The size of the retail shoe market in Japan (excluding slippers and sandals) is at around 1.6 trillion yen, with 400 million or so pairs being sold. This comes after a slump from the late 1990s to the early 2000s during a lengthy economic slowdown, when the market shrank to 1.49 trillion yen in 2002, a year in which over...
The number of motor vehicles produced in Japan in October 2015 was approximately 813,000, a 0.5 percent drop over the same month of the previous year and the 16th consecutive month that the figure had fallen against the previous year, according to the Japan Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (JAMA). Passenger car production was approximately 690,000 vehicles, the first increase—albeit a slight...
Sumitomo Riko Co. Ltd. (TYO:5191) held a ceremony in Thailand to mark the opening of SumiRiko Chemical and Plastic Products (Thailand) Ltd. (SRK-CP). A subsidiary of Sumitomo Riko in Rayong Province, SRK-CP manufactures and sells precision parts for office equipment. Tetsu Matsui, Sumitomo Riko president and COO, said at the ceremony, which took place in early November, that he hopes...
In October, the number of automobiles produced in Japan fell 0.5 percent compared to the same month the previous year, to 813,110 units, marking the sixteenth straight monthly decline. The slump in automobile manufacturing has led to an across-the-board drop in production of automotive rubber products. According to statistics from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), total production...
The palpable economic slowdown that has continued in China since last year is impacting the rubber industry with increasing severity, both directly and indirectly. With China’s economic situation seen as being more severe than is generally portrayed in news reports, grim views on its future are overwhelmingly prevalent. In the rubber industry, for instance, there has been a slump in...
Yujiro Kanahara has been named president of Nippon Goodyear Ltd. Kanahara succeeds Dale Brackin, who successfully served as interim president during the transition period since October 2015 when Nippon Goodyear and Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd. (TYO:5110) ended their alliance. Kanahara joined Bridgestone Corp. (TYO:5108) in 1978, where over the years he held positions in product planning, sales and marketing and...
