Question:
Japan has taken the lead in the growing electronic display industry which includes such technologies as liquid crystal displays (LCD), plasma displays (PDP), and electroluminescence (EL). Can you give us a little bit of background as to how this came about?
Originally Japan mass-produced Braun tube televisions and monitors, so the infrastructure was already in place for the jump to LCDs and plasma displays (PDP). Also, Japanese consumers love new products, so there was immediate acceptance for LCDs and PDPs, and the market just took off. In other words, there was a solid base in the market for new display industries to build on, and that encouraged development. In the case of the transition from LCD to organic EL in particular, it was extremely important to have the peripheral technologies for thin displays available, and not just the primary technology itself.
In the LCD industry, peripheral technologies for thin displays have already been established so they can be used for organic EL, though I think they will have to be improved first. Also, I would say that it's really Asia as a whole-with Japan at its center-that is leading the display industry; for example Samsung in Korea is the world's leading producer of LCDs. Recently the Taiwanese are building up their display-technology infrastructure, and China has started to convert a large number of factories. Still, when it comes to organic EL, I think the Japanese are ahead of Korea and Taiwan. Of course Korean and Taiwanese companies who have license agreements with Japan have access to our technology, so that raises their overall technological level.
Also, it would seem that the level of display technologies at European firms isn't quite as high. They have companies working on organic EL, but haven't been able to turn out products yet, and when you compare their demonstrations of color organic EL displays to ones from Japanese companies, you can instantly tell the difference.
