Summarized Result of Survey of Japanese-Affiliated Companies in the Bay Area

Survey Method

• Survey Period
  This survey was conducted by distributing a questionnaire in April and May, 2000.

• Survey Subjects
  The survey was given to several types of companies: firms incorporated in the U.S., 10% or more of whose stock is owned by a Japanese company (for local corporations); branches of Japanese firms and representative offices of Japanese firms; and firms founded and operated by Japanese (excluding restaurants and those providing services to individuals).
• Survey Area
  The survey area consisted of the ten counties within the Bay Area: San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, Sonoma, Solano, and Sacramento.
• Survey Method
  Written responses were requested for the survey distributed among 870 Japanese-affiliated companies, which include 497 identified by a 1998 survey as Bay Area Japanese-affiliated corporations. Among those 870, we confirmed the existence of 680 and obtained responses from 382 (a response rate of 56.2%). For U.S.-incorporated firms with more than one office in the area, only the largest office in terms of employee count or sales was included in the results.
• Information Date
  As of January 1, 2000, or the close of the financial accounting period closest to that date.
• Tabulation Method
  For items displayed in monetary figures, dollar sums were used for each item responded to by the firm. In some cases, however, responses were not received on certain items.
  In these cases, only the received responses were tabulated.
• Industry Type Categorization
  The companies were categorized into seven industry types: manufacturing, trading, finance/insurance, real estate, retail/distribution, service, and other. Construction firms were categorized as service, as were research & development and holding companies.

Summary and Major Points of the Survey Results

1. Approximately 680 Japanese-affiliated companies are located within the ten counties of the Bay Area. There has been an increased of 183 companies since the last survey results. (Table 1 and graph 1-3) Note: Firms founded and operated mainly by Japanese were added to this year¡Çs survey. If we applied the standards of previous survey, the number of firms would be 618 instead 680.
2. 63.7% of Japanese-affiliated companies are located the South Bay Area, which comprises Santa Clara and San Mateo counties. (Table 1 and graph 1-1)
3. The three leading industries are service(including computer software companies and internet-related companies)(28%), manufacturing(25%), and trading(18%)(71% of the total). The majority of these companies are related to high-tech industries. (Table 1 and graph 1-2)
4. The number of Japanese-affiliated firms starting business or opening branches in the Bay Area increased sharply in the latter half of 1980¡Çs. Approximately two-thirds(62%) of the Japanese affiliated firms have established their presence in the Bay Area since 1986. Although the number of companies establishing branches in the Bay Area decreased in the early 1990¡Çs, there was an increase in 1996 and 1999. The current trend points to a continuous increase. (Graph 2, table3 and 4.)
5. Japanese-affiliated firms employ Twenty-eight thousands people(an increase of 13%, or approximately 3,300 people since the last survey). The average Japanese-affiliated firm has 73 employees hired locally and 4 employee transferred from Japan. (Table 8 and graph 8-1.)
6. 6) Total sales of responding companies amounted to $36 billion. (Table 9) 57.9% of the respondents indicated sales increase in their operations. (Table 10) 63.8% of the respondents said that their business is profitable, while 16.3% of the respondents said that their business broke even. (Table 11 and graph 11-1) The outlook shows that this positive trend will continue.(Table 13 and 14, graph 14-1) About 40% of the companies surveyed plan to expand their facilities or invest in different lines of business.(Table 15)
7. 7) About two-third of the companies surveyed made donations or local contributions in 1999. Approximately 50% of the responding companies made donations, which totaled $7.37 million, or average of about $74,000 per company. About a quarter of the companies participated in activities contributing to their local communities. (Table 18)