Japan firms’ Oct.-Dec. pretax profits surge 13.5% on record sales

TOKYO, 4th March, 2025 (WAM) — Pretax profits at Japanese companies in the October-December quarter surged 13.5 percent from a year earlier on record-high sales, due partly to strong demand for artificial intelligence in the telecommunication equipment sector, the Finance Ministry said Tuesday.

In the first rise in two quarters, pretax profits totalled 28.69 trillion yen ($193 billion), the highest level for the quarter.

Kyodo News quoted the ministry as saying that sales grew 2.5 percent to 398 trillion yen, driven by the service and construction sectors, in which companies passed on higher costs to customers.

Meanwhile, capital spending by all nonfinancial sectors for purposes such as building factories and adding equipment fell 0.2 percent from the previous year to 14.45 trillion yen, down for the first time in 15 quarters. The figure was still the second highest for the October-December period.