Stealth hottest technology products

On October 14, President Matsushita Jinhe Yihong came to Beijing to celebrate 35 years of Matsushita's entry into China. However, in the face of the media, the most frequently asked question of Jin He is: “Will Panasonic withdraw from the home appliance market?”

In the past year, Matsushita and other Japanese companies that have witnessed the entire history of China’s reform and opening up have also undergone their own transformation: from consumer goods companies to high-tech materials and spare parts suppliers.

Retreat

From the beginning of last year, "withdrawal" and "shrinkage" seem to be the labels that Japanese electronics giants cannot tear. Sony's "bankruptcy" "news" is going crazy almost every month. Recently, this company has been reported to "retreat from the Chinese market." The staff, who was struggling to deal with the situation, sent an e-mail to the Beijing Morning Post reporter and was "shocked and confused" about such "seriously inaccurate" reports.

Panasonic also faces "question out of the home appliance market." In this regard, Jin Heyi said that it is impossible to give up and it is impossible to weaken the household appliance industry. “Household appliances are still one of the five pillar industries and accounted for more than 23% of the group's total revenue in the previous fiscal year, exceeding 100 billion yuan.”

However, in home appliance stores, consumers can easily feel that the strength of Japanese brands has been replaced by Korean companies. In the mobile phone area, Samsung often occupies the most prominent position, and the kind of model can reach twenty or thirty models. Sony is one of the few Japanese electronics companies that are still launching mobile phones, but has sold the PC business. Panasonic has already given up smart phones and plasma TVs, drastically reduced camera production, and the battle lines have shrunk to a small percentage of white and beauty appliances. For Toshiba, Hitachi and other home appliance brands once known, consumers in the terminal market can only see some laptop computers, small appliances and other products. "If you want affordable, you might as well buy homemade." When reporters said that the Japanese brand TV model is too small, a salesman said.

Since last year, in order to reduce costs, Japanese companies such as Fujitsu, Toshiba, and Sony have withdrawn from the London Stock Exchange, and Matsushita, Sony, and other companies have resorted to ways of laying off staff and selling fixed assets.

Tesla and Apple's suppliers

However, it may be too early to judge the “Made in Japan” weakness. After a painful transition, according to statistics of SMBC Nikko Securities, Japanese large companies increased their net profits by 69% year-on-year in the fiscal year ending in March of this year, and it is expected that many companies will further increase in the third quarter of this year.

Although many familiar Japanese brands have faded out of our sights, the status of Japanese companies as the most basic spare parts supplier in the world does not seem to be easily shaken. "Made in Japan" is increasingly "hidden" in Tesla, Apple and other advanced technology products.

"We and Tesla have reached a cooperation on the construction of a super-large battery plant to provide batteries for Tesla." The Jinhe-Imam refers to a lithium battery plant project that may invest up to US$5 billion. In Tesla's lithium battery plant project, Panasonic is Tesla's long established partner. Panasonic has registered a new company called Panasonic Energy in Nevada to maintain cooperation with Tesla. With the popularity of Tesla electric vehicles in the world, Panasonic will also receive a substantial return. Jin Heichi also disclosed to reporters that Matsushita has a high share of avionics and in-cabin entertainment systems.

Sony's smartphones have few markets outside of Japan, but Apple is using the company’s image sensors developed for smartphone cameras. According to reports, Sony is also an image sensor supplier for the iPhone 6 and iPhone Plus.

In 2013, the share of durable consumer goods in Japan fell to 16%. However, from a global perspective, Japan is still the base for basic parts production. This allows Japanese companies to still have a voice in the information electronics, automotive and other industries. Taking automotive parts as an example, the three key components of electronic control components, electronic control modules and automatic transmissions are basically monopolized by Japan.

China is the Growth Market in the Eyes of Japanese Enterprises

In addition to occupying the upper reaches of the industrial chain, Japanese companies are also looking for “new opportunities” in the “old market”. For example, the smog and environmental problems in China have made a wave of Japanese companies rejuvenate in the Chinese market.

Toshiba launched an air purification product suitable for indoor environments in China on the 15th. By spraying photocatalysts, sunlight or indoor light can continue to exert aldehyde elimination, antibacterial activity, and antiviral effects. Toshiba officials said they expect only this market to allow Toshiba to receive Rmb300 million in revenue by 2017. As a Japanese company that introduced air purification products earlier in the country, Sharp's air purification products often sell out of stock on smog days.

As of the end of March 2014, Panasonic Group already had 100 companies in China, with 63,000 employees, and the Group's sales scale exceeded RMB 60 billion.

"The Chinese market is huge, but if you follow the traditional home appliance sales model represented by digital home appliances, Panasonic's presence will become weaker and weaker. To face the current situation where household appliances tend to be saturated, it will retain Panasonic's home appliance DNA and expand space. "Jin Heyihong said that in response to China's ageing, environmental protection and other social phenomena, businesses such as smart homes, new energy vehicles, and environmental protection businesses will have a huge market space in China. "The future positioning of the Chinese market will shift from the 'world factory' to the 'great growth market'". From the sales data, Matsushita's sales in China and Northeast Asia is second only to the Japanese market.

Sony also told reporters that China, together with the United States and Japan, ranks among the top three Sony global markets. From designing R&D, marketing to services, Sony is continuously strengthening its operations in China in all aspects of its operations to ensure that China is a strategic position for its important growth and profit contribution markets. Morning News reporter Liu Yinghua

From the beginning of last year, "withdrawal" and "shrinkage" seem to be the labels that Japanese electronics giants cannot tear.