Japan Display: Japanese Manufacturers Join Forces For OLED

In what are increasingly tough times in the TV market, Japanese manufacturers have teamed up to work on OLED displays and ward off competition from their South Korean rivals. After all, there's strength in numbers.

From left to right: Kimikazu Noumi (INCJ), Norio Sasaki (Toshiba), Hiroaki Nakanishi (Hitachi)
and Hiroshi Yoshioka (Sony).

It's official—the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), Sony, Toshiba and Hitachi have signed an agreement to integrate their screen display businesses under the umbrella of a new company called Japan Display. The company will be partially funded by the Japanese government and has already bought the recently abandoned Mobara LCD factory from Panasonic—a Japanese firm that's currently pulling back from the TV market. The plant will be converted into an OLED panel factory for equipping upcoming TVs and smartphones.

Each of the three manufacturers will hold 10% of Japan Display while the remaining 70% will be held by the INCJ—an investment fund set up in 2009 and capitalised by the Japanese government alongside private corporations including Sharp and Panasonic.

In the meantime, over in Korea, LG and Samsung will both be presenting 55'' OLED TVs at this year's CES tech show and unleashing them on the high street by July 2012.

Let battle commence!



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