Japan’s Business Failures during January to December 2022
(Released by TEIKOKU DATABANK, LTD.)
Intensifying wave of “zombie culling”
Number of bankruptcies for the year exceeds the previous year by 361, the first increase in 3 years
Number of bankruptcies is 6,376, the largest increase since the 2009 financial crisis.
Total liabilities came to 2,372,380 million yen, exceeding the 2 trillion yen mark for the first time in five years.
| Bankruptcies |
6,376 |
| Year-over-Year basis |
+6.0％ |
| Previous Year |
6,015 |
| Liabilities |
2,372,380 million yen |
| Year-over-Year basis |
+103.9％ |
| Previous Year |
1,163,309 million yen |
Highlight and Outstanding Feature
- ■The number of bankruptcies in 2022 came to 6,376 (6,015 in the previous year), up 6.0% from the previous year and the first increase in 3 years since 2019. The number of bankruptcies had continued to fall amid COVID-19, but the trend for the number of bankruptcies to increase then persisted after May 2022. The number of bankruptcies recorded an increase of more than 300 from the previous year, the first increase amid COVID-19.
- ■Total liabilities were 2,372,380 million yen (1,163,309 million yen in the same period of the previous year, up 103.9%), exceeding 2 trillion yen for the first time in 5 years since 2017, partly due to the legal liquidation of Marelli Holdings Co., Ltd. in June (Saitama, Civil Rehabilitation, liabilities of 1,185,626 million yen).
- ■By industry, the number of bankruptcies increased year-on-year in all industries excluding the retail industry. The services industry (to 1,601 from 1,425 in the previous year, up 12.4%) saw bankruptcies increase by at least 100 for the first time in 5 years since 2017.
- ■The number of recession-induced bankruptcies was 4,923, and the number of bankruptcies caused by “illness or death of management” was a record high.
- ■By form, bankruptcies (business failures) grew by more than 300, the largest increase since the financial crisis in 2009.
- ■By business history, bankruptcies of start-up companies with less than 10 years of business history were up by more than 300 from the previous year, the first time this had happened in 14 years since 2008.
- ■By region, six of nine regions experienced year-on-year increases. The Tohoku region (to 348 from 232, up 50.0% from the previous year) recorded a massive 50% increase over the previous year. On the other hand, Shikoku (to 100 from 123, down 18.7% year-on-year) saw the lowest figure in the past 40 years.
Bankruptcy Information TOP