Quarterly Survey of Overseas Subsidiaries

1.Turnover Inside/Outside Japan and Domestic Sales/Local Sales Overseas

Sales for the Japanese parent companies in the survey totalled 38.0908 trillion yen, a 4.4% decrease on sales for the same quarter of the previous year. Looking at the subtotals by industry, decreased sales were reported by 12 of the 13 classifications (the exception was food & tobacco), with the falls in the transport machinery and electrical machinery sectors particularly important in the overall fall in sales.

On the other hand, total sales for the overseas subsidiaries was 9.1489 trillion yen, a 6.3% rise on the figure recorded for the same quarter of the previous year. Looking at sales by region, the influence of the North America region was particularly large, while the figures for the ASEAN 4 and the NIES 3 continued to fall after recording drops in the previous quarter. The industry subtotals show a rise in 10 sectors, such as electrical machinery and general machinery.

Looking at expectations for the July-December of 1998 by relative DI, that for total sales for Japanese parent companies was at -3.8 points (-18.4 to -22.2), with the share of companies predicting a fall in sales increasing in 9 different industrial classifications, particularly electrical machinery. In the all regions figure for overseas subsidiaries, the relative DI is at -10.3 points (27.0 to 16.7), showing a large drop in the share of companies predicting increased sales.

Looking at the figures for individual regions, the DI is positive for North America but the relative DI is at -9.3 (28.2 to 18.9), indicating a fall in the share of companies predicting higher sales.

Total local sales by Overseas Subsidiaries for all regions was 5.4193 trillion yen, an increase of 7.7% on the total for the same quarter of the previous year. Looking at the figures by region, increases were reported in all categories except the ASEAN 4.

Looking at predictions for the July-December of 1998 by relative DI, the figure was at -8.0 points (24.0 to 16.0), indicating a decrease in the share of companies predicting a rise in sales. Looking at the figures by region, with the exception of the other category the share of companies predicting increased sales was down for all regions, including a relative DI of -6.1 (26.9 to 20.8) for North America.

The ratio of overseas subsidiaries production was 24.0%, a 2.4 percentage point increase over the same quarter of the previous year.