LEDs Enjoy Boom in Japan Following Quake
By wchung | 22 Apr, 2026

Panasonic will pass the 10 million mark in domestic LED shipments this year just months after the energy-efficient technology outsold old fashioned filament bulbs for the first time in June.

Panasonic — Japan’s leading LED maker with a 30% market share — began selling LED (light-emitting diodes) bulbs in October 2009. It didn’t expect to cross the 10 million sales mark until March 2012. However, a new focus on energy efficiency after the electricity shortages caused by the March 11 Great East Asian Quake has nearly doubled monthly LED sales. Panasonic expects to reach the 10 million mark at least three months earlier than initially projected.

It took Panasonic 11 years to reach the 10 million mark with bulb-shaped fluorescents which it introduced in 1980. It will take just over two years to reach that milestone with LED bulbs which are longer lasting and more energy efficient than fluorescent bulbs.

The 2011 domestic Japanese market for LED bulbs will be over 20 million units, twice that of 2010. Currently fluorescent bulbs account for nearly 60 percent of the home lighting market while LED bulbs have only around 10 percent. In a bid to boost its LED market share to 50% in fiscal 2012, Panasonic has introduced eight new types of LED bulbs, including a transparent one that illuminates a wide area.

Major competitors like Toshiba, Sharp and NEC are also fighting for a bigger share of the domestic home lighting market with an array of new LED bulbs.

Unlike many nations, Japan has made no formal effort at phasing out incandescent bulbs. Brazil and Venezuela began to phase them out in 2005 while the European Union, Switzerland, and Australia began the effort in 2009. Argentina, Russia and Canada are set to begin phasing them out in 2012 while the United States and Malaysia will begin in 2014.

LED lighting is 70 percent more energy efficient than incandescent lamps and last up to five times longer. They generate light by stimulating a phosphor, the same technology used in cathode ray tubes which are now being replaced by LCDs (liquid-crystal displays).