According to the Japanese Sankei Shimbun report on April 20, the Japanese company Sharp accepted the government’s request to manufacture non-woven masks due to the expansion of the new coronavirus pneumonia epidemic, and at 10 a.m. on April 21, it The company’s website sells the masks; the masks come in packages of 50 pieces/box, and the price is 3,278 yen (tax included) based on the market price, plus 660 yen for shipping. It is tentatively planned to sell 3,000 boxes of masks per day, and will continue to expand production to sell 10,000 boxes per day in the future. At the time of purchase, one person is limited to 1 box, and they must wait 3 days before purchasing again. Currently, there are no plans to ship the masks to physical stores such as pharmacies for sale.
Sharp accepted the request from the Japanese government and used government subsidies to introduce a mask production line in the clean room of LCD monitors in Mie Prefecture. Production began in March 2020. So far, Sharp has only produced masks for government procurement. Now it has decided to start selling masks to the public because of its expansion of production capacity. In the future, in addition to continuing to supply government procurement, Sharp will also consider producing masks in Europe, India, China and other places.
According to a report from Japan Jiji News Agency on the same day, the Japanese company Panasonic also announced plans to start producing masks at the Okayama factory from the end of May this year for employee use. Approximately 100,000 pieces are produced per day. In addition to donating the hypochlorous acid deodorizing and purifying machines produced by the company to medical institutions, it also plans to provide clean rooms for the production of medical equipment, etc., to fully assist in curbing the continued spread of the epidemic.
IRIS OHYAMA, a major Japanese electrical appliance and daily necessities manufacturer, announced that it originally planned to produce about 60 million masks per month at its factory in Miyagi Prefecture, and will expand production to 2.5 times in the future. 150 million pieces, and is currently stepping up the introduction of relevant equipment, and is expected to reach the target in July or August 2020. Since the masks produced by the company in China are prohibited from being exported by that country, it has expanded its domestic production in Japan.
