Japan Machinery Orders

Japan’s core machinery orders—excluding those for ships and electric power companies—fell 3.5% month-on-month to 857.9 billion yen in January 2025, significantly worse than market expectations of a 0.5% decline. This marked a sharp acceleration from December’s 0.8% drop and was the steepest decline since late 2023. Orders from the manufacturing sector fell 1.3% to 413 billion yen, while non-manufacturing orders slumped 7.4% to 437.3 billion yen. The largest declines were seen in petroleum & coal products (-71.1%), pulp & paper products (-29.5%), goods leasing (-29.2%), transportation & postal activities (-28.6%), and information services (-24.3%). On an annual basis, private-sector machinery orders rose 4.4% in January, slightly above December’s 4.3% increase but well below the 6.9% market forecast.