Takara Holdings is a Japanese company based in Kyoto. The company is mainly involved in the production of beverages, food, travel, printing, medical supplies, and computer systems.

Subsidiaries of Takara Bio Inc. include Clontech Laboratories, a Mountain View, California-based manufacturer of materials for biological research formerly owned by Becton Dickinson, as well as regional subsidiaries in Japan, Korea, China, and the US. In 2007, Clontech was involved in litigation with Invitrogen over patents for RNase H minus reverse transcriptase.

Takara Shuzo Co. produces sake, other beverages, and seasonings. This division comprises the original business; the holding company including it was formed in 2001.

Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton,MBE (born 7 January 1985) is a British Formula One racing driver from England, currently racing for the McLaren team. He is the 2008 Formula One World Champion.

Hamilton was born in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. In December 1995, at the age of ten, he approached McLaren team principal Ron Dennis at the Autosport Awards ceremony and told him, "I want to race for you one day ... I want to race for McLaren." Less than three years later McLaren and Mercedes-Benz signed him to their Young Driver Support Programme. After winning the British Formula Renault, Formula Three Euroseries, and GP2 championships on his way up the racing career ladder, he drove for McLaren in 2007, making his Formula One debut 12 years after his initial encounter with Dennis. Lewis Hamilton's contract for the McLaren driver development program made him the youngest ever driver to secure a contract which later resulted in an F1 drive.

Coming from a mixed-race background, with a black father and white mother, Hamilton is often labelled "the first black driver in Formula One", although Willy T. Ribbs tested an F1 car in 1986. He is also the first driver of black heritage to win a major race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in any discipline.