TOKYO - Workers inspecting screws are a familiar sight in Tokyo’s Ota Ward, where small factories line the streets, but manufacturers say rising costs are squeezing operations despite signs of strength elsewhere in the economy.
At Katsuragawa Seira Seisakusho, which manufactures metal parts for automobiles and other products, the price of cutting tools used to carve grooves into screws has risen by 50%. The prolonged deterioration in Middle East tensions has added pressure, while the yen’s weakness has further increased costs.
Rengo’s final tally showed that the average wage increase exceeded 5% for the third straight year. But Tatsushiro Oshima, director and executive officer at the company, said small and midsize businesses like his feel little benefit from the kind of economic strength suggested by the Nikkei Stock Average climbing to 60,000 or 70,000.
"Small companies like ours do not feel at all that the economy is good in the way people might imagine when the Nikkei rises to 60,000 or 70,000," Oshima said.
Source: Kyodo
