Japan's Best Selling Game Software and Game Player for 2001
Alps Electric Announces Reform Plan
Motorola to Close Sendai Plant and Reduce Production in Subsidiary
Nichia and Citizen Electronics Form Alliance in White LEDs
Sony Announces All-in-One Flat Screen VAIO Desktop
Four Companies to Collaborate in Mobile Solutions for Corporate Users

Final Fantasy 10, made for PlayStation2, was the best selling game in Japan for the year 2001, with an estimated 2.26 million copies sold. Gran Turismo3 A-spec, also made for PlayStation 2, held second place, with sales of 1.43 million copies. Games for PlayStation2 occupied 6 out of 10 of the best-selling game software titles. Gameboy Advance was ranked No. 1 for game consoles, selling 4.2 million units. The Gameboy Advance is a portable game console, and was introduced in March 2001 for 9,800 yen ($75 @ yen 130/$US 1). PlayStation 2 came in second place for game consoles, with sales of 3.57 million units. GameCube, Nintendo's new game console, came in the third place, with sales of 920,000 units. These figures were made available by Enterbrain of Japan, which cooperated with game retail stores across Japan, and calculated sales of game software and game consoles for the period between January 1, 2001, and December 30, 2001.

Microsoft of the United States plans to debut Xbox in the very crowded Japanese game market on February 22, 2002, for 34,800 yen ($290). [Masako Robertson, Portelligent]

The continuing IT industry recession has affected another Japanese manufacturer. Alps Electric announced a huge reorganization plan on January 8, 2002. The company will consolidate its seven business operations into five on April 1, 2002. The planned consolidation will transfer system equipment operations in its Morioka Plant in Iwate Prefecture to Peripheral Device Operations. Printer production at Morioka Plant will be consolidated into the two other Japanese plants, one in Fukushima Prefecture and the other in Niigata Prefecture. The 570 employees of the Morioka Plant will be offered relocation to the two other facilities or an early retirement package. Alps Electric will also apply salary reduction to its 7500 employees for one year: 10 percent salary reduction to managers and 5 percent reduction to lower level employees. The company has been enforcing salary reduction to its officers since October 2001. The reduction ratio for the officers will be widened to 15 to 25 percent from the current 10 to 15 percent. Alps Electric is expected to write off 3.8 billion yen ($29.23 million @ yen 130/$US 1) in special losses as the reorganization cost for the fiscal year ending March 2002. [Masako Robertson, Portelligent]

Motorola will eliminate about 700 employees from its Japanese operation, according to a Japanese news report on January 12, 2002. Motorola will lay off almost all of the 230 workers employed at its Sendai Plant in Miyagi Prefecture before the end of 2002 and close down the semiconductor assembly line. The company's subsidiary, Tohoku Semiconductor in Sendai City (also in Miyagi Prefecture), will suspend production at one of two semiconductor manufacturing lines from September to March 2003. Tohoku Semiconductor will ask up to about 500 of its 1300 employees to take early retirement. Motorola's Sendai operation will be consolidated mostly to Motorola's semiconductor assembly and test facility in Tianjin, China, and some to a similar facility in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The manufacturing lines at Tohoku Semiconductor have been producing devices for communication and automotive applications. While the communication device line will be affected by temporary suspension, the automotive device line will be renovated with several billion yen, so that the line will be able to produce various devices including communication devices. In late December 2001, the U.S.-based company announced a massive restructuring plan to eliminate 4000 positions worldwide before the end of 2002. The reorganization plan for its Japanese operations was delivered to Motorola's Japan management team on January 2, 2002. In Japan, Motorola sold its Aizu semiconductor operation in 1999. With its Sendai operation to be shut down, Tohoku Semiconductor will be Motorola's only semiconductor production facility in Japan. Compared to the semiconductor boom in 1999, production volume at Motorola's Sendai facility and Tohoku Semiconductor has fallen to about half, creating a rapid collapse in profitability. [Masako Robertson, Portelligent]

Nichia Chemical and Citizen Electronics, both of Japan, announced that the companies would collaborate in white color LEDs (light-emitting diodes) on January 8, 2002. Nichia will license its proprietary white color LED technology to Citizen, and Citizen will manufacture white color LEDs using the licensed technology. Citizen will supply some of the output to Nichia on an OEM basis. Demand for white color LEDs is on the rise, reflecting rising demand as cellular phone backlight units. In the past, Nichia has been very protective of its white color LED patent, and this is the first time that Nichia has licensed the technology to another company. Citizen Electronics will mass produce white color LEDs at its headquarter factory in Fujiyoshida City. Citizen will use white color LEDs in self-branded cellular phones as well as promote external sales of the devices. Nichia has been looking for a strategic partner to establish a secure position in the rapidly intensifying LED market. Citizen has years of experience in wristwatch assembly process, and is known for its super fine surface mount technology. [Masako Robertson, Portelligent]

As a new model to its VAIO series personal computer, Sony announced an all-in-one flat panel display desktop computer, the VAIO W, integrating the LCD screen and computer into one. The company will begin sales of the VAIO W on February 2, 2002. When it is not used, the computer keyboard can be folded toward the display screen, making the depth of the whole system a mere 19 cm. Presuming that users will watch TV and DVD videos, the system adopted a wide format 15.3-inch LCD display with a resolution of 1280 x 768 pixels, the first such attempt in the VAIO series. With preinstalled TV recording software, GigaPocket LE, users can record up to 18 hours of TV programs in MPEG2 format. The system configuration is a 1.2 GHz Celeron for the CPU, 256 MB RAM (expandable to 512 MB), a 40-GB HDD, and Windows XP Home Edition as the main OS. An interesting Javascripted demonstration of the all-in-one system can be seen at http://www.sony.co.jp/sd/products/Consumer/PCOM/PCV-W101/feat3.html. The street price is expected to be around 160,000 yen ($1,231 @ yen 130/$US 1). [Masako Robertson, Portelligent]

Compaq Computer Japan, KDDI, CSK-Net, and Witnet of Korea announced on December 19, 2001, a new partnership in development of mobile solutions for corporate users. Using Witnet's proprietary mobile solution Mobilick, users will be able to remotely access data and business applications residing in remote PCs from iPAQ Pocket PCs, a Compaq PDA, over KDDI's au cdmaOne packet data communication network supporting up to 64 Kbps. CSK-Net is planning to provide the solutions on an ASP basis. [Digitized Information]