The company was founded on October 25, 1928, in Uchisaiwai-cho, Kojimachi-ku, Tokyo.
Masao Saneyoshi, the founder and first president, initially intended to build and operate domestic refineries, and market gasoline, kerosene, diesel oil, and other such petroleum products. In light of various circumstances, however, he abandoned this plan and instead pursued business operations centered mainly on licensing processes from Universal Oil Products (UOP).
During the 1930s, JGC inaugurated a simultaneous engineering business. This was the start of the first engineering firm in Japan.