Panasonic high-end air conditioning

Recently, according to Japanese Sankei Shimbun, about 90% of Panasonic air conditioners sold in Japan are produced in Panasonic's Guangzhou factory. But starting from 2023, all of Panasonic's high-end air conditioners will be produced domestically in Japan. From 2024, Panasonic's mid end air conditioners will also be produced in Caojin Factory in Shiga Prefecture, Japan and other places. This means that approximately 40% of Panasonic's air conditioning production capacity has returned to Japan.
Panasonic's withdrawal of high-end air conditioners from Guangzhou to Japan is a major weakness for Japanese home appliances.
According to reports, Panasonic aims to adapt to the uncertainty of the supply chain caused by trade frictions, and also hopes to promote the process of local production and sales, in order to improve production and operational efficiency, shorten waiting cycles, and achieve additional benefits. In the future, the air conditioners produced in the Guangzhou factory will only be sold in China and will no longer be exported to Japan.
Panasonic's mid to high-end air conditioning production has withdrawn from Guangzhou, leading to the normal decline of Japanese home appliances
From the current practice of Panasonic, products produced in Chinese factories are sold locally in China, which means that for Japanese enterprises represented by Panasonic, the role of Chinese factories is changing. They will no longer be the world factories exported by Japanese enterprises to the world, but local sales.
After World War II, Japan built four economic pillars: fiber, steel, automobiles, and electronics. Japanese scholar Takashi Tomi summarized in his book "Lost Manufacturing Industry" the commonalities of Japanese enterprise success: firstly, the ability to improve production efficiency and form a competitive advantage through comprehensive quality management. Secondly, the strength of Japanese companies is to continuously innovate on a long and snowy track, The third is the industry where Japanese excel in combining multiple component technologies for comprehensive integration.
But a major weakness of Japan is that although it is adept at manufacturing high-quality products, it is unable to reduce costs. At the same time, Japanese companies are not good at marketing, which is reflected in almost all Japanese companies.
Where did Panasonic's air conditioning go? In fact, it is lost in cost control and marketing capabilities. Behind the withdrawal of Panasonic's high-end air conditioning manufacturing from Guangzhou is the decreasing market share of Panasonic's air conditioning in China, which is now less than 0.5%. It is meaningless to continue staying here.