Panasonic closes plasma panel factory

According to Japan's Asahi Shimbun, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., the only manufacturer of plasma panels in Japan, recently announced a suspension of production. The factory is located in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. With the closure of the plasma panel business, a large number of employees will be laid off. This is also regarded by the Japanese media as a symbol of Panasonic's slimming down of the digital home appliance industry as the deficit continues.

At 5 pm local time on the 28th in Japan, a conference attended by 150 employees was held at the factory in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture. As a subsidiary of Panasonic's plasma panel production, President of the Panasonic plasma panel factory, Mr. Bai Tuqing, delivered a condolence speech to employees. “As the world’s leading manufacturer of LCD panels, we have provided the world with numerous products of superior quality. We are proud of this, but the company had to shut down the plasma panel factory because of the loss in performance." The Panasonic plasma panel factory will completely liquidate the company's finances in 2014. In addition to the personnel who are seconded from the headquarters, there are 250 local people in Amagasaki. Staff will be laid off before March next year. The employees who receive the early departure agreement will receive compensation of hundreds of thousands of yen. Finding new jobs is not easy, and the employment situation of local employees has become severe.

The laid-off employees did not know where to go from Panasonic’s layoff of hundreds of employees directly instead of other positions. This was not the first time. In 2003, Matsushita had directly shut down its engine manufacturing subsidiaries in Fukui Prefecture and Tottori Prefecture.