Q31 Although flat-screen TVs were once said to cost 10,000 yen per inch, which was very expensive compared to the cost of televisions with a cathoderay tube (CRT), they recently became much cheaper, didn't they?
A31 That's right. There was a drop in the price of flat-screen TV sets that are 32 inches or less in size and that tend to be chosen when people replace their CRT TVs, as Asian manufacturers
The intensifying flat-screen TV creased output and competition grew. To secure profits, Japanese manufacturers with advanced technology in the area of LCD and plasma screen manufacturing introduced sets with larger screens, and to this day significant capital investments are being made. In January 2006, Sharp Corp., a leading Japanese LCD TV manufacturer, announced that it would invest 200 billion yen to increase capacity at its Kameyama Plant No. 2 in Kameyama City, Mie Prefecture.
This will more than quadruple capacity to produce 32-inch models to 22 million units by he end of 2008. The quality of LCD TVs manufactured at the Kameyama factory is so high that retail household electrical appliance outlets sometimes point out to prospective customers their Kameyama TVs. In July 2007, Sharp also announced that it would invest 380 billion yen to build a new LCD panel plant in Sakai City, Osaka Prefecture. The construction is due to begin in November 2007 with manufacturing set to start by March 2010. The plant's production capacity will surpass that of Kameyama and the facility will be the biggest in the world.
