A different face overseas

Mizuno’s Japan operating-profit increase exceeded the consolidated increase in the year ended March 2026. The company says more direct selling, centered on Sportstyle shoes, lifted Japan’s gross margin. Meanwhile, tariffs raised costs in the Americas and a weak Korean golf market weighed on Asia and Oceania. Regional earnings reflect who buys the products, the route to the customer and the costs the company bears.

Santen develops and sells eye medicines and expands regional portfolios through partnerships for other companies’ products. In the year ended March 2026, Japanese drug-price reductions and generic competition weighed on consolidated revenue, which fell to ¥291.6bn. EMEA growth of 7.8% became 0.4% when currency effects were excluded. Understanding the Chinese distribution agreement and the next year’s growth forecast requires attention to the rights involved, regional pricing conditions, currency and selling costs.

DCI increased revenue in 2025 despite selling fewer dental chairs, alongside higher selling prices and a changing customer mix. In Nakanishi’s dental business, shipments to dealers and sales from those dealers to dentists also moved differently. Meanwhile, tariffs on imported parts pressured profitability and DCI’s EBITDA declined. Distribution and procurement costs both shape the business of equipping dental practices.

Kameda Seika’s 33.7% sales increase includes a change in scope: a full year of TH FOODS consolidation. TH FOODS itself grew 2.1% in US dollars, as its own-brand business offset weaker private-label/OEM and bulk sales. Manufacturing capacity and whose brand reaches the shelf together explain this North American business.

Higher-efficiency water-heater sales grew in Rinnai's U.S. business in 2025, while gaps between tariff changes and price adjustments weighed on earnings. The approximately ¥2.7bn tariff figure describes the scale of payments and cannot simply be added back to operating income. Sourcing heat exchangers and other components, supplying appliances and adjusting prices are part of the business, alongside work to reshape its organization and fixed costs.

Pigeon studies babies' feeding movements, adjusts nipple materials and shape, and checks quality with instruments and visual examination. Its Integrated Report 2025 describes an annual scale above 100 million artificial nipples and 15 inspection points per piece. Overseas, it also works to balance wide-neck bottle features and price. Wide-neck products rose from 45% to 62% of Singapore Business bottle sales by value between 2023 and 2025.

ZOZO’s year ended March 2026 combines consignment services, including clothing storage, sales, logistics and customer support, with LYST’s fees on completed referred purchases. LYST adds merchandise value to the cost-ratio denominator, while warehouse work and delivery terms also improved. Reading higher packing and freight expense alongside its lower ratio reveals who handles the clothes and bears which costs, as well as the scale of transactions.

Tokio Marine’s North American businesses bring together distinct underwriting expertise: PHLY’s organizational cover, Delphi’s employee benefits and workers’ compensation, and TMHCC’s medical stop-loss, among other products. Pricing, limits and selection sit alongside loss estimates, investments and currency effects in explaining results. The three businesses’ calendar-2025 JGAAP management disclosures must remain distinct from the group’s April 2025–March 2026 IFRS accounts.

In the year ended March 2026, ANA domestic available seat-kilometers fell 1.2% while revenue passenger-kilometers rose 4.3%, lifting load factor to 79.2%. International yield fell 2.7%, yet a load factor of 83.0% helped unit revenue rise 1.9%. Aircraft size, routes, booking timing and fares work together to earn revenue from available capacity. Group operating income reached ¥217.4bn, while domestic profitability remained a structural challenge. Fuller aircraft alone do not determine profit.

Chugai connects its own research to Roche through development, marketing and supply agreements. FY2025 Hemlibra exports to Roche were ¥339.3bn; Roche royalty and profit-sharing income across products was ¥163.3bn. The reciprocal arrangement gives Chugai first refusal on developing and marketing Roche compounds in Japan. Chugai also bears research expenses and costs when projects are discontinued. Its model combines its own search for medicines with access to another company's commercial scale.

In FY2025, Kagome’s International segment generated ¥129.8bn in revenue and ¥9.2bn in company-defined business profit. Primary processing supplies ingredients; secondary processing adds seasoning for products such as sauces. Price cuts as the global tomato-paste supply-demand balance loosened, customer pickup delays and other pressures contributed to a 13.0% revenue decline and a 33.4% fall in business profit. Domestic processed foods generated ¥157.3bn of revenue, while higher manufacturing input costs squeezed beverage profit. The level of processing and the customer explain why businesses using the same crops can face different operating pressures.

