Updated as of November 2005

Tooling Up for Economic Growth.

In Japan, the metal working machine tools are defined in two categories: metal-cutting machine tools and metal forming machine tools.

The number of employees in the machine tool industry as a whole was 29,895, working for approx. 502 establishments, in 2003. This number represented a decrease of about 22.1 percent from 38,366 working for 515 establishments in 2002. During the previous 10 years, the number of employees decreased by approx. 30 percent. The number of establishments has also decreased by 7% during the same period.

Metal-Cutting Machine Tools

Japan's metal-cutting, machine-tool manufacturers shipped 879,600 million yen worth of products in 2004, a drastic increase of about 27.2 percent over 692,500 million yen worth in 2003.

Metal-cutting machine tool orders in Japan, including both domestic and foreign, posted a record high at 1,236,192 million yen in 2004, in a global equipment investment boom in the automotive industry, according to the Japan Machine Tool Builders’ Association (JMTBA), representing Japanese metal-cutting, machine-tool manufacturers.

Of the total orders for 2004, domestic demands accounted for 672,839 million yen, up 52.3 percent from the previous year, marking the highest since 1991.

Of foreign orders in 2004, North America accounted for 31.8 percent, Europe for 26.2 percent, East Asia for 26.8 percent, and other Asian regions for 12.9 percent. As a whole, foreign orders in 2004 represented 45.6 percent of total orders.

Japan's total metal-cutting machine-tool exports in 2004 amounted to 683,100 million yen, up 21.1 percent from the previous year. Of exports in 2004, East Asia accounted for 42.8 percent, up 32.5 points; North America for 22.8 percent, up 13.1 points; Europe for 16.6 percent, up 14.8 points; and other Asian regions for 15.6 percent, up 18.0 points from the previous year.

In 2004, Japan's metal-forming, machine-tool manufacturers shipped 203,600 million yen worth of products in 2004, a steady increase of about 16.7 percent from 174,500 million yen in 2003.

In 2004, total metal-forming, machine-tool orders increased 25.7 percent from the previous year to 233,817 million yen. The recovery in 2004 from a severe economic depression up to then, contributed to the increase of production by 9.2 percent to 132,000 million yen from 2003.

Of the total orders for metal-forming machine tools in 2004, domestic demand accounted for 138,854 million yen, up 25.5 percent from the previous year. Foreign demand in 2004 also increased nicely, up 26.1 percent to 94,962 million yen from the previous year due to rapid increase in demand in the U.S. as the U.S. economy recovered