Apr 15 2009
Toshiba Corporation today announced that the company will start a major initiative to launch its new lighting business in Europe and the U.S.A.. As the initial step, the company will set up a marketing base for new lighting business operations in the U.K., Germany and the United States by this summer, joining a French operation established earlier this month, to bring to market a wide range of highly energy efficient lighting products such as LED lamps. As fiscal year 2009 progresses, Toshiba plans to further expand the scope of the business and activities to include such regions/ countries as India, Russia, Brazil the Middle East and China.
As Toshiba launches its New Lighting Systems Division in Europe, some of its LED product prototypes will be on show at its exhibition at the Salone del Mobile in Milan. Pictured: Slim desk light, 'CARD', Toshiba LED product prototype (Photo: Business Wire)
Toshiba will introduce its new lighting business to Europe by exhibiting at the Milan Salone, one of the world’s premier exhibitions of furniture and interior design. Based on the theme of ‘Overture’, the company’s first ever exhibition at the Salone will bring to life Toshiba’s philosophy on light and lighting and its importance to life. Toshiba’s exhibition will run from April 22 to 27 at the Design Library, Milan.
As the company who produced Japan’s first light bulb in 1890, Toshiba has over a century of experience in lighting products. Today, the company’s strengths lie in bringing high levels of energy efficiency to practical lighting applications, with no compromises in light quality or ambience. The company’s LED lights, already a success in Japan include light bulbs, down lights, base lights and street lights.
In February, 2009, the company installed 2,300 LED lamps in La Zona Kawasaki, a major shopping mall in Japan, and has supplied passenger cabin lights, including reading spotlights, for the Shinkansen bullet trains running between major cities in Japan. Toshiba itself is making the transition to LED lighting in its headquarters office building in Tokyo.
Proposing Future Generation of Akari
Toshiba understands lighting as much more than a means to brighten rooms. Light has an emotional power that can shape moods and atmosphere and enrich lives. Toshiba regards this quality as akari, a Japanese concept that conveys the ability of lighting to appeal deeply to our senses and emotions. At Milan Toshiba will reveal how the transition from incandescent lighting to LED lighting will create a future generation of akari.
The exhibition will feature pear-shaped light objets surrounded by arches of mirrors, arranged in a curve to represent a window connecting the past to the future. LED lights embedded in the objets will glow brighter as people approach, and pulsate as if alive. The installation offers a visual and tactile experience, and conveys Toshiba’s commitment to creating an akari culture that brings warmth to life.
“We are going to end production of incandescent lamps in FY2010, in favor of energy-efficient, environmentally-friendly alternatives, such as LED lamps and fluorescent lamps.” said Mr. Kuniaki Kumamaru, General Manager of Toshiba’s New Lighting System Division. “With our new lighting system business we are reaching toward the future, inspired by the concept of “Lighting the way to warmth and harmony with people and the environment”. We are channeling our resources and energies into developing the business, and expect it to reach to the global scale.”