The TFT-LCD market has already become a red ocean. Korea and Japan take the lead in the OLED market. In terms of display technologies, Taiwan should seize the chance to pioneer the development of Micro LED if it wants to secure a competitive share in the global display market in the future.

Seeing a future with IoT Technology gradually maturing, Lite-On Technology is making a big push into automotive IoT and smart traffic systems and will showcase its products in January at CES 2018. It has comprehensive 802.11P solutions and is developing solutions that meet the LTE-Vehicular mobile standard.

A group of Japan's researchers, legislators, and businessmen hope to use rare earth metals in the deep sea near coastal area of Japan to make LED products. They aim to use them for the Olympics and Paralympic Games in Japan in 2020, reported the Yomiuri Shimbun.  

Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. (HPK) and Nichia on Oct. 11 have reached a basic agreement to build a wide-ranging collaborative framework leveraging the two companies’ proprietary optical and other technologies.

While the public thought Sharp might focus fully on the manufacture of 8K resolution television screens after the first one was made public two years ago, according to the Japan Times, the LCD TV maker now seems determined to step into the market of OLED display by establishing new product lines- one in the city of Sakai, Osaka, and the other in Taki, a town in Mie Prefecture.

Sharp has developed green laser diodes, and are running pilot projects of the lasers in its facilities in Mihara, Japan, reported Nikkei.

According to Nature World News, more than 18 million people in Japan suffer from hair loss, a figure about three times that of U.S., which led a Japanese company to come up with an innovative idea to regenerate hair growth: red LED helmets.

OSRAM Opto Semiconductors has recently entered into LED technology and patent license agreements with a multinational company based in Japan. The technology license encompasses certain proprietary LED epitaxy, chip and package technologies of the Japanese company. It is accompanied by a comprehensive LED patent license for Osram.

Sharp might be shutting down its LED display plant in Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan in 2017, as part of its restructuring efforts implemented by parent company Foxconn, sources familiar with the matter told Japan Times recently.

EVERLIGHT filed a declaratory judgment action against Nichia Corporation (“Nichia”) for invalidity and non-infringement of U.S. Patent Nos. 5,998,925 and 7,531,960 in the U.S. District Court for Eastern District of Michigan in 2012. These two patents are directed to YAG phosphor being used in LEDs and phosphor concentration. The court on January 19, 2016 denied Nichia’s motions and confirmed the April 22, 2015 jury verdict that all asserted claims of Nichia’s patents were invalid. In addition to the U.S. court ruling, from 2014, EVERLIGHT has continued to receive favorable rulings in Japan and Germany that Nichia’s patents are invalid. 

On June, 15, 2016, in a lawsuit filed by Nichia against Tachibana Eletech (“Tachibana”) and E&E Japan (“E&E”), which companies imported and/or sold Blue LEDs manufactured by a Taiwanese company, Everlight Electronics Co., Ltd., (“Everlight”), the Tokyo District Court found that the importation/sale of those Blue LEDs by E&E and Tachibana constituted infringement of Nichia's patent.

Japanese government held a special meeting at its Global Warming Prevention Headquarters to address global warming solutions and implement suggestions issued by COP21, the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris. The government aims to accelerate action plans and strategies.

San'an Optoelectronics announced that it  licensed the U.S. LED patents it recently acquired from a major Japanese company to its subsidiary, Luminus Devices.

LG Electronics has recently announced plans of partnering up with Chinese and Japanese companies to make OLED display TVs more mainstream, according to a Reuters report.

Low heat emission is usually a good feature of LEDs, but it can be an issue in snowy regions.

Enterprises lack of market competitiveness, has contributed to Japan’s long economic slump, according to a Shanghai Stock Information Service report. The number of patent applications slid since reaching a pinnacle in 2000. The main cause has been the very little recognition and compensation Japanese employees have been receiving for their important inventions. Amendments to existing patent laws are expected to further aggravate the situation.

Taiwan topped global rankings last year for LED component output value, and the industry is expected to keep up 14% growth throughout 2015 to reach US $5.37 billion, according to statistics compiled by Taiwan’s Photonics Industry and Technology Development Association (PIDA).

Foxconn might start small scale OLED production in 2016, according to a Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun report.

ON Semiconductor, driving energy efficiency innovations, has announced new distribution channel partner agreements with two multi-national electronics trading franchises based in Japan. Ryosan and Macnica join the roster of ON Semiconductor channel sales partners to help expand domestic sales within Japan and work to drive sales growth in China and other Asia-Pacific geographies.

