Editing Taito (section)

===1950s–1960s===
The [[Chinese Civil War|Communist takeover of China]] prompted Kogan to liquidate the business in 1950 and move operations to Japan, which after the war was suffering a significant economic decline.<ref name="Smith"/> The second business, a clothing distributor named Taito Yoko, struggled financially as a result of employee carelessness and constant loss of products.<ref name="Akagi"/> On August 24, 1953, Taito Yoko was abolished and replaced with the Taito Trading Company, where Kogan was joined by lawyer and retired newspaperman Akio Nakatani.<ref name="Smith"/><ref>{{cite web |title=Taito Corporation Company Profile 2019 |url=https://www.taito.co.jp/Content/media/pdf/taito_corp2019.pdf |publisher=Taito |access-date=27 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200515031003/https://www.taito.co.jp/Content/Media/pdf/taito_corp2019.pdf |archive-date=15 May 2020 |language=ja |date=2019}}</ref> Taito Trading Company began as a vodka distillery—the first company to produce vodka in Japan—and an importer of peanut vending machines and perfume machines.<ref name="History">{{cite web |title=History |url=https://www.taito.co.jp/corporate/about/history |publisher=Taito |access-date=November 4, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200507144431/https://www.taito.co.jp/corporate/about/history |archive-date=May 7, 2020 |language=ja}}</ref><ref name="Ashcraft">{{cite web |last1=Ashcraft |first1=Brian |title=Before Space Invaders, Taito Made Vodka |url=https://kotaku.com/before-space-invaders-taito-made-vodka-1825707817 |website=[[Kotaku]] |publisher=[[G/O Media]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200808183910/https://kotaku.com/before-space-invaders-taito-made-vodka-1825707817 |archive-date=August 8, 2020 |date=May 2, 2018}}</ref>

Increasing competition led to Taito abandoning the vodka business in 1955 and focusing on its successful vending machines, in addition to importing jukeboxes.<ref name="Smith"/><ref name="Akagi"/><ref name="Ashcraft"/> As Taito lacked a proper license to import jukeboxes into Japan, it purchased broken-down machines from United States military bases and refurbished them with working parts from defective units.<ref name="Smith"/> The recovering Japanese economy allowed Taito to become the official distributor of AMI jukeboxes in the country. Though the deal had little impact at first, over 1,500 machines were sold by 1960 when the company began mixing Japanese records with American folk songs.<ref name="Smith"/> A partnership with the [[Seeburg Corporation]] made Taito its exclusive agent in Japan and one of the nation's leading jukebox companies.<ref name="Smith"/>

Taito began manufacturing [[electro-mechanical games]] (EM games) in the 1960s. In 1967, they released ''Crown Soccer Special'' (1967), a two-player sports game that simulated [[association football]] using electronic components such as pinball flippers.<ref>{{KLOV game|16047|Crown Soccer Special}}</ref> In 1968, ''Crown Basketball'' debuted in the US as the highest-earning arcade game at the 1968 Tampa Fair.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Munves' Southern Tour Reveals High Earnings For Several Games At Tampa Fair |magazine=[[Cash Box]] |date=9 March 1968 |page=61 |url=https://archive.org/details/cashbox29unse_31/page/61 |publisher=Cash Box Pub. Co.}}</ref>