Mitsubishi TV Sets - Japanese Televisions Engineered in the US

Mitsubishi televisions are made by Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America, Inc., which has nearly all of its operations in North America.

Mitsubishi TV manufacturing operations are concentrated in the hands of Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America, Inc., "The Big Screen Television Company". Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America (MDEA) is a subsidiary of the Mitsubishi Electric Corporation of Japan, which is traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. More than 99% of MDEA's employees are based in North America, and it's research and development is done in California.

In North America, Mitsubishi televisions are probably less known as a brand than Mitsubishi cars. But both Mitsubishi TV and car manufacturing operations are only a part of a wide range of products and services offered by the Mitsubishi Group of Japan.

The Mitsubishi Group is a concern of affiliated, but legally separate, companies, that includes some of the world's largest corporations. They have a common origin, share resources, and have exclusive business ties.

Mitsubishi traces its beginning to Yataro Iwasaki who started a shipping company with three leased steamships in 1870. The company changed its name several times, and finally settled on Mitsubishi Mail Steamships in 1875. Mitsubishi's shipping business boomed until the Japanese government sponsored the establishment of a competing company in the early 1880s. The resulting cutthroat competition nearly bankrupted both companies, and a truce was negotiated in the form of a merger in 1885, which formed Nippon Yusen (today called the NYK Line).

The merger caused Iwasaki to lose control over Mitsubishi shipping operations, but he had been diversifying into other industries including copper and coal mining, ship construction, financial exchange, and warehousing, all of which formed the basis of the Mitsubishi organization we know today.

Yataro Iwasaki died in 1885 at the age of 50, and was succeeded by his younger brother Yanosuke Iwasaki, who continued to diversify Mitsubishi's interests and dropped "Mail Shipping" from the company's name.

During World War II, Mitsubishi manufactured ships, planes, and explosives for the Japanese military. After the war, the occupying US army ordered the dismantling of large Japanese conglomerates, and outlawed the corporate use of the Mitsubishi name. Mitsubishi's headquarters was disbanded in September 1946, and Mitsubishi broke apart into many smaller companies. In the 1950s Japan was welcomed back into the international community and the US policy shifted from occupation into the reconstruction of Japan. Many of the Mitsubishi companies started using the Mitsubishi name and emblem again. Consequently the Mitsubishi Group is composed of a largely independent cooperative of companies.

Mitsubishi Group's diversity is quite impressive, and ranges from satellites to financial services. Therefore, it is only natural for Mitsubishi to make almost anything for the home theater and have a large array of Mitsubishi Television models, including plasma televisions, rear projection television sets, LCD TV projectors, LCD televisions, and of course, good old cathode ray tube televisions.