Being sold from 1978, the Hitachi Basic Master (MB6880) was the first real home computer in Japan (and the first one to use the term “personal computer” over there). Apart from early Western models (like the TRS-80) before the Basic Master, you could buy basically only single board systems like NEC’s TK-80. And as it was considered a niche household consumer device it was developed by the Yokohama-based TV Division, not Hitachi’s Computer Division.

In contrast to most other home computers, the early Basic Master models used a Motorola 6800 CPU. The 6800 was Motorola’s first 8-bit CPU. Apart from the Hitachis, only a few computers like the APF Imagination Machine, the SWTPC 6800 and the MITS Altair 680 used the 6800.