<February 22, 2012> Shipments of consumer electronics products in Japan destined for domestic consumption dropped an amazing 33.9% for the month of January according to data from the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association.
This is the lowest level of shipments of consumer electronics products since January 2004 and was led largely by a slide in sales of television products. Shipments of TVs and other “visual equipment” fell 52% to 64.1 billion yen ($797 million).
More surprising – shipments of flat panel TVs slid 62.5% to 539,000 units. Most of this is the result of the after-effects of a transition to a new digital television system. Thanks to incentives offered by the Japanese government to citizens to update to more energy efficient products, the country had enjoyed a couple of years of heightened consumption.
But the incentives have ended and now the industry is struggling with a collapse in consumer demand.
Leave a Reply