As mentioned on GaijinPot earlier in the week, Japan is facing some tough questions as it downsizes its economy and expectations. Sanyo, a former giant of the electronics world and long an innovator in battery-tech, is ending its iconic advertising in London’s Piccadilly Circus.

Sanyo first mounted an ad in 1978 at Piccadilly Circus, which, like New York’s Times Square, is famous for major corporate billboards. It switched to a 116-square-meter neon-light display in 1984, making it the oldest among the five single-company ads at the site.

Sanyo’s expected pullout will leave only one Japanese business, electronics device maker TDK Corp, represented at the ad space of the bustling London commercial district.