On March 30, the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency released a preliminary report (summary) of the “2022 Basic Survey of Small and Medium Enterprises” (fiscal 2021 results).
Key Points
- Net sales per company were 180 million yen (up 5.0% from the previous year), and ordinary income per company was 8.71 million yen (up 31.4%).
- The value-added per company of corporate enterprises was 0.09 billion yen (up 9.6% from the previous year).
- The number of employees per company was 9.2 (down 0.8% from the previous year).
- The percentage of corporate clients that made capital investment was 22.3% (up 0.1 points from the previous year). The percentage of corporate clients that signed new lease contracts was 11.7% (up 0.5 points from the previous year).
- President (including sole proprietors) The highest percentage of presidents (including sole proprietors) by age was in their 70s (27.0%), and the highest percentage of presidents by tenure was 30 years or more (30.5%).
Business Succession
Regarding their intention to succeed to the business, 33.1% of presidents (including sole proprietors) answered that they were “thinking about it,” but 24.0% were considering closing the business, saying that they “do not intend to continue the current business.
The percentage of presidents of small- and medium-sized enterprises who “have not yet thought about business succession” (41.3%) was the highest, followed by “thinking about succession within the family” (25.6%) and “have no intention of continuing the current business” (24.0%).
The percentage of presidents of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) who “have not thought about business succession yet” was the highest in the information and communications industry (57.4%), while those who “have thought about succession within the family” were the highest in the real estate and goods rental industry (51.1%).
In Japan, while M&A efforts by small and medium-sized enterprises, including business succession, are progressing, an increasing number of companies in unprofitable industries are closing their businesses.