At 6:20 p.m. London time, on August 8th, four female beach volleyball players from China and Brazil will face a fierce battle at the parade ground of the British Royal Horse Guards, which was temporarily converted into a stadium. There was a huge LED screen next to the auditorium. As the camera switched, the player's expression and the details of the shot were clearly visible. At the bottom of the screen, the "Panasonic" LOGO is very eye-catching.

There are more than forty such large screens and are distributed in other Olympic venues such as ExCeL Stadium, Bicycle Hall, Hyde Park. Outside of London, places such as Coventry and Belfast, where people are densely populated, have Panasonic's big screen and play the Olympic Games simultaneously.

As a sponsor who has been working with the Olympic Games for more than 20 years, Panasonic has provided London with the largest Olympic-sponsored product in history. Just two months before the opening of the Olympic Games, the Japanese electronics giant also just announced the largest loss in the company's 94-year history.

The plight of the electronics giant May 11th, Panasonic's fiscal year 2011 (April 1, 2011 - March 31, 2012) financial report shows that compared with the previous year's net profit of 74 billion yen, Panasonic 12 The monthly record of 772.2 billion yen (approximately RMB 61 billion) was a huge loss, almost tying up the highest loss record in the Japanese manufacturing industry. Hitachi suffered a huge loss of 787.3 billion yen in fiscal 2008. Panasonic’s sales revenue also decreased by 846.5 billion yen from the previous fiscal year to 784.6 billion yen.

The financial report disclosed that last year's "3.11" earthquake and power shortage after the tsunami, the interruption of the supply chain caused by floods in Thailand, the market fluctuations caused by the European financial crisis, and the historically high yen exchange rate caused Matsushita's presence in Japan and The cause of the worsening overseas business environment. Market factors are the impact of fierce price competition on flat-panel TVs and semiconductor businesses, and the company's radical reforms that have just been implemented to improve operations - it is clear that reform cannot be called success.

Matsushita’s reforms included a sharp contraction in loss of flat-panel TVs and semiconductor business, and the reorganization of its business division. These moves are not completely ineffective. The financial report for the first quarter of 2012 (April 1, 2012 - June 30, 2012) released on July 31 showed that the company temporarily turned losses into profits. Although the net profit was only 12.8 billion yen, it was Matsushita’s first profit after six consecutive quarterly losses.

However, at present, Panasonic still lacks more convincing evidence that this improvement in performance is not just a financial profit, and that there are still signs of persistent growth in operating profit. In particular, the increase in performance is not due to the increase in product competitiveness, which can be reflected in its still weak sales volume: In the first quarter of 2012, Panasonic’s sales were 1,814.5 billion yen, which was the same period of last year. Decrease by 6%.

What's even more embarrassing is that Panasonic made another look at the financial report for a better price. At least 42850 employees were unemployed. Under the guidance of the former president, Da Ping Wenxiong, the company has laid off 36,000 employees worldwide in fiscal year 2011, accounting for approximately 10% of the total number of employees. June Kazuhiro, who took over as president of the company, took a layoff baton and directed the company’s headquarters. On August 3, Kyodo News reported that Panasonic will reduce the size of the headquarters staff from the current 7,000 to 150, in order to improve decision-making efficiency. Such large layoffs can be regarded as the highest of Japanese companies.

Similar experience also occurred in the other two major Japanese electronics giants. In fiscal year 2011, Sharp, which has a history of 100 years, set a record of a loss of 376 billion yen for the whole year. Sony lost even more to a loss of 456.7 billion yen, which also hit a record high of 66 years. The sales revenue of the two companies also decreased by 18.7% and 9.6% respectively.

After experiencing unprecedented losses, Sony and Sharp also successively formulated reform plans and reorganized management. Layoffs are also an important option - Sony announced in April that it will cut 10,000 people, accounting for 6% of its global workforce; Sharp announced in August that it would cut 5,000 people, accounting for about 9% of the company's global workforce. However, the two companies' first-quarter report in 2012 indicates that these companies still have a long way to go. Sony’s net loss for the three months reached 24.6 billion yen, while Sharp reached 138.4 billion yen.

