More time at home has driven demand for home electrical appliances to record levels.
The value of domestic home electrical appliance shipments in fiscal 2020, which ended in March, increased 6.5% from the previous fiscal year to 2.61 trillion yen, the Japan Electrical Manufacturers' Association said Tuesday. This was the highest figure since fiscal 1997, when the current statistical method was introduced.
The fiscal 2020 figure was also 5.9% higher than the previous record of 2.47 trillion yen in fiscal 2018, when there was last-minute demand ahead of the consumption tax rate hike from 8% to 10%.
By product category, the shipment value of air cleaners nearly doubled from the previous year to 109.4 billion yen, exceeding 100 billion yen for the first time. For room air conditioners, the shipment value increased 3.5% to 818.2 billion yen. The rising demand is believed to be due to increased awareness of health and cleanliness amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Online sales have been strong as electronics retailers have had to shorten business hours.
Consumption was also boosted by the central government's special cash benefit of 100,000 yen per resident. There was increased demand especially to replace consumer goods and appliances with high sticker prices. The shipment value of washing machines increased 8.4% to 399.5 billion yen and that of vacuum cleaners by 7.6% to 99.5 billion yen.
Demand for kitchen devices also increased as some companies began introducing telecommuting. Sales of refrigerators rose 3.1% to 452.5 billion yen, while sales of microwave ovens increased 5.7% to 94.4 billion yen.
On a monthly basis, the overall shipment value of home electrical appliances in April and May was sluggish, in the range of 150 billion yen to 200 billion yen, because of the state of emergency issued during those months. After the emergency was lifted, shipment value surged to 308 billion yen in June, and remained above 200 billion yen from July through September.
A second state of emergency was declared for parts of the country in January and continued for about 2-1/2 months, but the shipment value in January was the highest seen for that month in the past 10 years.
The strong demand from people staying at home continued in February and March. The shipment value in March increased 8.9% from the same month the year before to 238.9 billion yen, marking six consecutive months with a year-on-year increase.
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