Japan is a big fastener producing country. But its fastener industry suffered a great impact due to the financial crisis in last year and the earthquake & tsunami happened on March 11, 2011, plus electricity shortages and factors like the appreciation of Yen, Japan fastener industry is facing serious challenges and has been confronted with crisis of hollowing out.

Japan’s fastener output was about 3 million tons every year in the past ten years with the highest output in 2007 amounted to 3.335 million tons, but in 2012 and 2011, Japan's fastener output was merely 2.868 and 2.764 million tons respectively. It was easy to find that Japan didn’t regain the best level. To explore the main reasons, on one hand, there were so many fastener facilities damaged during the earthquake & tsunami on March 11, 2011, the production didn’t recover from that; on the other hand, the electricity supply had been unstable, which also caused the production of many fastener enterprise being stagnated.

In addition, the appreciation of the yen makes Japan's economic recovery slowly, which is also unfavorable for export. Although the export of Japanese fasteners accounts for only 10% of its output, its domestic demand for fasteners decline as well. Worth to mention that, due to the rising of international oil prices, coupled with the enhancing awareness of environmental protection, electric vehicles will be popular and the demand for automotive fasteners will be reduced in future. It is necessary for Japan’s fastener enterprises to make preparation in advance to respond to that.