Chinese home appliances "reverse occupation" of the Japanese market: 7 percent of the products come from China, praised for "dimensionality reduction strike"

Chengdu Business Daily Red Star News

2024-04-25 20:12Published on the official account of Red Star News of Chengdu Business Daily, Sichuan

Once upon a time, brands such as Toshiba, Hitachi, and Panasonic from Japan became the first choice for Chinese consumers when buying home appliances. Today's situation is just the opposite, China's Haier, Hisense and other home appliance brands have successfully entered the Japanese market and won the favor of young consumers.

▲The home appliance section in a Japanese hypermarket

Japan's home appliance market used to be considered difficult to "bite down", on the one hand, Japanese companies have traditionally had an advantage in the field of household appliances, and on the other hand, Japanese consumers also have their own aesthetics and consumption preferences. However, with Toshiba's delisting from the Japanese stock market, the global influence of Japanese home appliances has also ebbed significantly.

At the same time, China's complete industrial chain has captured the younger generation of Japanese consumers with cost-effective products. With the deepening of brand influence, Chinese companies in Japan are also getting rid of the stereotype of "good quality and low price" and continue to occupy market share in the country's large home appliances and high-end goods fields.

Popular Chinese home appliances:

The preferences of the younger generation of Japanese consumers are changing

In Japanese society, April is the beginning of a new year, and with the opening of schools and the entry of company recruits, many people will change to a new working and living environment in April.

Bic Camera, a major electronics retailer in Japan, has also seized the opportunity to launch a "five-piece home appliance set" that includes refrigerators, washing machines, microwave ovens, and other products, so that customers who are new to renting can buy all the products they need in one place. In the "five-piece" combination of various price points and grades, Chinese products occupy an absolute dominant position, and many domestic brands familiar to Chinese consumers are also very popular in the Japanese market.

Taking Haier as an example, its washing machine with a capacity of less than 5.5 kg for people living alone in Japan is about 10,000 yen (about 476 yuan) cheaper than similar products in Japan, and it also has a frequency conversion device that is not available in competing products in Japan, which greatly reduces vibration, noise and power consumption.

▲Haier's advertising campaign in Tokyo

Bic Camera's sales staff said that considering the balance between function, styling design, and price, "there are many people who choose products from Chinese manufacturers, and the recognition of Chinese brands is also increasing, and some people even name Chinese products to buy." In addition to Chinese brands, many Japanese brands (such as Bic Camera's own home appliance brand "EDION", etc.) have also found Chinese manufacturers for OEM. Overall, about 70% of the home appliances in Japanese hypermarkets are produced by Chinese manufacturers.

The younger generation of Japanese consumers is gradually embracing Chinese brand home appliances. For example, the Japanese have traditionally preferred white appliances, but Haier's black stainless steel design is also very popular in Japan. The 85-inch color TV launched by Chinese brands such as Hisense has gradually changed the preference of Japanese customers for small TVs.

Advantages of Chinese manufacturers:

Enough features at a low price

According to the 2023 survey data released by market research firm Euromonitor, Chinese manufacturers account for about 28% of the Japanese refrigerator market, which has about tripled in the past 10 years. Especially in terms of low- and medium-priced products, Chinese manufacturers that can provide sufficient functions at a low price have a clear advantage.

At the same time, in the Japanese flat-panel TV market, the combined market share of Hisense and TCL Group will expand to 21.4% in 2023, nearly doubling in 4 years, of which Hisense's market share exceeds that of the Japanese giant Sony, ranking third.

▲TCL released a new product in Japan

Japanese research company BCN believes that the success of Chinese TV brands is inseparable from the cultivation of China's domestic consumer market, with the popularity of Internet TV, the color TVs developed by Chinese brands generally have perfect networking functions, compared with traditional Japanese color TVs, it can be called "dimensionality reduction strike".

Euromonitor international market analyst Yamato Taro pointed out that with the rapid development of China's domestic Internet of Things and artificial intelligence technology, the technical strength of China's home appliances is constantly improving, "Chinese manufacturers have the ability to provide more advanced networking functions and AI functions than large Japanese companies."

Yamato Taro believes that many elderly Japanese people still have a deep-rooted "belief in domestic products" and will prefer Japanese domestic brands when choosing, but Japanese young people have been completely captured by Chinese brands and appreciate the affordable feeling brought by advanced and practical design and high cost performance.

Red Star News reporter Zheng Zhi

Editor: He Xianxian, Editor-in-charge: Li Binbin

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