News & Updates

FY2025 JETRO Survey on Business Conditions of Japanese Companies Operating Overseas（Asia and Oceania）

Jan 20, 2026

Performance Improves in China and Remains Solid in India; Limited Impact of U.S. Tariffs on the Region

Overview of FY2025 Survey

JETRO sent questionnaires to 12,900 Japanese companies operating overseas (5 Northeast Asian countries/regions, 9 ASEAN countries, 4 Southwest Asian countries, and 2 Oceania countries) from August 19 to September 17, 2025, receiving valid responses from 5,109 companies (valid response rate: 39.6%).
The purpose of the survey is to understand the current business activities of Japanese companies operating in Asia and Oceania and to widely disseminate these findings.

Survey Items

  1. Operating Profit Forecast
  2. Future Business Development
  3. Impact of Additional U.S. Tariffs
  4. Labor Shortages and Wages
  5. Human Rights Initiatives
  6. Procurement and Exports
  7. Changes in the Competitive Environment
  8. Decarbonization Initiatives
  9. Utilization of Digital Technology and Related Challenges
  10. Investment Environment
  11. Salary

Key Findings

  1. Profitable companies increase in China for the first time in four Years; Expansion intentions rise in India
    • 66.5% of companies anticipate “profits” for their 2025 operating profit forecast, virtually unchanged from the FY2024 survey (65.8%). By country and region, China recorded an increase for the first time in 4 years, reflecting not only rising demand but also improvements in production efficiency and reductions in labor costs.
    • Regarding future business development intentions, the percentage of “expansion” answers rose by 1.2 percentage points year on year. In India, the trend toward a stronger appetite for expansion continues, with companies citing growing local demand as the main reason. In China, the extent of the decrease is narrowing, although the percentage itself continues to fall.
  2. U.S. Tariffs have a limited overall impact, but downward pressure on profits persists for some U.S.-exporting companies
    • Less than 30% of companies export to the United States. Exporting companies expect their operating profits to deteriorate due to factors such as weaker U.S. market demand, and are seeking to absorb or pass on the resulting cost burden through measures such as in-house cost reductions and price negotiations with business partners.
  3. Efforts toward decarbonization initiative increase, reaching a record high overall
    • 43% of companies across all regions are “already making efforts” to implement decarbonization initiatives, marking a record high, up 12.1 percentage points from the FY2021 survey, when the survey began. Reasons include “company-wide decarbonization goals,” accounting for roughly 60–70% of responses.
  4. Digital technology utilization in ASEAN remains at the halfway point
    • In ASEAN, 52.1% of companies utilize digital technologies for business optimization, lower than in Australia, South Korea, and India, where rates exceed 60%. Challenges cited when pursuing such initiatives include “responding to differing regulations by country and region” and “difficulty in reconciling headquarters-driven initiatives with responses in local subsidiaries.”

The attached document: FY2025 Survey on Business Conditions of Japanese Companies Overseas (Asia and Oceania) PDF file (5.7MB)

Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO)
Asia and Pacific Division, Research & Analysis Department
Tel: +81-3-3582-5179, Email: ORF@jetro.go.jp