[4] In 1976, NEC released the TK-80, a single-board computer kit, and it became popular among hobbyists in Japan.

Kazuhiko Nishi (西 和彦) joined foundation of the first Japanese microcomputer magazine I/O (ja) as an editor when he was a student at the Waseda University.

The I/O initially served information for assembled microcomputer systems with a few video game columns.

In April 1977, Nishi left the company, borrowed money from his grandmother and visited the West Coast Computer Faire held in San Francisco.

[5] On May 24, 1977, Nishi founded ASCII Publishing Corporation (株式会社アスキー出版) with his friends, Keiichiro Tsukamoto (塚本 慶一郎) and Akio Gunji (郡司 明郎).