Five years after Nishizono Ironworks began its production of these friction reducing components, the company merged with Tomoe Trading to fabricate and market them under the name "NTN". In 1927, however, Nishizono and Tomoe split, with the former company setting up a new company called "NTN Manufacturing Company".
At the end of the decade, Toyo created a marketing division called NTN Sales, at the same time, becoming one of the five most prominent bearing manufacturers in Japan, alongside Koyo Seiko, Nippon Seiko, Asahi Seiko and Fujikoshi Kozai. They, along with the other four aforementioned companies held over 75% of that country's bearing market the following year. Three years later, in 1954, NTN Sales received the Deming Prize for statistical quality control while continuing to diversify its product offering. In 1956, the company started to manufacture expansion compensating bearings.
