The supply of specialized Japanese-language word processor machines will likely dry up in the near future, as more and more consumers move over to personal computers.

NEC Corp., Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Canon Inc. have recently decided to withdraw from the word processor market, and Fujitsu Ltd. is also considering it, following similar decisions last year by Toshiba Corp. and Ricoh Co., industry sources said.

Word processors became extremely popular in the 1980s, with sales in 1989 peaking at 2.71 million units. The specialized machines were coveted by many Japanese because they allowed them to type in kanji for the first time, as well as in Roman characters.

With the proliferation of PCs, the Windows operating system and the Internet, however, the word processor began a slow demise. According to government statistics, sales plummeted 37.4 percent to 724,000 units in 1999 and registered barely 179,000 units by last October.

NEC had canceled new shipments by the end of October and eventually decided to pull out altogether, as even reduced PC prices proved to be too competitive for the aging device, NEC officials said.

NEC entered the business market in 1980 and launched the popular Bungo series for home use in 1985, enjoying sales of 555,000 units in 1991.

However, NEC will discontinue sales after inventories run out and continue providing parts and maintenance for seven years, the officials said.

Matsushita, which began word processor production in 1984 and churned out some 360,000 units in 1989, halted production in November of its latest model, launched just a year ago. There are no plans to make new products, the Osaka-based electronics giant said.

Canon, which has been marketing Japanese-language word processors since 1980, halted development after the November 1999 launch of its CanoWord J1 series, officials of the major copier maker said. They have not decided when to pull out.