Survey Results of Factory Location Trends in 2019 (Preliminary Report) (January-December)

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) conducted the Survey of Factory Location Trends, targeting businesses in the manufacturing, gas supply, heating supply and electricity supply sectors that acquired 1,000 m² or more of land in 2019 (January-December) for the purpose of constructing factories. METI hereby announces that it has compiled the results into a report.

The number of new factory locations acquired by the manufacturing and other sectors was 990 (down by 13.3% on a year-on-year basis), marking the lowest number in the past five years, while the new locations cover a total area of 1,248 ha (down by 5.5% on a year-on-year basis), showing a decrease from the previous year (see page 4 of the Appendix).
Note: 1 ha = 10,000 m²

◆だいやまーく Looking at the trends of new factory locations by sector, the chemicals sector showed an increase in the number of new locations. However, as other sectors showed decreases in the number of new locations, the total number of new locations decreased steeply. In terms of the area of new locations, the top four sectors (food, metal products, production machinery, and transportation machinery) showed decreases (see page 11 of the Appendix).

◆だいやまーく The share of new factory locations that companies acquired in the same prefectures as those in their head office remained unchanged at 60 to 70% of the total number of new locations. As for the top priority factor for companies' selection of new factory locations, “closeness to the head office or their own factories” was cited by the largest number of companies, 251, and each of “land price” and "securing personnel and labor force" was cited by the second largest number of companies (see page 18 of the Appendix).

◆だいやまーく Regarding the region-based number of new factory locations and the total area, the list thereof is as follows (see page 22 of the Appendix).

• Data reports