panasonic global vice president tetsuro honma: the ability to quickly adapt to new technologies is a major advantage in the chinese market
2024-09-05
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china.com.cn, september 5 (reporter zhang shaolei) panasonic, as an internationally renowned electrical appliance manufacturer, is about to make its seventh appearance at the china international import expo (ciie). since the first ciie in 2018, panasonic has never missed this important international trade event, and has brought many innovative technologies and environmental solutions to each session. this year, panasonic will attend again with the largest exhibition scale in the same exhibition area and a richer lineup of exhibits, continuing to deepen its environmental concept of "green smart manufacturing to create the future", and demonstrating its confidence in the continued growth of the chinese market and its firm commitment to sustainable development.
tetsuro honma, global vice president of panasonic holdings co., ltd. and general representative of the group in china and northeast asia (photo provided by the interviewee)
recently, tetsuro homma, panasonic holdings' global vice president and group general representative for china and northeast asia, said in a discussion with the media at the company's headquarters in osaka, japan, that through the ciie platform, foreign companies and governments can better understand the needs of the chinese market, and the chinese side can also learn about the latest products and services provided by foreign companies. tetsuro homma said that for the chinese market, its appeal lies not only in its huge market size, but more importantly, in the high degree of acceptance of advanced technologies and new concepts by chinese consumers, as well as the rapid changes in the market. this ability to quickly adapt to new technologies is a major advantage that foreign companies see in the chinese market.
it is worth mentioning that at the 7th ciie, panasonic will integrate its business achievements. in addition to panasonic's traditional products and solutions such as home appliances and residential spaces, it will also showcase new quality productivity and sustainable development contributions in the fields of green travel, green factories, and green energy.
firmly promote sustainable development and lead the circular economy model
as a company with a long history, panasonic is widely recognized in the chinese market. in the early days, panasonic became one of the well-known brands in the hearts of chinese consumers with its high-quality home appliances such as televisions, audio equipment, refrigerators, etc. with the changes of the times and the advancement of technology, panasonic's business has gradually expanded to more fields and formed a more diversified business portfolio. however, panasonic has always attached great importance to sustainable development and regarded it as a core component of its corporate strategy. it has implemented a series of initiatives around the world to reduce environmental impact and improve energy efficiency.
when visiting the panasonic kusatsu hydrogen fuel plant in kusatsu city, shiga prefecture, japan, the reporter saw that the kusatsu plant has become a key place for panasonic to promote its sustainable development strategy. the plant uses an advanced energy supply system, including a large number of solar panels, hydrogen fuel cells and lithium-ion batteries. these facilities together form an intelligent energy system that can effectively use renewable energy to generate electricity.
panasonic kusatsu factory (data map)
the factory has installed 99 5-kilowatt pure hydrogen fuel cells, 4,000 square meters of solar photovoltaic panels and batteries with a capacity of about 1.1 megawatt hours, which together provide clean electricity for the factory. this move not only reduces carbon emissions, but also improves the flexibility and reliability of energy use.
another company, panasonic environmental technology center co., ltd. (petec), is located in kato city, hyogo prefecture, japan. it is a waste appliance processing plant wholly owned by panasonic. since its official opening in april 2001, the center has been committed to the recycling of waste appliances, aiming to maximize the recycling of resources and reduce the impact on the environment through advanced technical means.
in the past 20 years of operation, the center has processed more than 19 million waste home appliances and successfully recycled a large amount of metal materials such as iron, copper, and aluminum. these achievements not only reflect panasonic's contribution to environmental protection, but also demonstrate its leading position in the circular economy model.
in addition, petec is not just a simple recycling site, it also plays an important role in verifying the environmental friendliness of products. it is responsible for testing the performance of products designed according to environmental protection concepts throughout their entire life cycle, and feeding back the data obtained during the recycling process to the r&d department in order to continuously improve product design and make it easier to recycle, thus forming a closed cycle chain.
according to reports, panasonic plans to display some disruptive cutting-edge technologies at the exhibition hall at the world expo in osaka, japan next year, which is very exciting. among them, perovskite solar cells and microbial technologies that react with oxygen to emit light have attracted much attention, heralding major breakthroughs in the fields of energy and environmental protection in the future.
actively deploying in the field of health care and elderly care to leverage the vitality and opportunities of the chinese market
japan has already entered an aging society, and china is also actively responding to the trend of an aging population and vigorously developing the "silver economy." panasonic is full of confidence in this and is also very optimistic about the broad prospects of china's health care and elderly care market. at present, panasonic has launched a retirement apartment cooperation project for the yada panasonic community in yixing, jiangsu, and is promoting similar project cooperation in more than ten cities across the country. in addition, panasonic has also carried out in-depth cooperation with many institutions such as yongning home in huangyan, zhejiang, and medical nursing homes in sishui, shandong. in june this year, panasonic signed a health care and elderly care cooperation project with beijing institute of architectural design and beijing anxin kangyang industrial investment group, further consolidating its position in china's health care and elderly care field.
at the same time, panasonic has never stopped exploring smart health and retirement communities in japan. in 2022, the osaka suita sustainable smart community (suita sst) was officially put into operation, becoming a model for showcasing panasonic's latest solutions in the field of smart communities. the suita sst community not only includes a variety of types of apartments for families, apartments for the elderly, and shared residences for singles to meet the living needs of residents of different age groups, but is also equipped with public facilities such as comprehensive health facilities and communication parks to encourage interaction and social interaction among residents. coupled with its advantageous geographical location next to the national center for cardiovascular diseases, suita sst has become an ideal place to live for people of all ages.
suita sst block power receiving equipment (data map)
the reporter learned at the scene that in terms of energy utilization, suita sst emphasized the application of renewable energy, such as solar power generation, to reduce carbon emissions and improve energy efficiency. the development area of the entire project is about 24,000 square meters. through this comprehensive planning and design, panasonic hopes to provide a feasible reference model for future urban development.
tetsuro honma revealed that the elderly care model of the suita sst community has attracted interest from many places in china. panasonic plans to continue to focus on displaying healthy smart living spaces and healthy elderly care solutions at the upcoming 7th china international import expo. he pointed out that "the ciie has brought us very good promotion results in the past six years."
in addition, panasonic has combined its home appliance business with its living space business in the chinese market for joint development a few years ago. tetsuro homma hopes that panasonic's home appliance business in china will not only be limited to product sales, but will provide overall solutions together with the home improvement business. in the past few years, panasonic's home appliance business in china has achieved sustained growth, especially in 2020 and 2021, with double-digit growth rates.
tetsuro honma also mentioned that compared with the relatively conservative markets of japan, the united states and europe, the chinese home appliance market has shown greater vitality and a faster pace of change, with greater breakthroughs in product color, appearance and functional innovation. therefore, the chinese market has become a "training ground" for testing the adaptability and innovation capabilities of foreign-funded enterprises. although the current home appliance market is highly competitive, he believes that the panasonic china team can meet the challenge and export products developed in china to asia and other countries participating in the "belt and road" initiative to expand the business, which is also one of his most anticipated goals.
