Dominique Numakura`s News Letter from Japan

Mysterious cellular phone market in JapanThere are more than 70 million cellular phones registered in Japan. The number has been very stable in the last two years. The total population of Japan is about 120 million, therefore, the market was already saturated. However, Japan is still consuming new cellular phones for the replacement. Recently, the majority of the cellular phones in Japan are internet access type, which have large color displays. These cellular phones have been consuming a lot of high density multi-layer boards and flexible circuits. The cellular phone customers are using it as the tool of internet access and e-mail rather than oral conversations. Nowadays, many Japanese people are spending their time using the cellular phones in the trains instead of book reading. It is understandable that there was a great market for the new cellular phones with large color displays.There have been other trends in Japan that more than 50% of the cellular phones were already replaced by the new cellular phones which have CCD cameras in the last two years. The users can send photographs by the new camera cellular phones to their family and friends immediately. These camera cellular phones use more high density flex circuits. However, a newspaper made a research about the frequency of the customer’s using the cameras of the cellular phones. Most of the users answered it is only once a month or less. It is not understandable why they needed to replace their cellular phones to the new camera type. It looks like a fashion of young ladies. The customers have a high interest about the products only a short time. The market is huge. Certainly it is a multibillion dollars per year. But is it a secure market or not?Dominique NumakuraHeadline NewsHitachi Developed a new liquid cooling system for the notebook personal computers.Toppan Print (Major printing company) Developed a new chip for the IC tag systems with reading equipment. The chip size is one mm square including an antenna. Sony Will expand the production of LCD and AV products in China. Also Sony will found an engineering center in China.LCD manufacturers in Japan Market price declined 40% in the last half year due to the serious competitions against Korean and Taiwanese manufacturers. Sanyo Electric Will expand the business of cellular phones in Asia with the camera type modelsHitachi Will found a new manufacturing subsidiary January 1, 2003 to consolidate global production of hard disc drive products. SEAJ November shipment semiconductor manufacturing equipment in Japan became 2.3 times larger compared to the same month of the previous year. All original news items were written in Japanese. Volunteers are choosing the topics and translating to English for free delivery. We are not responsible for the accuracy of the news. Quick news is the first priority of the headlines, therefore, we can not eliminate all of the mistakes in the translations.