JETRO conducted a survey of foreign-affiliated companies based in Japan from September to October 2021. This survey was conducted by JETRO to assess the current status of foreign-affiliated companies in Japan, the Japanese business environment, and the state of collaboration/cooperation with Japanese companies and other entities. The key findings of the survey are presented as follows: 1) Current status and trends of foreign-affiliated companies in Japan, 2) Attractiveness and challenges of the business environment in Japan and support needed, and 3) Collaboration/cooperation with Japanese companies and other entities.
Some results showed that: 

• In regards to future business plans in Japan, about 50% to over 60% of the respondents answered that they would "strengthen or expand" regardless of company size, and the percentage was over 90% when including "maintaining the status quo."
• As for changes in the Japanese business environment perceived over the past year or two, more than 70% of companies responded "no change" for most of the nine items surveyed, while more than 20% of respondents answered that "Strictness and complexity in the immigration control system" and "ease of securing human resources" are getting worse.
• More than half of the large enterprises surveyed are implementing or considering collaboration/cooperation with Japanese companies and other entities. Overall, 22.5% of respondents answered that they "have implemented" collaboration/ cooperation.

The survey results are available online.

Source: JETRO