The 15th regular meeting between China Household Electrical Appliances Association (CHEAA) and Japan Electrical Manufacturers’ Association (JEMA) convened in JEMA’s Tokyo-based headquarter on Dec 13, 2016. The meeting focused on the overall development of home appliance industry, changes in standards and regulations, IoT technologies and smart home appliances.
Kiyoshi Ebizuka, President of JEMA, and Jiang Feng, President of CHEAA, delivered their opening speeches. According to their speeches, home appliance industry of both sides rose to challenges posed by changes in the international politics and economics and secured a steady development in 2016. They both expressed their wish to maintain the regular communication between CHEAA and JEMA to make best use of their complementary advantages.
After that, Jiang Feng introduced the current situation of China’s smart appliances. Hu Xiaohong, Director of Department of Information and Advisory of CHEAA, shared the overall development of China’s home appliance industry in 2016. Wan Chunhui, Director of Department of Standards and Regulations of CHEAA, introduced the latest progress of home appliance related laws and regulations in 2016.
According to JEMA, Japan has seen sales of whitegoods register 2247.6 billion Yen in the fiscal year of 2015 (April 2015-March 2016), a year-on-year rise of 5.7%, and sales of brown goods 1256.1 billion Yen, a year-on-year drop of 2%. Category wise, sales of residential air conditioners posted 8.166 million units, a year-on-year rise of 0.9%, refrigerators 3.823 million units, a year-on-year rise of 0.9%, and washing machines 4.163 million units, a year-on-year drop of 3%. The washing machine sector has experienced a fall in sales for 2 consecutive years. From Jan to Sept 2016, sales of white goods posted 1740.7 billion Yen, a year-on-year increase of 4.4%. As to consumption trends, Japanese households still have a strong demand for light upright vacuum cleaners. And sales volume of cookers fell back to normal level in 2016 after a surge driven by Chinese consumers in 2015.
JEMA also introduced Japan’s latest revision of the JIS Energy Top Runner Program for Refrigerators, and the Energy Conservation Law. It is learned that Japan has revised its JIS Top Runner Program to stay in line with the latest revisions IEC made in Feb 2015 by updating the testing methods and assessment standards. Besides, the Energy Conservation Law revised the baseline year, target year, and targets of its energy conservation program.
Satoshi Tanaka, Director of Department of Home Appliances of JEMA, briefed the progress of IoT in Japan’s home appliance industry. According to him, it was applied by the industry to energy management of communities and buildings.
After the meeting, the delegation of CHEAA visited Hitachi and Daikin.