Back in August last year, Sony, Toshiba, and Hitachi announced plans to merge their small and medium-sized touchscreen LCD manufacturing divisions in a joint venture called Japan Display. The venture was formalized in November and is now operational.

Japan Display, Up and Running

Under the terms of the JV, the companies have combined their operations into the new Japan Display corporation, with each of them owning a 10 percent stake. Government-funded Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) owns the remaining 70 percent. Sony, Toshiba and Hitachi announced the startup on April 3, and said the official operation start date was Sunday, April 1, as first reported by Nikkei Business Daily.

Japan Display will concentrate its efforts on several markets, particularly mobile and automotive. The new corporation will also rely on a research and development (R&D) division to improve its place in the market, and it currently holds 230 billion yen (just over $2.8 billion) in capital. According to Nikkei Business Daily, Japan Display has 6,200 employees, or 1,400 less workers than what the companies separately employed a year ago.

Company Structure

There are seven divisions in Japan Display, each working on different aspects of the industry e.g. departments for research and development, mobile business, manufacturing, and automotive and industrial displays. According to the companies, the 1,400 employees, who have become redundant during the formation of the JV, were mainly in production and support.

With operations starting on April 1, the company has no modest ambitions. "We aim to become a global leading company born in Japan. We will make quick decisions with the flat organization," said Japan Display president Shuichi Otsuka, as cited by The Verge.

(reported by Alexandra Burlacu, edited by Surojit Chatterjee)