Teikoku Databank released its 2025 fiscal year report (April 2025 to March 2026) of nationwide corporate bankruptcy statistics on April 8.
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<Number of corporate bankruptcies nationwide>
According to the 2025 report, the number of bankruptcies was 10,425. This is a 3.5% increase from the previous year's 10,070 cases, marking the fourth consecutive year of increases and the second consecutive year that the number of bankruptcies has exceeded 10,000.
Looking at the breakdown by industry, the number of bankruptcies in the "transportation and communications" sector decreased slightly from 458 in FY2024 to 457 in FY2025, but still exceeded 400 for the third consecutive year. The proportion of the "transportation and communications" sector within all industries decreased slightly from 4.5% in FY2024 to 4.4% in FY2025.
Five out of seven industries saw an increase compared to the previous year. The "service industry" had the highest number of bankruptcies, with 2677 cases (an increase of 39 cases, or 1.5%, compared to the previous year). The next highest was the "retail industry," with 2233 cases (an increase of 124 cases, or 5.9%). Both the service industry and the retail industry recorded their highest bankruptcies since fiscal year 2000.
<Main Causes of Bankruptcy>
By primary cause of bankruptcy, "poor sales" was the most common, accounting for 8478 cases (an increase of 217, or 2.6%), exceeding 8000 for the second consecutive year. The total number of "recession-related bankruptcies," including "difficulty collecting accounts receivable" and "industry downturn," reached 8608 cases (an increase of 219, or 2.6%), surpassing the previous year's figure for the fourth consecutive year and accounting for 82.5% of the total (a decrease of 0.8 percentage points).
Furthermore, 441 cases of bankruptcy due to labor shortages were identified (an increase of 91 cases, or 26.0%). This marks the first time the number has exceeded 400 in a single fiscal year, significantly surpassing the previous record. By industry, the most common was the "service industry" (114 cases), followed by the "construction industry" (112 cases) and the "transportation and communication industry" (69 cases). Small businesses with fewer than 10 employees accounted for 333 cases, or approximately 75% of the total.
Furthermore, the number of corporate bankruptcies in fiscal year 2025 is projected to be 10,425, exceeding 10,000 for the second consecutive year, following 10,710 in fiscal year 2024. Small-scale bankruptcies accounted for the majority, with a noticeable number of bankruptcies occurring among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) whose cash flow deteriorated because they were unable to pass on costs such as rising prices, increased labor costs, and increased interest burdens to sales prices. With 76.5% of bankruptcies involving amounts under 100 million yen, the total amount of liabilities was 1,553.781 billion yen, falling below the previous year's figure (2,252.572 billion yen) for the second consecutive year.
