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

Japanese automotive lighting manufacturer Stanley Electric announced on 29 January that it will acquire compatriot Iwasaki Electric for JP¥70.2bn (US$460m), marking the company’s largest-ever acquisition. Stanley will purchase all shares of the Tokyo-based road and factory lighting specialist from private equity firm Carlyle Group, and plans to use the acquisition to pursue a venture into lighting for autonomous driving infrastructure.

The transaction remains subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close by April 2026. By acquiring Iwasaki, Stanley is trying to address strategic challenges facing its core business of automotive equipment, which accounted for 86% of net sales for the fiscal year ending March 2025. 

Unfortunately for the supplier, automotive lighting as a business faces limited opportunities for value addition compared to other areas like engine components as electrification reshapes the supply chain. Now it is looking beyond its traditional business towards high-growth opportunities in autonomy. Concurrently Japan has been accelerating its investments into autonomous driving infrastructure; the government previously designated 2025-2026 as the “Advanced Commercialisation Stage” for SAE Level 4 autonomy. 

Japan’s National Comprehensive Digital Lifeline Development Plan targets creating roads that communicate directly with vehicles through 5G networks—which Stanley’s new venture would appear to slot comfortably into—while a 100 km section of the Shin-Tomei Expressway between Shizuoka and Hamamatsu is intended to serve as a dedicated corridor for autonomous freight transit trials. Glydways, which primarily operates in the public transit sector, has hinted previously to Automotive World that it is in talks with the Japanese government for this project.

Stanley has already begun pushing itself beyond traditional automotive lighting, targeting JP¥200bn in electronic components sales including autonomous vehicle sensors by March 2029, up from JP¥71.1bn in fiscal 2025. By acquiring Iwasaki, the company believes it can combine its existing automotive expertise with Iwasaki’s road and infrastructure know-how to push next-generation solutions in the autonomous driving segment.

Stanley plans to combine its automotive technologies with Iwasaki’s road and infrastructure expertise to develop next-generation systems including smart streetlights capable of alerting autonomous vehicles to obstacles. In a statement to Nikkei, President Yasuaki Kaizumi said that “combining the strengths of the two companies will ensure sustainable growth in their corporate value”. The company also intends to leverage Iwasaki’s sales capabilities to expand street lamp operations across India and Southeast Asia.