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EPTE Newsletter from Japan - Baby Boomers Are All Grown Up

Topics of the WeekBaby Boomers Are All Grown Up

What is a baby boomer in Japan?  The simple definition of a baby boomer is a person born between 1947 and 1950.     After World War II, soldiers returning from the war married, bought homes, settled down, and started families.  Japan experienced an explosion of births and these children became members of the "baby boomers" generation. This segment of the population is the largest of any other generation (I belong to this group).  The United States and Europe experienced the same dramatic rise in births, and also coined the phrase "baby boomer".

Normal retirement age from companies in Japan is 60 and baby boomers will begin to retire this year, while others are nearing the magic number.  Japanese companies are taking notice. 

The expected retirements present opportunities as well as problems for employers and the government.  The relatively high salary for an experienced worker will be replaced with a lower salary, and operation costs will be reduced.  Unfortunately, social security disbursements will dramatically increase, and the young generation expected to sustain the social security system is less populated than the baby boomer generation.  A serious imbalance is expected over the next five years, and the Japanese government has no solutions to solve the problem.

Another concern for organizations is the potential loss of talented employees.  The baby boomers in Japan are very hard workers with a lot of business and technical experiences.  The young inexperienced generation replacing the veteran workforce can not develop their talents overnight.

The saving rate for baby boomers is significantly high.  They are a frugal bunch, and did not spend money foolishly during their working years.  A market research company estimated their saving could amount to several trillion US dollars.  Smart companies are gearing up for the boomer's retirements, and are considering product lines aimed exclusively this generation.

Automobile manufacturers are considering new models for baby boomers, who are almost certain to buy new cars when they retire, and a machine company developed a small size farming machine for this older generation. The company expects a large amount of the retirees to take up gardening as a hobby.  Musical instrument and audio system manufacturers are launching new product lines specifically for baby boomers, who are passionate for their music.  It was common for us to play some musical instruments back when we were students.  There were no TVs in our apartments or dormitories, and our entertainment came from musical instruments or audio systems.  Unfortunately, we were too busy with work, and music had to take a back seat.  Now with plenty of time on our hands, the music industry is betting we return to our pastime, and spend a lot of our disposable income to once again enjoy music.

The medical product manufacturers are also gearing up for more business opportunities over the next several years. The baby boomers could experience deteriorating health, and some may become handicapped.  Consumption for medicine and medical products will increase.   Targeting this segment is understandable; however, I am not a big fan of this marketing campaign.  Personally, as a member of the baby boomer generation, I would like to manage and live out the rest of my life without assistance.

Dominique Numakura, DKN Research (dnumakura@dknresearch.com)

Headlines of the week

1.      Casio (Major electronics company in Japan) 2/21

Has developed a new concept of "re-usable fuel cell" for portable electronics. New fuel cells will provide lower cost than normal batteries.

2.      Renesus (Major semiconductor company in Japan) 2/21

Has been expanding the business of SiP type products for portable electronics introducing thin packages for stacked chip devices.

3.      Kurashiki Boseki (Major textile company in Japan) 2/21

Will enter the flexible circuit material market introducing a new thermo plastic polyimide resin "Midfil" targeting 3 billion yen revenue by 2009.

4.      Taiyo Industrial (Test equipment manufacturer in Japan) 2/21

Has commercialized a new in-circuit tester for small size LCD modules introducing high density flexible circuit with micro bump arrays.

5.      Nitto Denko (Major electronics material supplier in Japan) 2/21

Will invest 6 billion yens as the first stage construction of the new LCD material plant in Shintzen, China.

6.      Nihon Catalyst (Specialty chemical supplier in Japan) 2/21

Has completed the construction of the new plant of acrylic resins in Himeji. The new plant will produce 3000 tons  of the resins for the optical films.

7.      Showa Denko (Major electronics company in Japan) 2/21

Has developed a new manufacturing process of GaN wafers for blue and white color LED device. The new process enlarge the wafer size to 4 inches.

