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Since early this year, major Japanese electronics firms Matsushita and Toshiba have released unprecedentedly large investment plans or new business projects. With their Korean rivals changing -- and Samsung Electronics struggling with a corruption scandal -- the Japanese giants see an opportunity to regain the hegemonic dominance of the global market they enjoyed in the 1980-1990s.
¡ß Matsushita: 'We'll overtake Samsung'
After 90 years in business, Matsushita, Japan's largest electronics firm, recently decided to change its name to Panasonic. The decision was prompted partly because it has been overwhelmed by Sony and Samsung Electronics in brand recognition and overseas sales, according to Japanese business weekly Toyo Keizai.
Samsung and Sony generate about 70 percent of their total sales overseas, while for Matsushita that figure is only 50 percent, the magazine said. In the end, to increase overseas sales and overtake Samsung Electronics, Matsushita decided to change its name to Panasonic, the better known brand name of its products.
In fact Matsushita was largely outperformed by its Korean rivals in the overseas market last year. In its major products, LCD and PDP digital TVs, Matsushita ranked third with an 11.3 percent market share in 2006, but finished lower than sixth place in 2007, overtaken by Samsung Electronics (first, 19 percent market share) and LG Electronics (fourth, 9.5 percent market share).
¡ß Toshiba reinvests in NAND Flash
Toshiba meanwhile has launched an aggressive marketing campaign since early this year for NAND flash memory chips. According to Japan's Kyodo News, Toshiba will invest 1.8 trillion yen through 2009 to build two new NAND flash plants in Japan.
Toshiba has been enthusiastic about the NAND flash project, even deciding to give up on its HD DVD storage format despite massive investments in it.
The new plants will bring the number of Toshiba NAND flash manufacturing facilities to six. When they are completed, it may be possible for the Japanese electronics firm to produce more NAND flash memory chips than Hynix, currently the world's third largest manufacturer in the sector, or Samsung Electronics, the world's leading manufacturer, which has no concrete plans to build more plants yet.
All this suggests that Toshiba is firmly determined to get ready to overtake its Korean rivals this year by performing better than last year when it enjoyed a 25 percent market share. Toshiba, which first developed NAND flash, was the leader in the sector until the late 1990s.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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