Total orders for Japanese manufacturers of metal cutting machine tools were +13% higher than in the 3rd period of the year and +14% above the level in the final quarter of 2024. For 2025 as a whole, total orders grew by +9% compared to the previous year and were at their highest since 2022, with all of the growth coming from export demand.
The Japan Machine Tool Builders Association (JMTBA) publish monthly orders data, although in this case, it is for total business done by Japanese manufacturers rather than the Japanese market and it only covers those who build metal cutting machine tools (there is a separate association in Japan for manufacturers of metal forming machines). However, given the relatively low import ratio in Japan, the domestic orders series will be a good guide to the market situation.
Looking at 2025, the home market was only a fraction above the 2024 level, with all of the growth coming in export demand which increased by +13%. This meant an export ratio of 72.5% for Japanese manufacturers – this is the highest since our records began in 2015.
The largest export markets in 2025 were China (33.5% of the total and up by +16% compared to 2024), the USA (26.9% of the total, up by +17.%) and India (6.2% and up by +12%) – the EU as a whole accounted for 12.6% of Japanese exports (but was only +5% higher than in 2024). The UK accounted for 1.8% of total exports, with growth of +14%.
In terms of percentage changes, the strongest increases were in shipments to Mexico (+53.3%, but accounting for less than 3% of the total) and Indonesia (up by +53.1%, but less than 1% of the total). Only a handful of individual markets saw a fall in exports in 2025, with Turkiye (-28.3%, but only just over 1% of the total), the most noticeable.
The JMTBA report also analyses the domestic market by end-user industry. The level of detail varies, but the largest sector is Industrial Machinery which accounted for 40% of the market but saw orders fall by -3% compared to 2024. The next largest is the Automotive industry which made up 20% of Japanese demand (with almost two-thirds of this being in “auto parts”) but was also down on the previous year (by -4% in this case).
The strongest growth was in Other Transport Equipment which was +46% higher than in 2024 but only accounted for 8% of the total market – about half of this group is the aerospace industry. The “Government, Public Agencies & Schools” group also had strong growth in 2025 at +39%, but this is less than 1% of domestic demand.
You can access the JMTBA report at https://www.jmtba.or.jp/english/category/machine-tool-orders/ (Feb. 3, 2026) or we can send you the summary of the data – contact Martin Redhead at MTA (email: [email protected]) if you want this analysis. A chart showing the 12-month rolling totals is available to download below.