Information Releases

Japan’s Business Failures during January to December 2016

(Released by TEIKOKU DATABANK, LTD.)

Highlight and Outstanding Feature

• ■There were 8,164 bankruptcies, (8,517 in the previous year, down 4.1% year-on-year), marking the seventh consecutive year of year-on-year decrease, and the lowest level after 2000 (6,734). On a quarterly basis, although the number slightly increased to 2,018 in the third quarter (1,999 in the same period of the previous year), it was lower than the previous year in the other quarters.
• ■Liabilities totaled 1,991,683 million yen, marking a 1.0% year-on-year decrease and the first year-on-year decrease in two years.
• ■Number of bankruptcies and total liabilities marked the second-lowest values, after 2000.
• ■By industry, the number of bankruptcies decreased year-on-year in six of seven industries. Of these, two industries, the transport and communication industry (282 bankruptcies, down 18.3% from the same period of the previous year), and the manufacturing industry (1,053 bankruptcies, down 12.3%), marked large, double-digit decreases year-on-year.
• ■A total of 120 China risk-related bankruptcies were identified (80 in the previous year), significantly up 50.0% year-on-year.
• ■By region, seven of nine regions experienced year-on-year declines. Of these, Kanto saw a year-on-year decline for seven consecutive years, Kinki for six, Chugoku for five, and Hokkaido and Kyushu for four.
• ■Looking at each type of failure, there were 7,638 bankruptcies, falling below 8,000 for the second consecutive year. The number of business failures filed under the Corporate Reorganization Act (1) and Civil Rehabilitation Act (246) were both at the same level as the previous year, while there were 279 cases of special liquidation, down 2.1% from the previous year (285).
• ■There were no bankruptcies of listed companies.
• ■The top level of debt was 500,000 million yen, held by Panasonic Plasma Display Co., Ltd. (special liquidation, November).