Fujikura supplies optical cable that fits limited duct space, along with components and equipment for separating, joining and storing its fibers. The 13,824-fiber cable with an outside diameter of 40 mm or less, announced in July 2025, is one example. Fiber count does not directly measure network performance or revenue. In the earlier year ended March 2025, Telecommunications generated ¥451.3bn, or 46% of group revenue.

Makita’s bases introduce tools through demonstrations and user visits, repair failed products and return them to customers. Around 50 overseas countries with direct bases and around 180 sales markets describe different kinds of presence. In the year ended March 2026, overseas revenue represented about 83.0% of sales value and overseas factories made 92.5% of production units. Cordless expansion adds more applications to the work of selling products and supporting their users.

Regional builders sell homes suited to local buyers and price ranges. In FY2025, U.S. single-family housing generated approximately ¥786bn of sales and ¥105bn of recurring income, representing around 35% of group sales and 60% of consolidated recurring income. Land development supplies finished lots, while FITP designs, manufactures, delivers and installs structural components. These are distinct roles in housing supply.

Cardiac and Vascular is Terumo’s largest business at ¥676.4bn in FY2025. Devices within vessels, oxygenators outside the body, blood and cell collection, and hospital and pharmaceutical products serve different settings. The familiar thermometer opens onto a much broader set of medical jobs.

Olympus supplies healthcare professionals with endoscopes and treatment devices, and provides installation checks, operating instruction, in-use support, inspection and repair. Medical Service represented about 30% of the GI division's ¥697.4bn revenue for the year ended March 2026. This is a divisional revenue share, not a group share or a measure of subscription revenue or profitability. Supporting equipment in use forms part of the medical business.

In FY2025, the year ended March 2026, five Astellas Strategic Brands generated ¥480.3bn, up 43%. They are marketed medicines for conditions including cancers, an eye disease and menopausal symptoms. XTANDI remained the largest product at ¥960.8bn, about 44.9% of group revenue. Alongside selling medicines, Astellas conducts R&D internally and with pharmaceutical, biotech and academic partners. R&D expense was ¥314.8bn. The roughly ¥1 trillion of mid-2030s pipeline sales potential in its plan is an ambition, not current revenue or a guarantee of regulatory approval.

Shiseido reaches regional consumers and travellers with cosmetics and fragrances. Japan Business accounted for 30.4% of FY2025 sales and China & Travel Retail for 35.3%. The 69.6% outside Japan Business is calculated from reportable segments, not a geographic overseas-sales ratio. The duty-free channel, including Fukuoka Airport, makes that distinction concrete. Improving margins in Asia Pacific, the Americas and EMEA is also part of its 2030 strategy.

Daikin combines equipment and services for customers installing, operating and replacing air conditioning. Its FY2025 Solutions ratio of 28% includes equipment sales and engineering in replacement projects. The denominator excludes Chemicals, Filters and other businesses, so it differs from both group sales and the reported Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Equipment segment, which includes Filters. Daikin brings refrigerant and other technologies together with global sales and service networks, and plans to extend its work toward entire HVAC systems and buildings. The 40% ratio for FY2030 is a future projection.

FANUC supplies CNCs for other companies’ machine tools, its own processing machines and robots that handle parts, then maintains products after installation. In FY2025, the year ended March 2026, sales were ¥857.8 billion and operating income ¥183.8 billion. Division sales were ¥208.5 billion for FA, ¥378.6 billion for Robot, ¥129.6 billion for Robomachine and ¥141.1 billion for Service. Robot was largest at 44.1%; the other three divisions totaled 55.9% by site calculation, although Service includes support for robots. Sales outside Japan were 87.1% by site calculation. More than 280 service locations support products used in over 100 countries.

KEYENCE sales engineers propose applications to customers and return firsthand information from their sites to product planning. Planning and development aim for general-purpose products usable across industries. Partner factories make the products, and domestic and overseas warehouses ship them to customers. In FY2025, the year ended March 20, 2026, sales were ¥1.1693 trillion and operating income ¥595.8 billion. Overseas sales accounted for 66.6% by site calculation. Sales work that uncovers individual customer problems connects with products that can be sold to many customers.

UNIQLO checks each store’s sales and stock daily and dispatches goods accordingly. Merchandising and production teams use in-season sales to instruct partner factories to increase or decrease output. In FY2025, international revenue was about 1.86 times Japan’s by site calculation, while North America and Europe grew and Greater China declined. Connecting stores worldwide requires decisions about where to send clothes, how many to make and what to improve next.

