LED Valley Tokushima

About Tokushima Prefecture

Tokushima Prefecture is located in the eastern part of the island of Shikoku and is a treasure house of nature with steep, forested mountain regions, rich stream of the Yoshinogawa River, and coastlines on the calm Seto Inland Sea side and the superb Pacific Ocean side.

In such a gifted environment, there is an abundance of agricultural and livestock products, as well as marine products, with many of the products representing the largest shipping volumes in Japan, such as Sudachi(citrus) and Awa-odori (homebred chicken). By taking advantage of the geographical conditions and the land route connections via the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge and the Onaruto Bridge, the prefecture plays a major role as a food supply depot for the Kansai region, a major consuming region.

With regard to industrial output, the major industries within the prefecture are food processing, the manufacture of wood furniture and Buddhist altars, and the machining of metal products: these industries and technologies developed throughout the area’s history have been inherited as Tokushima’s unique local industries.

Tokushima Prefecture aims for the realization of “The One and Only Tokushima” that leads the nation by taking advantage of and further improving its geographical features and the credentials for the management of excellent technologies.

 

What is LED?

Light emitting diodes (LED) emit light when an electric current is applied, and because of the excellent characteristics of low power consumption, long operating life, small size, light in weight, high visibility, high response speed, and different wavelengths (color), LEDs are expected to be applied not only as lighting but also in a variety of different applications. 

 

Tokushima Prefecture, world’s leading LED production base

Tokushima Prefecture leads the world in LED production where a cluster of manufacturers within the prefecture develops LED-applied products, such as the worldwide LED element manufacture of commoditized blue LEDs for the first time in the world. In addition, manufacturers in the prefecture now have about 30% of the world share of white LEDs.

 

LED Valley Framework promoted by Tokushima Prefecture

Tokushima Prefecture drafted the LED Valley Framework to aim for “The Cluster of Lighting (Illumination) Industry that Uses LED, the Illuminant in the 21st Century” in December 2005 and has been working to form a cluster of factories and laboratories as a base for fostering professional engineers and R&D of advanced technologies.

In 2010, the prefecture accomplished “The Cluster of 100 LED-Related Companies,” which was the initial target. Companies that develop LED lighting equipment and products contributing to saving energy, sign displays, materials/components/devices that support the future performance upgrade of the LEDs, new use in plant factories, image processing/measuring devices, and illumination gathered into a cluster. From now on, the prefecture intends to step up efforts to further grow the LED-related industry as the nation’s key industry by exerting the scale advantage of the “Cluster of 100 Companies” and the synergies among related companies.

 

-Major efforts toward the realization of the LED Valley Framework

 

・The introduction of an environment-conscious system (Tokushima Prefectural Office building)

In the Tokushima prefectural office building, an environment-conscious system has been introduced that offers a combination of solar energy generation (generation of energy) of clean energy, high performance lithium-ion batteries (stored energy), and LED illumination (energy saving) that have the advantage of saving energy.

 

 

 

・Introduction of a multi-function disaster-prevention system

With industry-university-government cooperation, we combined solar energy generation, lithium-ion batteries, and LED illumination to develop a multifunction disaster-prevention system. The system has been installed in several places in the prefecture, and tests are now underway.

 

 

 

・Maintenance of LED signal lamps

As of March 2011, 50% of Tokushima’s traffic lights use LEDs, and our prefecture has the nation’s 3rd highest maintenance rate of LED-used traffic lights for vehicular traffic. Regarding signal lamps for pedestrians, new development is underway at a company in the prefecture.

 

 

・Promotion of the use of LEDs as lighting in tunnels

Tests are being conducted to upgrade the lighting in tunnels and on local streets to LED illumination. By using the power-saving, longer lasting LEDs for practical uses, the prefecture aims to reduce maintenance costs and ensure the safe, smooth flow of traffic.

 

 

 

 

・Creating a brand image of “Speaking of LEDs, Tokushima is Famous” 

In Tokushima Prefecture, places called “Photic Famous Places” and monuments where LEDs have been effectively incorporated have been likened to the holy places of Shikoku, “Shikoku’s 88 Sacred Sites,” and certified as “Photic 88 Places.” Please see all the great sites of beautiful illumination.

 

   

 

  

 

-LED-applied products originated in Tokushima Prefecture

There are more than 100 LED-related companies clustered in Tokushima Prefecture, and they have been developing a large variety of LED-applied products.

 

・LED disaster prevention lights

Stand-alone disaster prevention lights in which LEDs are combined with solar power generation panels and rechargeable batteries

   

 

   

・Large LED lights

High-powered LED lights that can be installed in the high ceilings of factories

 

 

 

 

・LED floodlights

Using for a number of things such as task lighting and sign illumination

 

 

   

・Sign displays

Sign displays that meet various needs such as blinking and full color

 

 

 

 

・Plant growing LEDs
LED lights optimized for plant growing such as vegetables

 

 

 

 

・ Pest trapping LEDs
LED pest traps installed in restaurants to trap pests

 

 

 

 

・Underwater fish collecting LEDs
Actively used in fishery sites with effective fish collecting function and less battery consumption

 

 

 

 

 

・Concrete blocks with built-in LEDs
Lucent concrete blocks that indicate the road boundaries

 

 

 

 -About Tokushima Prefecture’s support system

 Tokushima Prefecture offers subsidy programs that correspond to the various industry sectors from manufacturing to IT-related businesses and provide support for site locations such as new/additional construction of factories by companies. For R&D, we provide consistent support from factory site locations to R&D, such as the technical support provided by Tokushima Prefectural Industrial Technology Center, which is a publicly run experiment and research organization; collaborative research with the University of Tokushima, which established the faculty of Optical Science and Technology for the first time as a national university and has been systematically providing education and conducting research in optical engineering; and research institutes such as Anan National College of Technology.