Feb 8th - FT: Panasonic's Smart Fridges Light The Way

Panasonic's latest refrigerators, in addition to keeping food cool and making ice, use a light sensor to scan their owners' kitchens.

If these determine that it is night-time and no one is likely to open the doors for a few hours, they power down a bit to save on electricity.

Smart fridges are just one way that the Japanese electronics group is "greening" its business. In a corner of the same huge white-goods factory in which it makes its intelligent refrigerators, workers install circuitry into hydrogen fuel cells destined for Japanese homes.

The boxy machines will heat water and generate electricity with minimal emissions of carbon dioxide. At Y2.5m ($30,000) before government subsidies, they are far from cheap but Panasonic says that buyers can cut Y50,000-Y60,000 from annual utility bills as they help prevent global warming.

Toshiki Shimizu, the executive in charge, has big ambitions for what is still an experimental business. Panasonic has sold about 5,000 residential fuel cell systems since 2009 through local natural-gas utilities. But in a few years, he says, the company aims to expand the business to a scale "equal to refrigerators, air conditioners and other home appliances".

The fuel cells and smart-fridges illustrate a strategic shift among Japanese technology companies towards "green innovation".

It is a change driven in part by necessity, as lower-cost South Korean, Taiwanese and Chinese groups lure customers away from Japanese televisions and video players.

But companies also sense an opportunity, with rising energy prices and tougher pollution laws likely to increase demand for clean technology.

Japan's government has designated the sector as one of five strategic growth areas that it hopes will create 2.6m jobs and add Y149,000bn to manufacturing output by 2020.

Panasonic is aiming to more than triple revenues from clean technology to Y3,000bn by 2018.

Many other companies are also going green. Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors have begun selling battery-driven electric vehicles, building on a market for low-emission cars pioneered by Toyota's Prius petrol-electric hybrid.

Sharp and Kyocera are sharply expanding solar-panel production, while Sanyo, almost bankrupt a few years ago, has re-emerged as the world's largest maker of rechargeable batteries.

In all, three in 10 Japanese manufacturing companies are looking to enter the market for clean technology or increase their presence there, according to a survey by the industry ministry.

The bet on green technology is not a sure thing. Some analysts question whether returns will ever match those that are being lost in consumer electronics.

Much of the green sector depends on subsidies - a big risk, as rising government debt loads draw budget planners' attention from climate change to the risk of a bond market revolt.

And Japan is not the only country targeting the green market. China's solar-panel makers have soared past Japan's in production volumes since Beijing designated the technology a priority half a decade ago.

China is also investing heavily in wind power and encouraging its carmakers to develop their own electric vehicles.

Even so, Japanese executives are betting that, because many green technologies are still in their infancy, their companies have an advantage: there is plenty of scope for the kind of painstaking improvement in materials, design and manufacturing at which Japanese groups traditionally excel.

"If you look at solar panels, for example, energy conversion rates are still low," says Toshihiko Omote, deputy chief technology officer at Nitto Denko, a maker of filters, adhesives and optical films.

"It's important to look for 'no-limit' areas where it still matters when you set a world record for performance."

Feb 3rd - Sony 3Q Net Profit Slips 8.6% As Yen, Thin TV Margins Weigh

Sony Corp. said Thursday its net profit in the October to December period fell 8.6% from a year earlier, weighed by the strong yen and thin margins in its television business.

The Japanese electronics conglomerate reported a net profit of Y72.3 billion for the fiscal third quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with a profit of Y79.2 billion in the same period a year earlier. The figure was above the mean estimate of Y66.96 billion based on six analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

Revenue slipped 1.7% from a year earlier to Y1.98 trillion, while operating profit dropped 5.9% to Y137.5 billion.

Sony generates about 70% of its sales outside of Japan, leaving the company vulnerable to the yen's appreciation. A strong yen hurts Japanese exporters because it makes their products more expensive abroad, while eating into overseas profit when brought back to Japan.

Echoing similar remarks by rival TV makers Panasonic Corp., LG Electronics Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co., Sony said conditions in its flat-screen television segment remain tough as falling prices squeeze its margins.

One bright spot was in the domestic market, where Sony's sales got a boost in the period from a government stimulus program that provided incentives for consumers to trade in old TVs for more energy-efficient models.

