Both Shimano and SunTour made 3-speed hubs. The Shimano unit was not deemed as reliable as e.g. a Sturmey-Archer AW, but Shimano made it dead-easy to pull out the guts from a problematic hubs and slide in a shrink-wrapped replacement.

The SunTour was a clone of the AW, probably made under license from Sturmey-Archer.