Japan’s industrial production fell by 1.1% month-over-month in April 2025, steeper than the preliminary estimate of a 0.9% drop and reversing a 0.2% gain in the previous month. This marked the second monthly decline in output so far this year.
The downturn was mainly driven by sharp contractions in production machinery (-8.7% vs 7.1% in March), transport equipment excluding motor vehicles (-4.1% vs 6.6%), and fabricated metals (-3.8% vs -0.6%). On a year-on-year basis, industrial output grew by 0.5%, easing from a 1.0% increase in March but still marking the fourth consecutive month of annual growth.
