Local News

The Kyushu Local Finance Bureau and the Fukuoka Local Finance Branch Bureau released the results of their survey of statistics for the major regional companies for the October-December 2009 quarter, which shows that aggregate current profit skyrocketed to 4.7 times the year-before figure to 104.7 billion yen. This represents a rebound following the poor results in the wake of the previous year’s financial crisis caused by the Lehmann Bros. collapse. They also note, however, that corporate reduction in operating expenses also was a factor. In contrast, capital investment during the same period fell 40.1%.