Hajime Suzuki, Director and Group Vice President of Reed Exhibitions Japan talks about some of the trends observed at Lighting Japan 2014 this year. The exhibition runs from Jan. 15-17 at Big Sight Tokyo and is one of the biggest lighting events in Asia.

Hajime Suzuki, Director and Group Vice President, Reed Exhibitions Japan (right) and Yuki Omichi, Director, International Marketing, Reed Exhibitions Japan. (LEDinside)

To start off the event has seen positive growth this year. “The number of exhibitors has increased to 367 this year compared to 353 in 2013,” said Suzuki “While Design Tokyo exhibitors have doubled this year compared to 2013.” Technology related exhibitors were also up 10 percent this year, mostly from the effect of combining packaging and other LED component manufacturers.

Commenting about his observations on this year’s show, Suzuki noted there has been a trend among LED manufacturers of moving their focus from technologies to applications. From the technological aspect, manufacturers are increasingly focused on heat dissipation technologies, and there is increasing number of participants from the LED projector and factory lighting sector at the show grounds this year.

A woman looks at Jellyfish lighting design by Enome Design Room Co. (LEDinside)

There are also obvious changes in the Japanese market. “Two years ago, the Japanese residential market was actively switching to LED lighting, but now we are seeing a trend of factories switching to LED lighting.”

Talking about changes in the organization of this year’s show, Suzuki said OLED seminars were increased by close to 50 percent to meet participant demands. “We always want to provide participants with the newest technology, and give participants what they want to see.” OLED is definitely a new technology that many people have shown interest in, added Suzuki. The company has also introduced U.S. and EU luminaire manfacturer and designer program specializing in LED and OLED design concepts, BRIDGE.

The exhibition company also newly introduced automotive lighting at this year’s show. Suzuki pointed out the company identified a potential for the automotive LED lighting market in Japan as more car manufacturers search for energy efficient lighting. In addition, there are many automotive makers in the LED market, and the company received request from both LED and carmakers of their interest in entering each other’s market. To create a win-win situation, and meet this overlapping interest, the company decided to launch automotive lighting at this year’s show.

First day of Lighting Japan 2014 attracts a huge crowd of people at registration area. (LEDinside)

Lighting Japan 2014 Future Plans

Lighting Japan acts as a bridge between Japan, U.S. and European manufacturers, and the company hopes making this event even more international in the future, said Suzuki. Currently, oversea participants make up 30 percent attendees, but the company wants to attract more Chinese, Taiwanese and Korean manufacturers in next five to 10 years. “We hope in the future, the exhibition will mostly be conducted in English,” said Suzuki.

The company already has strengths of offering a much wider range of lighting product portfolio, but aims to widen the scope of the exhibition to incorporate building design. European and U.S. manufacturers have responded most global lighting exhibitions are focused on components, Lighting Japan has more diversity. While the company plans to continue to build on its strength in technology, there are few technology fairs out there.

The exhibition company plans to work on building lighting and is looking to European lighting fairs as an example. One significant change this year has been the company adding and adjusting seminar content to attract more designers and architects. “Future development will definitely be in this area,” said Suzuki.