March 16 2021
The Japanese M&A market in 2020, like markets globally, was deeply impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, there was a dramatic decrease in outbound deal volume with Japanese corporations instead focusing on the domestic market.
Japanese companies continued the trend of shedding non-core assets and consolidating their businesses. According to data from Dealogic, Japan s M&A deal volume in 2020 fell to 538 total transactions, with a total deal value of over $73 billion. Although deal volume was down from 2019, globally Japan was only surpassed by Germany, the US and the UK in terms of total deal value. The sectors producing the largest number of transactions were retail, financial services, and chemicals.