OHARA INC., the Kanagawa-based maker of optical and electronic glass, has raised its full-year guidance for the third time this year, and the reason has less to do with cameras than with data centers.
For the nine months through July, group revenue rose 15.0% year on year to ¥24.23bn, while operating profit fell 11.2% to ¥1.395bn. The gap between rising sales and falling profit sits mostly in the electronics segment, which makes glass for semiconductor and display exposure tools alongside fiber-optic and AI-server components. Segment revenue rose 11.3% to ¥11.11bn, but operating profit dropped 20.8% to ¥1.574bn, a net decline of ¥413mn. OHARA's earnings presentation breaks that swing down further: a ¥762mn hit from cost and product-mix changes, tied largely to a first-half inventory adjustment in semiconductor lithography equipment products, was only partly offset by a ¥464mn gain from higher sales volume, mainly optical-communication products for data-center investment, and a further ¥142mn drag from higher personnel costs.
Set against that drag, the company points to two specific product lines it says are riding data-center investment: optical-communication glass and low-dielectric glass used in AI-server printed circuit boards. Both are on track to roughly double in full-year sales, to about ¥1bn each.
A third upgrade this year
That electronics strength, plus recovering demand for semiconductor exposure-tool glass in Japan and Asia, is enough for OHARA to lift its full-year outlook again: group revenue to ¥33.7bn (+16.6%) and operating profit to ¥2.1bn (+17.0%), a record revenue level. It is the third revision since the fiscal year opened.
| Guidance version | Revenue | Operating profit |
|---|---|---|
| Initial guidance (Dec 11, 2025) | ¥28.9bn | ¥1.1bn |
| First revision (Mar 13, 2026) | ¥29.9bn | ¥1.6bn |
| Second revision (Jun 12, 2026) | ¥31.9bn | ¥1.8bn |
| Third revision (Sep 11, 2026) | ¥33.7bn | ¥2.1bn |
The electronics segment's own full-year operating-profit target rose to ¥2.6bn from a prior ¥2.2bn forecast, which OHARA credits to the sales increase plus an improving product mix.
The optics business still loses money
OHARA's original optical-glass business, the one that supplies camera lenses, narrowed its nine-month operating loss to ¥178mn from ¥415mn a year earlier, helped by stronger sales of high-priced downstream products for digital cameras and price increases aimed at restoring margin. Those gains were partly offset by raw-material cost inflation, rare-earth procurement risk, and China's abolition of value-added-tax export rebates, all named directly in the disclosure.
Despite the narrower loss, OHARA actually widened its full-year optical-segment loss guidance to ¥500mn from a prior ¥400mn forecast. The company says it expects a one-time inventory-disposal charge in the fourth quarter tied to changes in customer product requirements.
The net effect: a materials supplier whose electronics division is riding data-center and AI-server demand, while its camera-optics business keeps losing money and is about to book a further one-off cost before the fiscal year closes on October 31.