Information Releases

Japan’s Business Failures during April to September 2016

(Released by TEIKOKU DATABANK, LTD.)

Highlight and Outstanding Feature

• ■There were4,059 bankruptcies in the first half of 2016 (4,217 in the previous year, down 3.7% year-on-year). This was the seventh consecutive year of such decrease, and the number reached a new low since the financial downswing caused by the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. Liabilities totaled 675,602 million yen (848,587 million yen in the previous year), the lowest amount on a half-year basis since FY2000.
• ■By industry, the number of bankruptcies decreased year-on-year in four of seven industries.
• ■A total of 56 China risk bankruptcies were identified (41 in the previous year, up 36.6% year-on-year).
• ■A total of 42 weak yen-related bankruptcies were identified (174 in the previous year, down 75.9% year-on-year).
• ■204 post-moratorium bankruptcies were identified (190 in the previous year, up 7.4% year-on-year).
• ■Six bankruptcies were identified as being related to the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquakes, and the largest amount of liabilities was posted by Yamai Co., Ltd. (June, Civil Rehabilitation Act), with liabilities of 7,100 million yen.
• ■By region, seven of nine regions experienced year-on-year declines. Of these, the number of bankruptcies in Kyushu (289) saw a double-digit decrease year-on-year, and the number of those in Shikoku (66) was the lowest since FY2000.
• ■Looking at the cases by form, there were 3,826 bankruptcies (3,978 in the previous year, down 3.8% year-on-year), and this marked the fourth consecutive year of being below 4,000 since the second half of FY2014.
• ■There were no bankruptcies of listed companies.