For the full fiscal year to March 31, Sony maintained its forecast for a net profit of Y70 billion and an operating profit of Y200 billion, though it trimmed its revenue forecast to Y7.2 trillion from Y7.4 trillion previously.

Sony's outlook is based on the assumption that the dollar will average Y82 and the euro will average Y110 for the January to March quarter.

Sony reports its earnings under U.S. accounting standards.

Jan 14th - Toshiba To Tap Mid-Income Africa, Mid-East Consumers

Toshiba Corp. said Thursday it will bring its LCD TVs designed for emerging market economies to African and Middle Eastern viewers.

Toshiba starts producing Power TVs in Egypt.

The Power TV series is aimed at viewers in regions with poor airwave reception. The TVs in the line include functions that prevent broadcast glitches.

Toshiba will start producing Power TVs in Egypt in March, targeting 2 million units a year in fiscal 2013. About a third of them will be marketed in Egypt, with the rest shipped to other African countries and the Middle East.

Toshiba produces Power TVs at its Indonesian factory for African and Middle Eastern consumers.

The Egyptian factory will also produce LCD panels. For 32-inch televisions, costs will be 5% lower than when panels are imported. A 32-inch model will be available starting at around 360 dollars.

South Korean manufacturers dominate the LCD TV market in Africa and the Middle East, with a share close to 50%. Toshiba aims to tap the growing number of middle-class consumers in those regions with annual incomes of 3,000 dollars or more, in hopes of beefing up its market share from the current 9% to 20% in fiscal 2013.

Jan 12th - Sega has started testing pressure-controlled toilet games/ads display consoles

Only in Japan? .........  In an effort to find new advertising display opportunities, Sega has started testing pressure-controlled toilet games/ads display consoles in mens' urinals at Metro stations around Tokyo, until January 31st. The games are designed to allow male patrons to have a bit of fun and distraction while taking a whizz. Amongst the four games, one measures the strength of urine flow, one allows you to clean a screen with a hose, one allows you to compete against another character trying to flush them away, and the last allows you to try to cause wind to blow up a girl's skirt.

Sony To Farm Out Image Sensor Production To Fujitsu

Sony Corp. will subcontract the manufacture of CMOS image sensors to Fujitsu Ltd. in an arrangement aimed at lowering production costs without revealing proprietary technologies to overseas foundries.

CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) sensors are used widely in digital cameras and camera phones. With the market growing rapidly, price competition with foreign rivals is heating up.

Sony ranks sixth in the world in terms of CMOS sensor shipments, with its current output capacity standing at the equivalent of 16,000 silicon wafers a month.

CMOS sensors are used in cell phones and digital cameras, including Sony's NEX-5 camera.

The subcontracting will begin as early as this fiscal year at a pace of several thousand silicon wafer equivalents a month. Sony will monitor the savings generated and consider boosting the scale of the deal depending on the results.

Fujitsu will handle orders from Sony at Fujitsu Semiconductor Ltd.'s flagship plant for system chips in Mie Prefecture. Because CMOS sensors and system chips share many manufacturing processes, the factory should be able to lower production costs through economies of scale.

Sony will farm out the highly generic portion of the production process, which accounts for 80-90% of the work. The remaining steps will be handled internally at Sony, which will turn semi-finished CMOS sensors into finished products while guarding its proprietary technologies.

The electronics giant spent about 60 billion yen over the three years since fiscal 2007 to beef up CMOS sensor production at Sony Semiconductor Kyushu Corp.'s Kumamoto Technology Center.

It plans to invest an additional 40 billion yen to lift its CMOS sensor output capacity 40% by the end of fiscal 2011.

By leveraging the capacity hike resulting from the subcontracting deal, Sony aims to maintain its price competitiveness against chip foundries in Taiwan, China and the U.S. Teaming up with a domestic nonrival will also enable the firm to prevent its cutting-edge technologies from falling into the hands of foreign competitors.

Haier Group to aggressively target Japanese market

White goods maker, the Haier Group, based in Qingdao, China, has announced that it plans to significantly expand its business in Japan, focusing on high end washer/dryers and refrigerators. To date, Haier has sold lower end products, and in 2009 recorded sales of JPY7.5bn (US$87.8m), to chip out a market share of just 3%. However, the firm has decided to create products specifically designed and made for Japan, starting with a washer/dryer that can take a full 10kg load -- enough to wash a futon. Pricing, however,will be the main competitive point, set at about 20% less than comparable Japanese products.