Toshiba Corp. and Sony Corp. said Wednesday that they will no longer assign prices to their main household electrical goods and will instead allow retailers to determine what customers should pay.
The new pricing policy will take effect during the current fiscal year that started Sunday, company officials said.
The move is in response to competition among manufacturers and retailers coupled with the nation's state of deflation, which has already led many retailers to discount consumer goods.
Toshiba plans to eliminate sticker prices on some 200 items, including refrigerators and high-grade color televisions. Sony also plans to do away with sticker prices on most items.
Other manufacturers, such as Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Hitachi Ltd., Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and Victor Co. of Japan, will maintain sticker prices for the time being but will consider abolishing them on some items depending on the degree of competition, company officials said.