Information Releases

Japan’s Business Failures during April to September 2018

(Released by TEIKOKU DATABANK, LTD.)

Highlight and Outstanding Feature

• ■There were 4,012 bankruptcies, in the first half of FY2018 (4,197 in the same period of the previous year, down 4.4% year-on-year), marking the first decrease compared with the same period of the previous year in two years. By quarter, the number of bankruptcies was lower than the same period of the previous year in both the first and second quarters, and by month, the number marked a year-on-year decrease in five out of six months.
• ■Total liabilities in the first half of FY2018 were 774,910 million yen (1,661,569 million yen in the same period of the previous year), falling below the figure for the same period of the previous year for the first time in two years.
• ■By industry, the number of bankruptcies decreased year-on-year in five of seven industries. Of these, the two industries of construction industry and manufacturing industry marked the lowest number on a half-year basis since FY2000.
• ■There were 76 bankruptcies caused by a labor shortage (54 in the same period of the previous year), up 40.7% year-on-year.
• ■There were 206 post-moratorium bankruptcies (234 in the same period of the previous year), down 12.0% year-on-year.
• ■By region, five of nine regions experienced year-on-year declines. Among them, bankruptcies fell year-on-year by two digits in the two regions of Hokkaido and Kinki.
• ■By type of bankruptcy, there were 103 bankruptcies under the Civil Rehabilitation Act, marking the lowest value since FY2000.
• ■There was one bankruptcy of a listed company—Japan Drilling Co., Ltd., which had been listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (Corporate Reorganization Act, June).
• ■The largest amount of liabilities was posted by Kefir, Inc. (bankruptcy, September) with liabilities of 100,194 million yen.