The hollowing out crisis Japan's three major consumer electronics giants are not alone in their cases. Their difficulties reflect the current status of Japanese manufacturing to some extent. In addition to the decision-making mistakes that exist in different companies, the appreciation of the yen and the power shortage caused by nuclear disasters are common challenges for Japanese companies.

Migration to the mainland has become the choice of many Japanese companies. According to the 2011 Manufacturing White Paper released by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan on June 5th, 69% of Japanese companies surveyed plan to step up and shift production overseas. According to other data, since the yen exchange rate against the U.S. dollar began to increase by as much as 40% since mid-2007, Japan’s net foreign direct investment rose from an average of 30 to 50 billion U.S. dollars in 2001-2005. In 2008, it was worth $130 billion and is still above the long-term trend. In Japan, corporate capital investment has been declining.

“We are in an unprecedented hollowing crisis,” Japanese Prime Minister Noda Yoshihiko said in September last year. Toyota's president, who is concurrently chairman of the Japan Automobile Industry Association, has a stronger sense of crisis: "If such a high exchange rate continues for a long time, it will cause the collapse of the manufacturing industry." On August 9, the Bank of Japan was in the latest currency At the policy meeting, on the same day that it was announced that it was not moving, Japan’s Toyota Motor Corporation held an inauguration ceremony at the vehicle factory in Sorocaba, a suburb of Brazil’s São Paulo, which is Toyota’s third vehicle factory built in Brazil. Even the United States is among the migration destinations of Japanese companies.

The cost of electricity is another major pressure on Japanese manufacturing. The nuclear accident last year prompted the government to make a decision to shut down the country's nuclear power plants. With a 25% reduction in power generation capacity at a stroke, the price of industrial electricity has risen sharply. "Ensuring a stable supply of energy" has become the hope of large and small companies in Japan. On July 18, the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry held a summer policy symposium in Tokyo, recommending that the government gradually restart the suspended nuclear power plant. The economic organization said that if industrial electricity prices rise sharply, “the manufacturing industry will die in Japan.” Under the pressure of the business community and economic data, the Japanese government restarted the Dalat nuclear power plant, and the era of short-lived “nuclear nuclear power” came to an end. However, the pace of Japan’s nuclear power restarts still faces enormous domestic “anti-nuclear” noise and resistance to the upcoming fall election.

This situation has obvious pressure on the Japanese government. In fact, Japan still has plenty of options for improving the business environment of Japanese companies. For example, the 41% corporate tax rate is 15 percentage points higher than the OECD’s average of 26%. In addition, the once-for-all lifelong employment system of companies that Japan is proud of, as well as the export tariffs of companies that are higher than competitors such as South Korea, can all become reserve policies. However, these changes mean an unprecedented political game, and it seems that Japanese politicians have no spare energy to roll out large-scale reforms. At present, the struggle for consumption tax has shown how high the cost of policy adjustment is.

On the bright side, post-disaster reconstruction has created a relatively relaxed environment for the reform of Japanese manufacturing. The government's subsidies for the construction of eco-residential buildings and environmentally-friendly cars have also produced stimulating effects. A number of Japanese companies’ financial reports have revealed that the recent Japanese market has seen a slow recovery, but many economists disagree with it. "Manufacturing has ruined the Japanese economy," said Noguchi Noguchi Noguchi of Waseda University. Noguchi believes that reliance on manufacturing has caused great harm to Japan. In order to compete with other low-cost Asian countries, Japanese factories are desperately trying to cut wages and lower costs, causing deflation in 20 years.

Autumn is coming. Every fall is the political season of Japan. Japan’s political arena has sharpened its knife-in-chief. On August 9th, the Japanese 6-party faction’s no confidence case against the Noda cabinet failed. This is just the beginning of a new war. The plight of Japan's manufacturing industry is providing new ammunition for a new round of offensive and defensive in the Japanese political arena.