Feeling the heat: 44% of Japan firms see earnings hit from extreme weather: Reuters poll By Reuters

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Employees set up a battery for a brand new electrical car mannequin at Mitsubishi Motor Corp’s manufacturing unit in Kurashiki, Japan Might 19, 2022. Image taken Might 19, 2022. REUTERS/Satoshi Sugiyama/File Picture

By David Dolan

TOKYO (Reuters) – Some 44% of Japanese corporations see excessive climate occasions across the globe hitting earnings, a Reuters survey confirmed, highlighting the impression of scorching warmth waves and torrential rains on corporations on the earth’s third-largest economic system.

Greater than three-quarters of Japanese corporations are already taking or at the moment are contemplating measures to cope with excessive climate, with energy-saving programmes and cost-cutting among the many hottest responses, the survey confirmed.

Local weather change poses huge dangers to the worldwide economic system, specialists have warned, together with to output and employee productiveness.

Catastrophe-prone Japan isn’t any stranger to excessive climate occasions, together with typhoons, floods and blistering warmth.

“Infrastructure is prone to be disrupted attributable to excessive climate circumstances, which may lead to emergency spending and decrease productiveness,” wrote a supervisor at an organization within the transport sector.

The month-to-month Reuters Company Survey of 502 massive and medium-sized non-financial Japanese corporations, wherein 248 responded, confirmed a majority of non-manufacturers had already felt or anticipated to really feel the consequences of utmost climate on their earnings.

Greater than a 3rd of producers mentioned the identical.

The survey was performed for Reuters by Analysis from Aug. 30-Sept. 8, with corporations responding on situation of anonymity to permit them to talk extra freely.

“Funding earmarked for capital expenditure is being diverted in direction of environmental measures and enterprise continuity plans, which places downward strain on earnings,” wrote a supervisor at a equipment firm.

Flooding has been a selected headache for Japanese corporations. The January 2020 company survey discovered that 77% of corporations had ready enterprise continuity plans for disasters, but solely 45% had taken concrete steps to guard their amenities.

Within the newest survey, 58% of corporations highlighted energy-saving measures as a response, whereas 1 / 4 mentioned they’d already or would take into account extra versatile working guidelines, together with the time of shifts.

Some 23% picked price chopping – typically seen as Japan Inc’s go-to plan in instances of adversity – as their response.

Simply 23% mentioned they’d but to contemplate taking any measures.

Individually, 57% of corporations mentioned they didn’t anticipate a cupboard reshuffle to spice up Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s flagging recognition.