Tag: Japan market entry
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Japan Pet Food and Pet Supplies M&A: Divestitures by Large Groups, Owner Exits and Acquisitions Abroad
(USD figures are converted at USD/JPY = 150 for reference and rounded. Company fiscal years are shown as FY2025/12, meaning the fiscal year ended December 2025. Industry statistics for FY2025 cover April 2025 to March 2026. Figures in other currencies are shown as disclosed.) Japan’s pet food market is growing in value but shrinking in…
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Japan Building Materials M&A: Group Restructuring, Distribution Roll-Ups and Foreign Capital
(Updated October 2026. USD figures are converted at USD/JPY = 150 for reference.) New housing starts in Japan fell to about 741,000 units in 2025, the third consecutive annual decline. Against this background, Japan building materials M&A has centered on changes in the ownership of large groups’ businesses. Panasonic Holdings sold 80% of its housing…
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Japan Subsidiary Profitability: Rethinking the Roles of Distributors, the Japan Entity and Regional HQ
Executive summary Introduction Global and regional leadership ask when the Japan business will turn a profit, and the Japan team is expected to answer. We receive inquiries of this kind from the management of foreign-affiliated companies in Japan. In JETRO’s 2025 Survey on Business Operations of Foreign-affiliated Companies in Japan (1,520 valid responses), 61.6% of…
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Japan Medical Device M&A: Group Carve-Outs, Distributor Consolidation and Private Equity Take-Privates
(Updated October 2026. USD figures are converted at USD/JPY = 150 for reference unless otherwise stated.) Domestic shipments of medical devices in Japan reached ¥4.72tn (~USD 31.5bn) in 2024. In Japan medical device M&A over the past several years, large Japanese groups (Hitachi, JEOL, Teijin and Olympus among them) have sold medical device businesses or…
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Japan’s SIer Industry and M&A: Consolidation Driven by a 77% Succession Gap, Talent Acquisition and Surging DX Demand
(Updated October 2026. USD figures are converted at USD/JPY = 150 for reference.) Japan’s information services market continues to grow in revenue. Over the past few years, several major Japanese IT services companies have been taken private by their parent companies: NTT DATA Group, Itochu Techno-Solutions (CTC) and SCSK were all delisted between 2023 and…
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Japan Pump M&A: Group Carve-Outs, Customer-Led Acquisitions and Japanese Pump Makers Abroad
(Updated October 2026. USD figures are converted at USD/JPY = 150 for reference and rounded; amounts disclosed in USD or other currencies are shown as disclosed. Company fiscal years are shown as FY2026/3 for the fiscal year ended March 2026. Industry and government statistics on a fiscal-year basis are shown with their periods, for example…
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Japan Pharmaceutical Distribution M&A: Regional Wholesalers Absorbed by the Majors, Medical Device Dealers Merging and Foreign Entry in Adjacent Fields
(Updated October 2026. USD figures are converted at USD/JPY = 150 for reference.) Japan’s ethical pharmaceutical wholesale market is led by four listed groups: Medipal Holdings, Alfresa Holdings, Suzuken and Toho Holdings. In 2023, Alfresa acquired Miyazaki Onsendo Shoten of Isahaya, Nagasaki, and Medipal took full ownership of Tohshichi of Sasebo, Nagasaki, bringing two independent…
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Japan Cutting Tools M&A: Tungsten Constraints, Carve-Outs From Industrial Groups and Foreign Ownership
(Updated October 2026. USD figures are converted at USD/JPY = 150 for reference. EUR figures are shown as disclosed.) Japan’s production of cutting and carbide tools has stayed within a narrow range for a decade. At the same time, tungsten, the main raw material for cemented carbide, has risen to record prices since China introduced…
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Japan Food Manufacturing M&A: Core-Business Focus, Private Equity and Owner-Run Manufacturers
(Updated October 2026. USD figures are converted at USD/JPY = 150 for reference. Yen equivalents of foreign-currency deal values are as disclosed by the companies.) Food manufacturing alone, excluding beverages, accounts for about one-tenth of Japan’s manufacturing shipments and employs more people than any other manufacturing subsector. Most of its establishments have fewer than 300…
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Japan Insurance Agency M&A: Regulatory Reform, Divestitures by Insurers and Corporates, and Foreign Brokers Entering Japan
(Updated October 2026. USD figures are converted at USD/JPY = 150 for reference.) Japan’s insurance agency sector is shrinking in number and consolidating in scale. The number of non-life insurance agencies fell to about 124,000 at the end of fiscal 2025, down about 39% from about 202,000 ten years earlier. Following an insurance-claim fraud case…
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Reviewing M&A/Acquisition Proposals by Japanese Firms: 5 Perspectives Every Owner Should Consider First
Introduction M&A/acquisition proposals from Japanese companies often arrive with little warning. Whether through an intermediary, a mutual business contact, or a direct approach from the buyer, the initial experience for a business owner is the same: limited information, high stakes, and an implicit pressure to respond. It is important to recognise at the outset that…
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Bottlenecks in Japan Market Entry and Operations — and M&A as a Strategic Option to Accelerate Capability Build‑Out and Strengthen Competitiveness
Japan remains one of the most important advanced markets in the world—large in absolute demand, demanding in quality and execution, and strategically meaningful for global credibility. Yet for many foreign‑owned companies, the key challenge is not whether Japan is attractive, but whether the Japan business can scale at the speed, consistency, and governance standard expected…