Sony Says It Will Stop Exporting Most of Its Japanese-Made Televisions : Electronics: The high yen and price competition are forcing the company to move some models to overseas production.

Sony Corp. said Thursday that it is virtually stopping exports of domestically produced television sets and will focus on overseas production. It’s a sign of the times for cost-conscious corporate Japan.

Sony used to be a huge exporter of Japanese-made television sets when the nation’s appliance makers helped equip the world’s households with goods made on production lines at home.

But the high yen and keen price competition have made overseas production a more attractive option.

Company spokeswoman Mika Ishida said Sony wants to insulate itself from sharp fluctuations in exchange rates and that overseas production helps it to be more responsive to the differing tastes of consumers in foreign markets.

“We want to be resilient to currency shifts through global production,” Ishida said.

Sony said it hopes to stop exporting six- and 10-inch color TVs from Japan by the end of March. It will continue to export only a small number of larger TVs such as 29- and 32-inch models.

The company currently exports 30,000 to 40,000 Japanese-made color televisions a month, mainly to North America and Asia, compared with a peak of well more than 100,000 a month in 1985.

Many Japanese electronics companies have been scrambling to shift production overseas in recent years as the yen’s rise to record highs has hurt their competitiveness abroad and slashed profit margins on exports of many goods.

Stiff competition from rivals in areas where labor costs are lower, such as Southeast Asia and China, has also undermined Japanese exporters.

“The economics are simple: It’s crazy to think in terms of competing in low value-added exports with Korean, Taiwanese and other companies,” said Barry Dargan, an electronics analyst at SBC Warburg Securities.

Ishida said Sony’s Japanese manufacturing lines will now make small televisions entirely for the domestic market but that the company does not plan to reduce its work force because of the halt in exports.

Sony’s factories in North America, Europe and Asia, which make more than 10 million televisions a year, will make up the production output that was previously exported, she said.

Sony also makes sophisticated models such as high-definition and wide-screen televisions in Japan, but those are not exported.

Sony said it intends to raise the proportion of its production of all goods outside Japan, including consumer electronics and semiconductors, to above 50% this year from 40% last year.

Dargan estimated that between 70% and 80% of all the consumer electronic production of Japanese firms now takes place overseas.

The Electronics Industry Assn. of Japan reported Wednesday that Japan’s exports of color televisions plunged 18.3% in August from a year earlier to 235,000, and that imports--many from Japanese-owned factories abroad--climbed 53.4% to 616,000.