Japanese consumer electronics industry

Japanese consumer electronics industry

The Japanese consumer electronics industry is a prominent industry and home to companies such as Sony, Casio, Hitachi, Denon, Toshiba, NEC, TDK, JVC, Panasonic, Roland, Fujitsu, Canon, Sharp, Fujifilm, Rohm, Plextor, Korg, Pioneer, Kyocera, Konica Minolta, Maxell, Mitsubishi, Technics, Ricoh, Pentax, Olympus, Nintendo, Sanyo, Epson, Nikon, Yamaha, Seiko, Citizen Watch, Kenwood. These companies primarily produce TVs, music players, refrigerators, game consoles, still and video cameras, pianos, computers, etc.

These companies are also into professional sectors such as the professional television, photo camera, monitor, and music equipment sectors.

History

After World War II, Japan started to develop consumer electronics products rapidly using the keiretsu methods and by companies that existed before the World War II like Hitachi, Sumitomo, Mitsubishi. Japan didn't have any other industry where it could make a significant impact, since natural resources were, and still are, very low in the islands.

A relatively small number of industries dominated Japan's trade and investment interaction with the rest of the world. During the late 1980s, the main export industries were motor vehicles, consumer electronics, semiconductors and other electronic components, iron, and steel.Fact|date=January 2007Sony was founded in 1946 by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita and they took off advancing in the electronics field rapidly. They each had skills that would bring it to the top of the industry, one with marketing savy and the other with great innovation. They had soon invented the first pocket transistor radio in the world. Many nations from around the world have invested in this Japanese industry. Now China’s products are increasingly more high-tech and it is draining investments and business from other countries in the region including Japan.The industries producing consumer electronics—receivers, compact disc players, other audio components, tape recorders, television receivers, video cassette recorders, and video cameras— were major exporters that invested overseas in the 1980s. In 1991, 46.7 percent of color televisions and 87.3 percent of video cassette recorders produced in Japan were exported. The export shares of some products were too small to show separately in summary trade data, but audio tape recorders represented 2.9% of total Japanese exports in 1988, video cassette recorders 2.3 percent, radio receivers 0.8 percent, and television receivers 0.7 percent, totaling 6.7 percent.Fact|date=January 2007

These industries built Japan's success in developing commercial applications for the transistor in the 1950s and generations of semiconductor devices of the 1970s and 1980s. Output came from large, integrated electronics firms manufacturing semiconductor devices, consumer electronics, and computers. The companies’ international success came from continually pushing miniaturization and driving down manufacturing costs through production innovations.Fact|date=January 2007

Japanese electronics today

Japan is unofficially the largest electronics manufacturer in the world because of its high concentration of companies in the country and the competition between the companies. One of the reasons of the success of Japanese electronics is that its products are often thought of as high quality, inventive (such as the Sony Walkman and VHS), and has highly regarded brands like Sony, Hitachi and JVC of which their products are priced relatively higher because of their reputation.

Japan's success overpowered the United States electronics industry. Charges of dumping and other predatory practices led to orderly marketing arrangements (voluntary export restraints) by Japan in 1977. Restraints limited the export of color televisions to 1.75 million units annually from 1977 to 1980. The agreement gave some protection to the United States' domestic industry. Japanese companies responded by investing in the United States. By the end of the 1980s, only one United States-owned television manufacturer remained; the others had disappeared or were bought by Western European or Japanese firms.Fact|date=January 2007

Japan pioneered the color television. Video cassette recorders, video cameras, and compact disc players were developed for the consumer market during the 1980s by Japanese firms.

Japan’s overseas investment in the consumer electronics industry was motivated by protectionism and labor costs, the main reason for Japanese color television plant establishment in the United States. After three years of voluntary export restraints, seven Japanese firms located plants in the United States by 1980. Japanese firms continued production of the most technologically-advanced products, while shifting production of less-advanced products to developing countries, such as Taiwan. Moving production caused Japan’s export of color televisions to fall during the 1980s, from 2 percent of total exports in 1970 to only 0.7 percent in 1988.Fact|date=January 2007

References

* - [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/jptoc.html Japan]
* http://www.scee.com/about/sonyHistory.jhtml;jsessionid=PAG4JG1CLDT2QCQSBLWB2RQ


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Electronics industry in Japan — JVC professional video camera The Japanese consumer electronics industry is one of the most prominent industries in the world and is the world s largest electronics manufacturer by companies such as Sony, Pentax, Casio, Citizen Watches, Hitachi,… …   Wikipedia

  • Japanese communities —    The modern relationship between Britain and Japan dates back to the nineteenth century. As the richest and most advanced industrial power, Britain was the obvious model for Japan’s modernization programme following the Meiji Restoration of… …   Encyclopedia of contemporary British culture

  • Business and Industry Review — ▪ 1999 Introduction Overview        Annual Average Rates of Growth of Manufacturing Output, 1980 97, Table Pattern of Output, 1994 97, Table Index Numbers of Production, Employment, and Productivity in Manufacturing Industries, Table (For Annual… …   Universalium

  • Philips Electronics NV — in full Royal Philips Electronics NV Dutch Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV Major Dutch manufacturer of consumer electronics, household appliances, lightbulbs, and imaging equipment. It was founded by Dutch engineer Gerard Philips in 1891 to… …   Universalium

  • Heavy industry — does not have a single fixed meaning as compared to light industry. It can mean production of products which are either heavy in weight or in the processes leading to their production. In general, it is a popular term used within the name of many …   Wikipedia

  • electronics — noun ADJECTIVE ▪ high tech, sophisticated, state of the art ▪ digital ▪ automotive (esp. AmE), consumer, defence/defense, home (esp. AmE …   Collocations dictionary

  • Samsung Electronics — 삼성전자 Type Public Korean: 삼성전자 Traded as KRX: 005930 …   Wikipedia

  • Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry — 経済産業省 Keizaisangyōshō METI Headquarters …   Wikipedia

  • Korea under Japanese rule — (Chōsen (Korea), Empire of Japan) 日本統治時代の朝鮮(大日本帝国朝鮮) 일제 강점기 (日帝强占期) Japanese colony …   Wikipedia

  • Steel industry in China — The Steel industry in China has developed over several decades into the world biggest.[1] China accounted for 36.4% of world steel production in 2007.[1] It has driven by rapid modernisation of its economy, construction, infrastructure and… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”