I think I know the company he works for, but...

[KIshii]

...how do I contact a Japanese company [I have their address and phone number but no website address] and ask to speak with one of their employees? I haven't spoken with him and his wife in something like 20 years!

 

[thomas]

So you do not know whether your friend is still working there? Are you sure the company has no website?

 

[KIshii]

He published a paper as part of this company last year. I found the company name listed in a company directory; it listed name, address, phone number, but no website.

 

[KIshii]

So you do not know whether your friend is still working there? Are you sure the company has no website?

He works at Japan Vaccine Company. (Google translate translates that sentence as: Kare wa Nihon wakuchin kaisha de hataraite imasu. 彼は日本ワクチン会社で働いています。) I am *not* sure that the company does *not* have a website.

 

[bentenmusume]

Google Translate is not a reliable source for translation, especially not for the official names of corporations and the like.
The Japanese sentence above is just a literal translation of the English words and will not help you locate your friend.

I did some searching, and the only company officially named "Japan Vaccine Company" (ジャパンワクシン株式会社, not 日本ワクチン) was a joint venture between Daiichi Sankyo Pharmaceuticals and GlaxoSmithKline that was dissolved in December 2018. So he couldn't have published a report for them last year—either you've confused it with another company of a similar name, or perhaps he is still working for either Daiichi Sankyo or the Japanese office of GSK.

That said, I highly doubt a major corporation would give out the personal information of one of their employees to a random person who contacts them for non-work-related reasons. What exactly is your connection to this person and his wife? Do you have no other way of reaching him except through his employer? If your connection was a personal one, it seems there would be better ways to go about this than trying to go through his company.

 

[mdchachi]

If you have the address, you should be able to confirm what company is there now. Assuming it's not urgent you could try sending a regular mail there. It might be easier to reach him that way than calling the company switchboard.

 

[KIshii]

Google Translate is not a reliable source for translation, especially not for the official names of corporations and the like.
The Japanese sentence above is just a literal translation of the English words and will not help you locate your friend.

I did some searching, and the only company officially named "Japan Vaccine Company" (ジャパンワクシン株式会社, not 日本ワクチン) was a joint venture between Daiichi Sankyo Pharmaceuticals and GlaxoSmithKline that was dissolved in December 2018. So he couldn't have published a report for them last year—either you've confused it with another company of a similar name, or perhaps he is still working for either Daiichi Sankyo or the Japanese office of GSK.

That said, I highly doubt a major corporation would give out the personal information of one of their employees to a random person who contacts them for non-work-related reasons. What exactly is your connection to this person and his wife? Do you have no other way of reaching him except through his employer? If your connection was a personal one, it seems there would be better ways to go about this than trying to go through his company.

Maybe the paper was published in 2018, I forget. Also, getting papers reviewed and published takes time, so maybe the paper was published after the company was dissolved. I met Masahiro Eda and his wife, Naomi, at work. We became friends. Masahiro was a visiting scholar at the university at which I worked. After they returned to Japan, I was not a very good friend and failed to keep up correspondence. I would like very much to get in touch with them again. But it has been about 20 years, and I no longer have their correct address.