ASICS sells running shoes and lifestyle footwear through specialist retailers, wholesale retail partners, owned stores and other routes. Performance Running was its largest FY2025 category at ¥363.5bn in sales. SportStyle and Onitsuka Tiger together generated ¥277.8bn in sales and ¥92.7bn in site-calculated category profit, above Performance Running’s ¥86.0bn. Foreign markets accounted for 80.5% of sales, and OneASICS membership reached 23.13 million, adding different geographic and customer relationships to the picture.

Shimano combines components such as shifters and brakes to design how riders control a bicycle. Precision metal processing supports both reliable bicycle shifting and smooth fishing-reel operation. Bicycle Components generated 76.1% of FY2025 sales and 82.9% of operating income. Group sales rose 3.4%, while operating income fell 20.6%, showing why advances in product function and earnings growth need to be considered separately.

Unicharm combines a large human-care business with pet toiletries and food. Processing technologies for nonwoven fabrics and absorbent materials support diapers and toiletry products; food has a different role, providing nutrition suited to a pet’s age and condition. Pet plus wellness care represented 38% of FY2025 sales, while 44% by FY2030 is a target. Geographic reach and the ability to grow sales and profit in each market are separate questions.

Yakult combines making products with distribution through home delivery and stores. In calendar 2025, Yakult Ladies accounted for 41.2% of overseas sales volume and stores for 58.8%. Retailers are a substantial route alongside home delivery. Built around local production and local sales, overseas food-and-beverage operations reported sales of ¥240.0bn and operating profit of ¥36.3bn in the year ended March 2026. Regional operations and multiple routes to consumers underpin the roughly 38 million dairy bottles consumed worldwide each day.

Kikkoman manufactures and sells soy sauce and other foods, while JFC supplies restaurants and retailers with a broad Japanese and Asian assortment. In FY2026, overseas wholesale revenue was ¥432.9bn and manufacturing-and-sales revenue was ¥173.5bn, with business-profit margins of about 7.1% and 23.6%. Comparing reported segment revenue, which includes intersegment transactions, with profit after costs shows the different economics of those jobs.

Staffing revenue includes temporary-staff personnel costs, while Indeed earns from paid services supporting employers’ recruiting. The 37.7% and 5.9% EBITDA+S margins need to be read alongside these revenue and cost structures. In Japan, MMT also earns through services supporting bookings and business operations.

Capcom develops new games while continuing to sell earlier titles. Its 83.7% catalog share in FY2026 measures units sold, rather than revenue or profit. Its stated approach combines digital distribution and pricing with media, esports and other IP uses to expand purchase opportunities and awareness of its series.

Zensho’s network includes directly operated restaurants and takeaway-sushi outlets run by franchisees. Franchisees’ checkout sales and Zensho’s consolidated revenue cover different transactions. Group procurement, manufacturing and logistics companies support food supply, with arrangements varying by format and region and hygiene still essential at each location.

ROUND ONE combines several activities in one venue and refreshes prizes and campaigns while maintaining reception, staffing and inventory operations. Amusement represented 60.2% of FY2026 revenue, but that share does not measure campaign effects. Its adjacent Japanese Food Hall format and separately managed Round One Delicious restaurants are distinct plans.

Ryohin Keikaku gives its retail network additional roles: a venue for local vendors and a place to return used products. In accommodation, company-operated MUJI BASE differs from MUJI room’s renovation of existing facilities, while stores are positioned as local hubs. Activities and operating arrangements vary; the activity and collection counts do not measure their contribution to revenue.

PPIH combines pricing and assortment with stores designed for tourist shopping and everyday food purchases. Rising same-store sales do not mean that same-store and business-wide gross margins move together. Robin Hood still has to turn early traffic gains into a profitable operating model. The long-term plan for 250 additional domestic stores extends this work on store formats.

Sanrio earns revenue by selling its own products and licensing characters to other businesses. Its merchandising and licensing gross profit in Japan and overseas is disclosed in separate Hello Kitty, multi-character and other-character categories. Planned games and animation would add more ways for people to encounter its characters.

Nintendo expands hardware ownership and sells games for those systems. Original Switch and Switch 2 software sales overlapped in FY2026, while a game released in 2017 kept selling. As development takes longer, existing titles remain on sale alongside work on the next releases.