LED is a fast changing industry. Asian manufacturers have taken their own paths to confront the tide of change. Japanese manufacturers are actively seeking collaboration opportunities with Taiwanese manufacturers, while Korean LED manufacturer Samsung has gradually exited the global LED market. Chinese manufacturers on the other hand are expanding production capacity on the back of government support.

A Japanese semiconductor technology R&D manufacturer Athene has developed a new technology for manufacturing high precision OLED panels, according to a Nikkei Asian Review report.

For travelers visiting Japan this Christmas, a couple of design websites have compiled some must see lighting decoration sites. According to a Philips Lighting blog entry,while Japanese do not celebrate Christmas they are quite keen on creating a festive atmosphere with lights. Design website Spoon and Tamago gives a comprehensive guide to some must see locations in Japan: Sapporo, Hokkaido On top of the design website list is northern city Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido Prefecture in Japan. Sapporo was the first Japanese city to introduce illumination in 19...

Over the past few years, Japan has seen an upsurge in energy conservation awareness. In the wake of the Tohoku earthquake in 2011, the government has even proposed plans for a “low-carbon society”. LED products have since experienced rapid popularization becoming the poster child for energy saving products. A recent survey shows the Japanese LED market size will undergo explosive growth in 2012 of 195 percent to $420.4 billion Japanese yen (US $4.2 billion),as reported by Liberty Times.

LIGHTING JAPAN 2014, an important exhibition and conference for LED/OLED lighting, will take place in 2 months. Newly joined by global giants such as Philips, GE and many others, LIGHTING JAPAN is further strengthened as the Asian hub of the lighting industry. Attend LIGHTING JAPAN 2014, meet all the key players from the world’s LED/OLED lighting industry and make the good start of next year.

As lighting technology improving, people begin to be aware of the importance of good lighting surroundings. In order to give stages to people who work in lighting related industries and exchange their great ideas, Reed Exhibitions organized “Lighting Japan” in Tokyo, Japan. In this internationally open exhibition, you can meet manufacturers, contractors, designers and end-users as well as the newest discovery, technology, products and lighting design concepts.

According to the news reported by Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun on the 8th, Taiwan-based Hon Hai plans to establish OLED panel's core technology research and development (R & D) base in Japan in 2013, in anticipation of confirming the volume-production techniques of OLED panel in 2015 through the alliance of R & D bases in both Taiwan and Japan. Reported that Hon Hai plans to set up this OLED panel OLED panels R & D base  in the large-size LCD panel production base ("Sakai Display Product; SDP") jointly operated by Hon Ha...

According to reports, Horikawa, the birthplace of Kyoto Yuzen silk dyeing, presents "Kyo no Tanabata" with bamboo and LED lights to celebrate Tanabata. People will see a representation of the Milky Way, a night sky full of stars. A touch of Kyoto is added with an illuminated bamboo arch under a thin veil of darkness. The bamboo used in the arch was cut down from abandoned bamboo forests.   The Japanese “Tanabata” came from Chinese legend since long ago has it that Hikoboshi (Altair star) and Orihime (Vega star) separated by the vast Mi...

On July 30, Philips Lumileds announced signing distribution agreements with Macnica/Clavis Company and Marubeni Metals in Japan, in order to expand product availability and speed time-to-market of LED lighting solutions. The two new agreements enable immediate access to Philips Lumileds application-specific LEDs in Japan. "Our new distribution partners will have full access to the products, services and people at Philips Lumileds," said Pierre-Yves Lesaicherre, CEO Philips Lumileds. "Macnica/Clavis Company and Marubeni Metals are now able...

A Japanese research group developed a sheet-like OLED light source that functions even after being crumpled. The group is led by Takao Someya, professor at the School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo. The minimum bending radius and brightness of the sheet respectively are 10μm and 100cd/㎡. The group expects that the sheet will be used as a new light source for medical and healthcare sensors. The research group announced a pressure sensor sheet that functions even after being crumpled and is lighter and softer than feather July 25, 2013. For the pressure sen...

Canon Marketing Japan (Canon MJ) started selling LED bulbs from July 17, 2013. The company intended to exclusively sell in Japan the LED bulbs, which was sold in the United States by venture business headquartered in Silicon Valley. The products adopted the same housing shape of incandescent bulb E26 (Edison screw base standards), with the high diffusion, dimmable options and liquid-cooled heat dissipation technology.            Canon MJ first listed through website three LED bulbs, which respectively are 60W retrofit (810lm...