Oct. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Forget the 58-inch flat-panel TV, the new domestic status symbol for Japan’s rich is a cooker.

Housewife Yasuyo Takizawa, whose husband runs a public- relations firm, spent as much as 4 million yen ($44,900) on systems that combine solar power with energy-efficient water and room heaters and induction cookers that heat pots with a magnetic field, boosting her green credentials and swelling earnings for manufacturer Panasonic Corp.

“I’m not normally big on the environment, but I feel good that I’m using eco-friendly products,” said Takizawa, 63, who installed the system after seeing it at her sister’s house. “Now my friends who visit my place say they also want them.” She’s buying the same units for a house being built for her son.

Turning its white goods business green may help Panasonic double sales from home-products in a decade, said Kazuharu Miura, an analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research Ltd. The Osaka-based company, Japan’s biggest maker of home appliances, is blitzing magazines and Web sites with recruitment ads to staff its 18,000 branded neighborhood stores -- key to providing the technical support the solar systems require.

Panasonic’s home-products unit earned 49 billion yen last year, outdoing divisions making televisions and stereos, electrical components and homes. Revenue at the unit was 1.2 trillion yen, 15 percent of the company’s overall sales. The company is also seeking to buy Sanyo Electric Co., a Japanese maker of solar panels and rechargeable batteries, for $9 billion.

Green Seminars

Panasonic and its store managers marketed energy efficient products to 800,000 customers in 2,800 seminars in the five months to Aug. 31, according to Mitsuo Osawa, a director at Panasonic’s electric works unit. Sales of such appliances for households in Japan will rise to 2.75 trillion yen in the two years to March 2011, from 2.13 trillion yen in the previous two years, according to data provided by Osawa and Japan’s Agency for Natural Resources and Energy.

“Energy-saving products can not only stimulate consumer demand but also boost the overall appliance market, as they are generally sold at a higher price,” said Kazunori Takami, president of Panasonic’s home appliance company.

The backbone of Panasonic’s plan is its chain of own-brand, shopping-street stores. Set up more than half a century ago to sell the company’s televisions, washing machines and air conditioners, the stores have been in decline since peaking at about 27,000 in 1980, as warehouse chains like Yamada Denki Co. captured customers with discounts. The local shops now account for about 30 percent of Panasonic’s sales in Japan.

‘A Fortune’

“The shops are a fortune to us,” Takami said. “They can offer the maintenance services that will be crucial to expand this business.”

Panasonic, whose shares have risen 14 percent in Tokyo trading this year, has the largest network of consumer electronics shops in Japan. There are about 1,000 Sony-branded shops and 2,700 for Sanyo Electric Co., the companies said.

“Panasonic is eyeing expansion of the appliance business as its next growth driver, as the audio-visual equipment market starts to saturate,” said Daiwa’s Miura. The company doubled TV sales in the past 10 years with the switch to more expensive flat-panel screens, he said. “That situation can be recreated with eco-friendly home appliances.”

Panasonic’s EcoCute, a water heater that extracts heat from the air, costs around 800,000 yen, four times more than a conventional gas boiler. Panasonic’s induction cooking range costs about 400,000 yen, double that of a typical gas system.

Most of Japan’s 50 million households use gas for cooking and warming water. The number using only electricity will likely increase by 1.5 million to 5 million in the two years to March 2011, Osawa said. Those with solar systems will probably increase by at least 200,000, to 660,000, in the same time, each spending about 2.5 million yen for the equipment, he said.

Sanyo Strategy

Panasonic will likely start a major campaign for its “Panasonic for the entire house” strategy after completing the acquisition of Sanyo Electric, Miura said.

The acquisition will help combine appliances with solar cells, fuel cells and rechargeable batteries “to offer a unique service that no other rival can replicate,” President Fumio Ohtsubo said at the annual shareholder meeting on June 25.

Electronics retailers like Yamada Denki, Japan’s biggest by revenue, are fighting back. In December, the company increased its stake to 100 percent from 51 percent in Cosmos Berry’s Co., a franchise of 1,014 local electric-goods outlets. In August, the retailer teamed up with Hiroshima-based contractor West Holdings Corp. to offer solar power installation.

“We are aiming to expand our coverage to areas and consumers that large outlets cannot reach,” said Hisashi Yamada, a spokesman for the Gunma-based retailer.

Solar Sales

Sales of solar cells, fuel cells, energy-saving lighting and energy-efficient heating systems in Japan will probably more than double to 1.4 trillion yen in 9 years to 2017, Fuji Keizai Co., a private researcher in Tokyo, said in a June 9 statement.

Japan is encouraging consumers to invest in solar power by forcing utilities to buy surplus domestic electricity at above- market rates. Government incentives for renewable energy may boost solar sales in Japan 20-fold by 2020, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts Hiroyuki Sakaida and Ikuo Matsuhashi said in August.

Watching her solar control panel, Takizawa said income from her surplus pays for more than 70 percent of her monthly power bill and will double next month with new tariffs.

“It’s fun to check how much electricity we are producing,” she said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mariko Yasu in Tokyo at myasu@bloomberg.net. Maki Shiraki in Tokyo at mshiraki1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 15, 2009 05:55 EDT