Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., best known for its Panasonic brand products, today announced its shareholders approved a proposal to change the company's name to "Panasonic Corporation" at its 101st Annual Shareholders' Meeting.

The change will become effective from October 1, 2008. The name change will also take effect for some of the group companies currently using the names Matsushita or National. The shareholders of each of these companies approved that this move would also become effective from October 1, 2008. In addition, Matsushita announced its ticker symbol change on the New York Stock Exchange from "MC" to "PC" as of October 1, 2008.

The brand changeover from National to Panasonic to be phased-in across Japan commencing October 1, 2008 has started earlier than the original plan, expected to complete within fiscal year 2010 ending March 2010. Currently, the National brand is used for home appliances and housing equipments in Japan.

When it was first established in 1918 the company was known as Matsushita Electric Housewares Manufacturing Works, which was changed to Matsushita Electric Manufacturing Works in 1929. The company has been using the name Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. since its incorporation as a joint stock corporation in 1935. While the company used the National and Panasonic brand names over a long period, it decided in 2003 to unify its global brand to Panasonic with the brand slogan "Panasonic ideas for life."

With this company name change and brand unification, the Panasonic Corporation will celebrate its 90th anniversary this year.