Watanabe Yasushi from Japan JET Lighting Department has a different point of view. “After the earthquake happened in March last year, more and more Chinese products swarmed into Japanese market. Within several sampling inspections, we found that many Chinese LED bulbs cannot work as long as 50000 hours as marked. Most of them had the same problems: power suppliers and overheat.” Watanabe Yasushi indicated that more than 50% LED products from China is unqualified due to their unfamiliar with Japanese LED lighting standard.
At the same time, Chinese LED manufacturers suffered fierce competitions from local LED manufacturers. Panasonic, the largest lighting enterprise in Japan, decided to promote a restructuring plan: combined Panasonic Lighting (a sub-company of Panasonic) with its Lighting Department together as a giant Lighting Business Group. Panasonic indicated that, after this reconstruction, the annual sales of 2012 are expected to reach up to 35 billion yen. The annual sales of 2015 can reach up to 100 billion yen. In which LED products will occupied more than 40% of Japanese local lighting market.
Meanwhile, another local brand Toshiba is stepping up the penetration in Japanese LED bulb market. Sato Koji, director of LED Business Department of Toshiba indicated that the increase of LED month sales is significant in 2011, from 2.8 million in June to 4.8 million in December. The annual growth is over 300%.
Competitions from local brand brought huge pressure to Chinese LED manufacturers. “Japanese have the traditional channels for sales. But it is very difficult for Chinese manufacturers to get into. Even for ordinary LED lights, we can only import our products though an exclusive agency set in Japan firstly, then transfer them into traditional channels. We are planning to be the OEM for Japanese local LED brands, this is another way to enter Japanese lighting market.” said Jiawei Pang, general manager from Tong Pu technologies Co,. Ltd.
General manager Mr Xiao from Shengzhen Juzuo Industrial Co., Ltd. has studied Japanese market for many years. According to his words, it is impractical for Chinese LED High Bay products promiscuously enter Japanese market. “Our manufacturers need to do sufficient research before entering Japanese market, choose several flagship products according to the specific conditions of it.”