Sony to end Walkman production in Japan

The iconic Japanese musical gadget to be now made in Malaysia and China.

25 January 2006
TOKYO, JAPAN

Sony’s Walkman will be no longer be produced at its birthplace – Japan. The electronics goods major said in a statement on Wednesday that production of Walkman will be shifted to Sony’s production hubs in China and Malaysia.

A Sony spokesperson said the firm would shut production of the MD and CD player Walkman at its factory in Saitama, north of the country’s capital city of Tokyo by 2007 March.

The Saitama factory had produced the first Walkman cassette player in 1979, unleashing a revolution in music industry, which propelled Sony to a global player. Sony became synonymous with portable music for more than a decade after that, but has been struggling in the past few years, especially after Apple’s iPod made waves globally.

Sony also announced that it would slash 200 jobs at the Saitama plant, saying “the decision was based on our company's idea that we will concentrate on production in the best possible places in the world."

Many Japanese firms including Sony have shifted production bases to other Asian countries where low cost of manufacturing is an incentive.

The Japanese major also announced plans to stop production of cathode-ray tube displays in the United States by the end of this year.

Sony’s San Diego plant will be closed in June resulting in 400 job cuts, while production activities at its Pittsburgh unit will end in February, with 400 job cuts.

Sony said it would shift Cathode-ray tube production to China and Singapore.

Sony had announced a string of job cuts in September, 2005, after fierce competition hit its sales.

Still Sony expects sales of 13.85 million Walkman units in the financial year-ending on March 2006.

In the year ended March 2005, Sony had sold almost 12 million units of Walkman, signifying the Walkman’s popularity despite new musical gadgets swarming the market.

In the quarter ended September 2005, Sony had posted a net profit of $247 billion, which is a steep slump of 46.5 per cent compared to the year-ago period, mainly due to restructuring charges and sluggish sales.