In Panasonic's plasma exit, Japan's TV makers come to terms with defeat

TOKYO: Panasonic Corp's move to close its last plasma television factory completes a painful reckoning that has all but killed off Japan's TV industry, once the pride of the country's post-war rise to technological and economic power. 

In a golden era that began in the 1970s, the country's TV makers brought cutting-edge yet affordable technology and brand names like Sony, the Trinitron and Panasonic into living rooms across the West, at the expense of US and European rivals.