Quarterly Survey of Overseas Subsidiaries

Outline of the Survey

1. Objectives of the Survey

The objectives of the current survey were to dynamically grasp the business performances of Japanese incorporated enterprises engaged extensively in the business operations domestically and overseas, and to obtain the materials and data useful for the government to formulate its industrial policies and trade policies.

2. Legal foundations for the survey

This survey was legally endorsed and authenticated by the Article 4 of the Statistical Report Adjustment Law. Prior to the commencement of this survey, a pilot or test survey was consecutively conducted in the October-December quarter of 1996 and in the January-March quarter of 1997. The findings obtained from those pilot surveys will also be published together with this survey findings after approval from the General Affairs Administration Agency.

3. Timing of the Survey

The survey was conducted at the end of the survey quarter.

4. Coverage of survey

(1) Parent companies

In this classification we include those Japanese corporations involved in manufacturing and having as of the end of March, 1998, 50 employees or more and capitalization of not less than 30 million yen, as well as having reported or supplied notification of foreign currency denominated securities as specified by the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Control Law, with ownership of affiliated companies operating overseas.

(2) Overseas subsidiaries

Manufacturing firms with 50 employees or more owned by parent companies as specified in item (1) and operating overseas, where investment by the parent firm, both direct and indirect, exceeds 50% of total invested funds (also including those overseas subsidiaries established during the term of the survey)

5. Survey Methodology

A survey by mail was employed as the survey method. Based on a self-administered questionnaire filled out by a Parent company chosen as the respondent.

6. Data tabulation method

The data obtained were tabulated into those output by Parent companies and those output by subsidiaries separately. What were not provided at the time of tabulation were estimated by the following formula:

Current estimated data for the company that failed to provide the relevant data = The previously provided data of the said company * ( The currently provided data consolidated with the data from the companies that provided data both in the current survey and in the previous survey / The previously provided data consolidated with the data from the companies that provided data both in the current survey and in the previous survey )

What were included into data estimation were as follows:

Parent companies: Sales, exports, exports to Overseas subsidiaries, Purchases, imports, imports from Overseas subsidiaries, number of employees

Overseas subsidiaries: Sales, sales to Japan, local sales, number of employees

7. Classification of business category

In principle, according to the Japan Standard Industrial Classification, the category of business that has the largest share of the sales was recognized as the major business of each Parent company as well as each subsidiary.

8. Country Classifications (Regions)

Classification of overseas subsidiaries by region based on country of residence was carried out as follows. (Countries arranged in alphabetical order.)

North America:

America, Canada

Asia:

ASEAN 4

Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia

NIES 3

Singapore, Taiwan, Republic of Korea

China and other Asian countries

India, Viet Num, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Nnepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Myanmar, Laos, People's Republic of China (including Hong Kong)

Europe

Iceland, Ireland, Azerbaijan, Armenia, United Kingdom, Italy, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Estonia, Austria, Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Greece, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia (Gruziya), Cyprus, Switzerland, Spain, Tadzyhikstan, Denmark, Germany, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Norway, Hungary, Finland, France, Belarus, Belgium, Poland, Portugal, Malta, Mordavia, Latvia, Lithuania, Rumania, Luxembourg, Russia

Other

Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Egypt, ElSalvador, Guatemala, Ivory Coast, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, United Arab Emirate, Venezuela