Sharp to See Light in Japan’s Renewed Solar Subsidies

Japan will renew subsidies for residential solar power equipment next month, officials with the country’s ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry announced this week. The $99.6 million package of incentives pledged for the first quarter of 2009 came not a day too soon for electronics giant and solar manufacturer Sharp Corp.. The company began last week with a move to shut down two factories and cut some 380 jobs in response to sinking demand for LCD panels, its core product. And a few days later, Japan’s Fair Trade Commission slapped Sharp with a cease-and-desist order and a $3 million fine for conspiring to fix prices of LCD modules supplied to Nintendo.

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