Over 60％ of Japan Firms See Yen’s Recent Weakness Negative

Jiji Press

10:53 JST, May 19, 2024

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — A private-sector survey has found that 63.9% of Japanese companies are seeing negative profit impacts from the recent weakness of the yen.

About half of responding companies believe that exchange rates of ¥110 to below ¥130 to the dollar are appropriate, according to the survey by Teikoku Databank Ltd. The dollar is currently trading above ¥150 .

It is important to boost momentum for firms to reflect higher material costs in their product prices to ensure growth in consumption backed by continued wage hikes and in corporate capital spending, the research firm said.

Only 7.7% said that yen’s depreciation is a plus for their profits while 28.5% are seeing no impact.

The proportion of companies seeing the yen’s weakness adversely affect their sales and that of firms with positive sales impacts came to 35.0% and 16.0%, respectively.

One of the responding companies said, “We have been unable to pass on higher prices of imported materials and energy to customers,” while another said that a hike in sales prices to reflect higher costs led to a decrease in demand from client companies.

Only 1.3% of respondents said the dollar’s rates above ¥150 are appropriate, according to the survey.

Some called on the government to take measures to address excessive falls of the yen.

Teikoku Databank conducted the survey online over six days until Wednesday, with 1,046 companies giving valid responses.