At the foot of the Suzuka Mountains in Mie Prefecture, surrounded by nature’s greenery, stands Sharp’s Kameyama Plant. This revolutionary plant is the world’s first vertically integrated production facility, carrying out everything from manufacture of LCD panels to final assembly of TV sets. The fusion of liquid crystal technologies and TV audio-visual technologies has resulted in LCD TVs that form the “AV culture” of the 21st century and has accelerated the transition from CRTs to LCDs. Sharp has developed large LCD TV markets that are rapidly spreading around the world and has established LCD TVs as the “TV of the 21st century”.

The Kameyama Plant is not far from other previously established Sharp LCD plants: the Tenri Plant in Nara Prefecture and the Mie Plant in the town of Taki, Mie Prefecture. Because these plants are located about one hour by car from each other, engineers familiar with state-of-the-art LCD technologies can effectively share their know-how and promote the evolution of new LCD technologies, then bring them to fruition at the Kameyama Plant. Encouraged by Mie Prefecture’s scheme of developing a “Crystal Valley”, numerous companies in the flat-panel-display industry have moved to the area, enabling Sharp to deepen its communication with related companies and exponentially increase the speed at which it develops new components and designs products.