8.      Kyocera (Major device manufacturer in Japan) 2/20

Will commercialize the world smallest SAW devices (2.5 x 2.0 x 0.8 mm) for cellular phone applications. The company target the pruction5 million units per month by Mar. 2008.

9.      Toyobo (Major textile company in Japan) 2/22

Will commercialize the new polyimide film with extremely low CTE (3 ppm/C). It is the similar level as silicon wafer.

10.  Sumitomo Shoji (Major trading company in Japan) 2/22

Has unveiled a new transparent film with conductive layer made by RTR coating process assuming many applications of flat panel displays.

11.  Ube Nitto Kasei (Specialty chemical supplier in Japan) 2/21

Has developed a new transparent coating chemical, screen printable for the high-density printed circuits. It is stable at high temperature up to 300 degree C.

12.  Fuji Film (Major photo film supplier in Japan) 2/21

Has developed a new organic semiconductor material. It can be coated by traditional process such as screen-printing and spin coating.

13.  Mektron (Major flexible circuit manufacturer in Japan) 2/21

Has unveiled the design concept of high-density multi-layer flexible circuits, with 120 micron pitch for outer-layers for cellular applications.

14.  Sumitomo Electric (Major cable and flex circuit manufacturer in Japan) 2/21

Has developed a new high-density flexible circuit concept with printable nano-paste conductors.  10 micron line/space will be possible.

15.  JSP (Major plastic resin supplier in Japan) 2/22

Will increase the production volume of formed polyethylene sheet as the conveyer material of fine glass substrates to 200 tons per month in April 2007.

Interesting literatures about the packaging industry

Articles of DKN Research

1.  "2006 Global Material Projection for Flex Circuit" DKN Research, October, 2006. http://www.dknresearch.com/Products.html

2. "Introduction for the Printed Circuit Boards of Car Electronics, Flexible Circuits", (Japanese only), Dominique Numakura, Nikkan Kogyo Shinbun, June, 2006, 2400 yens.

3. "The latest semiconductor package, Part XXI, Teardown Analysis of FDD, CD Drive", Dominique Numakura, Electronics Packaging Technology, January, 2007 

4. "Five Year Projection of the Global Flexible Circuit Market" Robert Turunen, Dominique Numakura and James J. Hickman, The Board Authority, Volume 7, August, 2006

5. "Technical Trends and Market Projection of the Materials for the Flexible Circuits", (Japanese only) Dominique Numakura, Denshi Zairyo, October, 2006

6. "Leading Edge Material and Application of Polyimide (Materials for the Advance Flexible Circuits)", Dominique Numakura, CMC publication, August, 2006

7. "Business Trends and Technology Trends of the HDI Flexible Circuits -

Roadmap for the Ultra High-Density Advanced Flexible Circuits", Dominique Numakura, KPCA, October 31, 2006

From the Major Industry Magazines

1. "Innovative Solutions for Leading Edge Designs", George Milad and Mario Orduz, CircuiTree, January, 2007.

2. "2007: The Year of HDI?", Mike Buetow, Circuits Assembly, January, 2007.

3. "Acoustic Imaging of Embedded ICs", Tom Adams, SMT, January, 2007

4. "Microminiaturization, Motorola Style", Aroon Tungare, Printed Circuit Design & Manufacturing, January, 2007.

5. "Fluxless Wafer Bumping by Electron Attachment", Christine Dong, Richard Patrick, Eugene Kawacki and Gregory Arslanian,  Advanced Packaging, January/February, 2007

6. "From Chips to Systems via Packaging - A Comparison of IBM's Mainframe Servers", Hubert Harrer, George A. Katopis and Wiren Becker, IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine, 4th Quarter, 2006

7. "Under the Hood-Latest DESIGN GEMS Unearthed",  presented by EE Times and techonline, December 2006