Our employees share a principal theme every year. The theme of this year is that “the key to create a competitive advantage is how well we pick up on hints and clues that our customers (unconsciously) drop.” In the past twenty years, the top trading partner of Japan has been changing from the U.S. to China, and we have been experiencing falling land prices and stock prices all over Japan. In addition to it, there is little change in salary, though prices of raw materials have been increasing even in this deflation. How can we find growth opportunity through this tough economic time? We need to brainstorm new ideas and solutions. “Gaining a competitive edge” has been our theme since last year, and we value “creating a competitive advantage” this year.

Ever since Apple Inc. launched iPhone, we see expanding shares of Smartphones in mobile phone industry. Smartphones allow users enjoy music, videos, and games in one hand. However, it is essential to have touch panels for those entertainments. Last summer, capacitive touch screens have rapidly taken over analog touch screens in the market. Our products had been adapted for analog types. Therefore, we were greatly affected by the shifting. Yet, our products have been now well adapted to capacitive types, and we are picking up the pieces favorably. We consider Japan, China, Taiwan, and Korea as one and the same market. We visit our customers in order for us to synchronize our steps with them and match with their specific wants and needs. By this effort, we enable to develop, improve, and manufacture customized products daily.

We leverage high technology in process industry and find our way for expanding our business with high-mix low-volume manufacturing and our original production technology. In our industries, we see new technologies every so often, and it is very important how we can accurately keep up with our customers’ needs using within-case and cross-case analysis and understandings of tasks. This is how we spread the value of our brand and a competitive edge internationally.

Stay tuned to what’s going on with Higashiyama Film Co., Ltd.

April, 2011