Tourism and Investment in Japan

Nippon Ichi Software, Inc. established in 1993 in Kakamigahara, Gifu Prefecture manufactures and provides computer software as its main products. It has expanded its business abroad having subsidiaries in the United States, Singapore and Vietnam. The company is widely known for its game software provided for Nintendo Switch and Sony PlayStation. The Disgaia series, launched by the company in 2003, has become a globally popular product and its cumulative sales exceed over 3 million units. Although the company has been engaged in the game industry since its establishment which is expected to grow steadily, now it faces challenging situation such as rising labor costs and intensifying competition. Net income for the fiscal year ended March 2019 decreased 42.3 percent from the previous year to only 294 million yen. Net income for the next fiscal year ending March 2020 is also expected to decrease by 37.7% to about 183 million yen. In the game indust...

Tokai Corp. has the head office in Gifu City, Gifu prefecture and its main businesses include hospital support work, nursing care equipment rental and dispensing pharmacy. In the hospital support work the company provides services to supports hospital managements such as linen supply, hospital facility management, cleaning and meal provision. Its business also includes renting products for nursing care and bedding rental to hotels. Those health and life related services account for almost half of the company's sales. In addition, sales from the business of operating dispensing pharmacies, which provide medicines to patients at home in each region account for nearly 40% of its sales. The company's sales in 2019 increased steadily for the second consecutive year achieving a record high. Although dispensing services have been affected by the recent revision of medical service fees by the government, the steady progress of hospital-related businesses and s...

Okuma was founded in 1898, headquartered in Aichi Prefecture. With a broad product lineup including lathes, machining centers, multi-task machines and grinders, the company develops not only machines but also control devices and software as an integrated machine tool maker. Having bases in the United States, Germany, Australia, Thailand, China and other locations around the world, the company is engaged in businesses related to a wide range of fields including automobiles, aircrafts, ships, robots, solar power, medical devices etc. Recently, the company is focusing on the production of smart machines equipped with artificial intelligence and proposing to customers with technologies and products that contribute to improve their productivity. For example, to respond to increasing demand for automation and unmanned operation technology due to labor shortages, Okuma has developed ARMROID, innovative robot system built into machine tools aiming to automate parts processing and imp...

CKD Corporation, based in Komaki City, Aichi Prefecture manufactures labor-saving and automatic machineries. It has a large market share in lighting manufacturing equipment, pharmaceutical packaging machines, and chemical liquid control equipment for semiconductors. The slowdown of overseas economies including China caused stagnating growth in capital investment for rationalization and labor saving by companies although they had been strong until recently. As a result, operating income for the fiscal year ending March 2019 was 5.43 billion yen, down 56.5% from the previous year. The decline in semiconductor equipment investment and the slowing Chinese investment to automatic machinery have caused equipment segment profits to fall sharply. On the other hand, in Japan where labor shortages are getting worse, there is an active movement by companies to boost labor saving investment. CKD has launched a new product to help workers at plants lift heavy goods u...

Imasen Electric Manufacturing Co., Ltd. is an automobile parts manufacturer headquartered in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture. The company produces seat adjusters for automobiles as its main product and has been supplying products mainly to Japanese manufacturers such as Honda, Nissan Motor, Fuji Heavy Industries and Mitsubishi Motors. It also supplies electronic units which are essential parts to control electronic devices and auto parts such as horns and lamps. Recent business results are fairly strong. For the fiscal year ending March 2019, net sales increased 1.1% to ¥ 118,579 million, operating income increased 14.0% to ¥ 3,740 million, and ordinary income increased 8.5% to ¥ 3,691 million.   In the core auto parts related business, production decreased in North America due to sluggish sales of vehicles which use parts Imasen supplies but increase of production in Japan and China contributes strong sales and incomes compared to the previous year. The ...

The Japan National Tourism Organization announced on July 17 that the number of foreign visitors to Japan in the first half of 2019 recorded the highest ever exceeding 16,633,000, an increase of 4.6% over the same period last year. Chinese travelers whose visa requirements have been eased in January and Vietnamese travelers from which flights to Japan have newly started boosted the number. By country and region, China tops with 4,532,500 people visiting Japan with increase of 11.7%. Korea follows although it dropped 3.8 percent to 3,862,700 for the first decline in five years. Taiwan also fell 1.0 percent to 2,480,800. As a result the overall growth rate has shrunk from 15% in the first half of last year. The Japanese government pointed out that significant growth can also be expected in the second half as natural disasters such as the Hokkaido earthquake caused decreasing visitors last year. In addition the government indicated that it is likely to renew th...

Ukai, cormorant fishing in Gifu City In Japan, tourism is expected as a leading industry in the coming years. The number of tourists visiting Japan has continued to increase since 2012. Foreign tourists coming to Japan have outnumbered the Japanese tourists going overseas since 2015 and more than 31 million foreign tourists visited Japan in 2018. The Chubu region, located in the center of Japan,  has been attracting tourists with magnificent scenery such as Mt. Fuji, the highest in Japan and known as the national symbol and a mountain area called Japan Alps, a series of mountain ranges with 3,000 meters peaks. In addition there are famous cities and towns in this region attracting tourists from around the world with their fascinating history and culture, such as Shirakawa-go, designated as a World Heritage Site in 1995 and Takayama City where the Edo era cityscape and long inherited culture still remain.  There are also many nice hot spring resorts here. Hote...