Stanley Electrical buys Iwasaki for US$460m in Japan AV push

January 31, 2026

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Stanley’s conventional enterprise is in automotive lighting, however may its future be in autonomous car infrastructure? By Stewart Burnett

Japanese automotive lighting producer Stanley Electrical introduced on 29 January that it’s going to purchase compatriot Iwasaki Electrical for JP¥70.2bn (US$460m), marking the corporate’s largest-ever acquisition. Stanley will buy all shares of the Tokyo-based highway and manufacturing facility lighting specialist from non-public fairness agency Carlyle Group, and plans to make use of the acquisition to pursue a enterprise into lighting for autonomous driving infrastructure.

The transaction stays topic to regulatory approvals and is anticipated to shut by April 2026. By buying Iwasaki, Stanley is attempting to deal with strategic challenges dealing with its core enterprise of automotive tools, which accounted for 86% of web gross sales for the fiscal 12 months ending March 2025.

Sadly for the provider, automotive lighting as a enterprise faces restricted alternatives for worth addition in comparison with different areas like engine elements as electrification reshapes the provision chain. Now it’s trying past its conventional enterprise in direction of high-growth alternatives in autonomy. Concurrently Japan has been accelerating its investments into autonomous driving infrastructure; the federal government beforehand designated 2025-2026 because the “Superior Commercialisation Stage” for SAE Stage 4 autonomy.

Japan’s Nationwide Complete Digital Lifeline Growth Plan targets creating roads that talk instantly with autos via 5G networks—which Stanley’s new enterprise would seem to fit comfortably into—whereas a 100 km part of the Shin-Tomei Expressway between Shizuoka and Hamamatsu is meant to function a devoted hall for autonomous freight transit trials. Glydways, which primarily operates within the public transit sector, has hinted beforehand to Automotive World that it’s in talks with the Japanese authorities for this venture.

Stanley has already begun pushing itself past conventional automotive lighting, focusing on JP¥200bn in digital elements gross sales together with autonomous car sensors by March 2029, up from JP¥71.1bn in fiscal 2025. By buying Iwasaki, the corporate believes it might probably mix its current automotive experience with Iwasaki’s highway and infrastructure know-how to push next-generation options within the autonomous driving phase.

Stanley plans to mix its automotive applied sciences with Iwasaki’s highway and infrastructure experience to develop next-generation methods together with good streetlights able to alerting autonomous autos to obstacles. In a press release to NikkeiPresident Yasuaki Kaizumi mentioned that “combining the strengths of the 2 corporations will guarantee sustainable progress of their company worth”. The corporate additionally intends to leverage Iwasaki’s gross sales capabilities to develop avenue lamp operations throughout India and Southeast Asia.