To understand Fujitsu's role, let's go back to its takeover of the British firm International Computers Limited (ICL) - which developed the Horizon software - in the 1990s. Post Office threatened BBC over whistleblower Postmasters could see convictions quashed this year The relationship between ICL and Fujitsu goes back decades, and the ways in which both operate are quite similar. In the 1970s, the Japanese government was trying to counter the dominance of America's IBM, and provided 57bn yen of financial support to three giant technology alliances, one of which was Fujitsu. In the UK, the Wilson government was doing just that by forming ICL. With the might of the government behind them, Japanese firms went on a shopping spree in the 1980s, encouraged by the favourable exchange rate. That was when ICL was having financial issues at home. It held several UK government contracts, as the government had a policy that every computer over a certain size was bought from the company. But the firm was struggling to keep up with its international competitors, and by 1981 it had lost £18.7m. Fujitsu and ICL were a perfect match. The takeover allowed Fujitsu to have an outsized presence in the UK, as ICL's strong ties to the government often meant that it was the only bidder for government contracts. Previous problems Even after the Horizon scandal, Fujitsu's products are deeply entrenched in the government's IT infrastructure. To the anger of some MPs, the company has still been winning new government contracts and it was one of the biggest IT suppliers to the UK government until recently, according to procurement analysts Tussell. Over the past four years, Fujitsu has won 101 contracts worth £2bn, according to Tussell. The Post Office has also paid Fujitsu £95m for an extension to the contract for Horizon. Person using Horizon Image caption, The Horizon system was designed to record the transactions carried out in Post Office branches The government has removed Fujitsu from its list of preferred suppliers, but the firm is still able to win contracts through the normal procurement process. Horizon was not the first Fujitsu-developed software that has created problems for the UK government. In 1999, the firm won a £184m contract to develop もっと続いてるリンク先読め