Funai Electric, which went bankrupt on October 24th, had total debt of 47 billion yen. What is surprising is that instead of applying for civil rehabilitation or corporate reorganization, the company chose to file for bankruptcy, which would mean the company itself would disappear. The origin of the company’s missteps began with the death of its founder, Tetsuro Funai, in 2017. “The shares held by my eldest son, who is a doctor in Hokkaido, were acquired by a publishing company called Hidewa System HD (hereafter, Hidewa). Hidewa’s new president, Ueda Tomokazu, created a new holding company, Funai Electric Holdings, and for some reason acquired the hair removal salon Musee Platinum as a “new business.” The original funds came from loans secured by Funai Electric’s headquarters real estate and other assets. Furthermore, in May of this year, it was discovered that advertising company Cyber Buzz had provisionally seized Funai Electric shares due to unpaid advertising fees. “Funai Electric was even forced to guaranty the cost of a hair removal commercial, and as far as we know, 5 billion yen had flowed out.” (Social Affairs Desk) Looking at Funai Electric HD’s business report, we can see that its net assets have fallen by 30 billion yen in three years, and its finances are rapidly deteriorating. That’s not all. In May, people with no experience in home electronics were appointed to the board of directors, including a former executive of Osaka’s Jiyu Dowa Kai (Liberal Democratic Association) who had been arrested before. It is believed that bankruptcy was chosen to prevent further damage (Muse was sold before the provisional attachment, and Ueda stepped down from his position in September. The chairman is former Minister of the Environment Yoshiaki Harada. What about VCRs? There was a time when the company was highly praised as a blue-chip company. Freelance journalist Kazuyuki Komiya says: “Tetsuyoshi Funai was inspired by Konosuke Matsushita and started out as a sewing machine wholesaler before moving into home appliances. The company expanded its business by taking on contract manufacturing for companies such as Matsushita Electric Industrial (now Panasonic), and at one point became the top seller of low-cost LCD TVs in North America. Also, at almost the same time as Panasonic, they launched the world’s first home bakery (automatic bread maker), which created a huge boom.” In the “video wars” in which Sony and Panasonic fought over video standards, they sided with Panasonic, which played a part in Sony’s defeat. Perhaps because of this, the company continued to produce VHS video decks until the end of its career as an electronics manufacturer (in 2016). That’s why there must be people who still use the “funai” deck today. But will it become impossible to repair it now? When we asked the subsidiary Funai Service, they told us, “It depends on the model number of the deck, but we will continue to take on this for a fee.” This is at least some relief for the generation that owns “treasured videos.” Published in the November 7, 2024 issue of “Weekly Shincho” What will happen to the “secret videos” that are of concern following the bankruptcy of Shinchosha’s “Funai Electric”? We asked the person in charge.
>>1 > In May, people with no experience in home electronics were appointed to the board of directors, including a former leader of the Osaka-based “Jiyu Dowa Kai” (Free Dowa Association) who had been arrested. The key point of this article is this
Four people from that line were listed If they sell it because they don’t have a successor, they have to be careful about who they sell it to At least if Panasonic or Hitachi had absorbed it, they wouldn’t have been taken over like this.
There are companies that will burn VHS to DVD, but given the content of the work, it’s unlikely that they’ll be able to sell it to a company. It’s impossible for people who aren’t good with machines to prepare their own dubbing equipment.
So does this mean that the Jiyu Dowa Kai planned to take over Funai, force it into debt, and ruin it? Did they use the debt to sell a worthless hair removal salon for a high price, and then the Jiyu Dowa Kai made a profit from the sales?
It’s okay because I copied almost everything onto DVD about 20 years ago, but if I had a Blu-ray recorder then I could have recorded onto a BD disc. Affordable 50GB discs have more than 8 times the capacity of a DVD.
“The shares held by my eldest son, who is a doctor in Hokkaido, were acquired by a publishing company called Hidewa System HD (hereinafter, Hidewa). Hidewa’s new president, Ueda Tomokazu, created a new holding company, Funai Electric Holdings, and for some reason acquired the hair removal salon Musee Platinum as a “new business.” From here on out, humans took over the fields and became like this.
>>40 I don’t know if it’s true, but I saw a post that said his father was pretty much estranged from his family and lived with his mistress for a long time So he had no attachment or lingering feelings towards the company.
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