggests a way to encode information horizontally and vertically. However, for the scanner to quickly recognize the code from any angle, special positioning patterns are needed at the three corners of the code. Another important idea came while Hara was sitting on the train. He observed a building with a different arrangement of windows upstairs than downstairs. This suggests the need for a unique "identification mark" for the scanner to distinguish the code from surrounding printed patterns.
Why do QR codes always have 3 positioning squares:
To design this positioning template, Hara and his colleagues carefully researched the black-white ratio on many printed materials such as magazines, flyers and cartons. They look for the rarest incidence to avoid confusion. After about six months of measuring and testing efforts, they determined the ratio 1:1:3:1:1. This ratio allows the scanner to instantly recognize codes regardless of viewing angle. In addition, QR codes are integrated with an error correction mechanism based on an algorithm similar to Reed-Solomon, allowing accurate reading even when the code is smudged, scratched or damaged up to about 30% of the area. This is especially suitable for greasy factory environments. After about a year and a half to two years of research and testing, the QR code was completed and introduced in 1994. The name “Quick Response” (QR) reflects the initial goal of quick response. The code can contain approximately 7,000 characters, including Kanji, and is significantly faster to read than conventional barcodes.
Patents and diffusion strategies
Denso Wave patented QR code in the US (1998), Japan (1999) and Europe (2000). Instead of charging a royalty fee per use, the company decided not to enforce intellectual property rights on the standard QR code and made the specifications public so everyone could use them for free. The reason was explained by Hara in later interviews: No matter how good the technology is, if there is no reading device infrastructure, it will be difficult to widely disseminate. The company focuses on its strength in manufacturing reading devices and related solutions, and hopes that QR codes will be jointly developed by many other companies to quickly become a global standard. This decision creates conditions for QR codes to spread without the barrier of copyright costs.
Diffusion and practical impact
Initially, QR codes were applied mainly in the automotive and logistics industries to manage components. It then expanded into areas such as marketing, e-tickets and advertising. Since the 2010s, QR codes have become strongly popular in China through mobile payment applications. In 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, QR codes played an important role in low-contact solutions: electronic menus, touchless payments, contact tracing applications and medical certification. “I'm really pleased to see it being used to help improve people's safety,” Hara said in an interview with The Guardian in 2020. “In 1994, we focused on economic purposes, never thinking it would be used for this.”
About Masahiro Hara
Masahiro Hara was born on August 8, 1957 in Tokyo, graduated from Hosei University's Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering in 1980. He continues to work at Denso Wave and still contributes to the development of QR code technology. In interviews, Hara expressed humility and surprise at how widespread her invention was. He said he once dreamed of QR codes being used worldwide, but did not expect it would penetrate deeply into daily life such as payments in Kenya or medical applications. In 2014, the QR code development team (including Hara) received the European Inventor Award - Popular Prize awarded by the European Patent Office, based on widespread public recognition after 20 years.
Reasons why QR codes are successful
QR codes succeed thanks to a combination of superior technical features and a smart dissemination strategy. Technically, the three key factors are: three-angle positioning pattern that allows reading from all directions, large information capacity, and high error correction capabilities. These characteristics directly address the limitations of traditional barcodes.
Strategically, making the specifications public and not charging royalties removes barriers to use, encouraging other companies to develop applications and devices. This creates a powerful spillover effect, turning QR codes from an industrial solution into a global technology. From this story, it shows that a successful technical invention often comes from solving a specific practical problem, combined with a vision of sharing and cooperation so that the technology is widely applied. Masahiro Hara's story of inventing QR codes is a typical example of innovation stemming from real production needs. From challenges at auto factories to being a tool that empowers billions of people in digital transactions and crisis response, QR codes illustrate the power of technology when designed with practicality and an open mind. Hara's legacy lies not only in its black and white squares, but also in the way it simply and effectively connects the physical world with the digital world.
