"Disappearing Japanese Products Due to Competition from Korean Goods... Sharp Ends TV LCD Production Amid Heavy Losses"

Sharp, the Only Domestic TV LCD Producer... Sakai Factory Production Ends
Japanese Media: "Korea-China Competition Pressures... Two Consecutive Years of Losses"
Factory to Be Transformed into AI Data Center

Sharp, the only Japanese company that had been manufacturing LCD panels for TVs, ended production on the 21st. With this, the production of TV LCD panels by Japanese companies, which had been losing out to competitors in Korea and China, has come to an end.

On this day, Sharp announced that it stopped production at its large LCD panel factory in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture, as of 4 p.m., marking its withdrawal from large LCD production. The LCD panels produced until this day will cease sales to clients by the end of March next year. Sharp's LCD panel business had been cited as a major factor in its heavy losses for two consecutive years.

Sharp Corporation headquarters in Japan. (Photo by Sharp official website)

Japanese electronics giants such as Sharp led the LCD panel sector until the mid-2000s but gradually withdrew from the business due to competition from Korea and China. Previously, Sony sold all its shares in its LCD manufacturing joint venture to Samsung Electronics in 2012, and Panasonic also ended TV LCD panel production in 2016.

The Sakai factory, built by Sharp in 2009 at a cost of 430 billion yen (3.9411 trillion won), similarly suffered from deteriorating profitability due to competition with Korea and China. According to Asahi Shimbun, "Sharp posted an operating loss of 260.8 billion yen (2.3903 trillion won) for the fiscal year ending March 2023, turning to a deficit, and recorded a loss of 149.9 billion yen (1.3738 trillion won) for the fiscal year ending March 2024."

Sharp announced the suspension of production at the Sakai factory in May and began reducing panel production in June. Among the approximately 800 employees working at the factory, voluntary retirement was decided for about 500 workers engaged in panel manufacturing. Asahi reported that the factory is planned to be repurposed as an AI-dedicated data center in collaboration with companies such as SoftBank. The data center is expected to be constructed with the goal of full operation starting next year.