This survey has been conducted to identify value and volume shipment of packaging materials and containers produced, shipped and consumed in Japan in 1995; results have been tabulated according to the types of primary raw materials. Value and volume production of packaging machinery have been added to these result, so that basic data are being provided for use in defining the size of the industry and trends, as well as forecasting future trends.

In conducting this survey, the following basic conditions have been set forth so that contours of the packaging industry will be made clearer.

1) JIS Z0108A provides for a definition of packaging. In this report, however, the following definition is used: In principle, in terms of functionality, a package is a means of wrapping, putting in and securing firmly an article which is inherently to be moved form one place to another, thereby providing it with a fixed unit and configuration.
Some items that are beyond this definition, however, are also regarded as packages. The purpose of a package is protect an article and serve as a medium for providing indications and descriptions of the content as well as for conveying information needed in physical distribution. (See Note.)

2) This survey focuses on toward packaging formats that are used when packaging materials and containers produced and shipped by manufacturers are supplied to users, and aims to provide value and volume shipment of applicable products. In brief, the main subject of this survey is final processed products supplied by manufacturers to users. This survey, therefore, has been compiled with the idea of preventing in calculation any overlap of the values and volumes of materials and raw materials for producing such products.

3) These statistics do not include the expenditures for the purchase of packaging materials, containers and machinery, packaging work and packaging-related processing work.

4) The scope of packaging machinery covered by this survey includes unit and inner packaging machinery for grouping goods, outer and packaging & packing machinery, bag making machinery and paper converting machinery.

5) Value shipment for a product category herein has been determined multiplying the volume production used by MITI in its various statistics by the producers' selling prices (including consumption tax). A producer's selling price refers toa supplier's selling price less relevant loading, freight and insurance costs and other selling charges. In brief, value shipment for product category dose not equal its total sales.

6) Survey of volume and value shipment for these statistics covers estabishments with four or more employees. Volume and value shipment for some industries in which small businesses represent a greater percentage than others, therefore do not provide a full picture of such industries.

In preparing the 1995 statistics, some minor changes were made from the previous years'statistics. For statistical categories that were changed, the figures were revised retroactive to 1990 for user convenience; the most largery changed category is paper and paperboard. The period covered by these statistics overlaps with the years that the Japanese economy experienced drastic changes, so it may not be suffcient simply to show year-on-year increase rates. For this reason, index notation based on a base year are included from this year on so that correct understanding may be ensured. Indices added are based on 1990 = 100, following the example of national statistics.

For packaging materials/containers, the method of determining figures has been partially changed so that they will be closer to retail prices. As a result, value shipment is larger compared to the previous years, but it should be noted that this is not due to recovery of business conditions. For this reason, indices or year-on-year rates need be noted in order to ensure correct judgment of performance of this packaging category. We intend to continue to obtain data closer to retail prices as we have done this year, and to ensure statistical continuity by revising data retroactively as necessary.

Survey Results and Overview for Shipmennt Statistics

1) Size of Japanese packaging industry and current trends

The size of the packaging industry in 1995, shown as total value and volume production/shipment, is as follows:

Value shipment of packaging materials/containers : \6,790.52 bil. Volume production of packaging marchinery : \496.91 bil. Total : \7,287.43 bil.

Value shipment of packaging materials/containers in 1995, \6,790.52 bil., is 99.8% of the previous year; showing no marked fluctuations.

Value production of packaging machinery was \496.91 bil. representing a 6.8% year-on-year increase. The total, \7,287.43 bil., turned out to be 100.3% of the previous year but since value production of packaging machinery category includes the value of machines planned for production, he increase rate for 1995 is estimated to be 7%.

Volume shipment of packaging materials/containers in 1995 was 225.833 tons, a 0.1% year-on-year increase, also level compared with the previous year.

Table 1 shows change in transition value shipment of packaging materials/containers, and Table 2 change in volume shipment, both for the period between 1991 and 1995.

Factors that will affect the growth of the packaging industry as a whole are quite complex. Fundamentally, its growth is largely affected by national economic activity, particulaly the flows of physical and commercial distribution that link supply and demand, as well as the national population increase rate. Qualitaivery, changes in lifestyle, particularly those in people's eating habits, will have significant impact on the industry's growth rate. Export and import circumstances as well, it seems are deeply associated with how the packaging industry performs. As a comprehensive parameter integrating all these factors, GDP (and GNP) is considered to serve as a useful base in showing the size of the packaging industry.

Size of Packaging Industry (% of GDP and GNP)

	1994 (final report figure)	1995 (quick report figure)
% of GDP	1.50	1.50
% of GNP	1.50	1.52

(1) Producer Shipment Index by Industrial Category (1990 = 100)

Idustrial category	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995
Manufacturing	101.7	96.3	92.7	93.9	96.4
Chemical/plastic	101.0	100.6	97.6	104.5	111.9
Plastic product	101.2	97.9	94.2	94.0	95.6
Pulp, Paper,converted paper product	102.7	100.8	99.3	101.6	105.7
Paper	103.8	102.0	100.4	102.6	107.7
Paperboard	101.1	98.3	96.7	99.4	101.4
Wood, wood product
96.7	92.5	87.3	85.1	80.6

(2) Producer Shipment Index by Product (1990 = 100)

Product category		1991	1992	1993	1994	1995
Processinng Corrugated fiberboard base paper		100.8	98.7	98.4	102.7	106.0
Plastic products	Converted paper	100.4	99.3	99.6	102.2	104.5
	Product Films/sheets	99.6	98.9	97.9	100.7	103.9
	Hollow molded containers	105.4	110.0	109.3	110.4	112.7
	Foamed products	100.2	98.7	102.5	104.4	108.3
Glass products	Containers	93.8	91.1	89.9	92.9	85.4
Aluminum products	Drink nans	107.2	111.3	109.3	124.6	127.4

2) Value shipment composition by type of raw material

Value shipment makeup of packaging materials from 1991 to 1995 is categorized in7, including others, by types of raw materials; its makeup in 1995 is shown below.

Total value shipment in 1995 was \6,790.52 billion with the order and ratio of each category as shown below.

‡@ Paper/paperboard products 41.7% ‡A Plastic products 22.4% ‡B Metal products 21.7% ‡C Wooden products 4.9% ‡D Glass products 3.3% ‡E Textle products 0.3% ‡F Others products 5.7% Total 100.0%

Table 1 shows yearly changes in value shipment makeup of packaging materials by types of raw materials.

Value shipment of packaging materials, which grew steadily from 1989 to 1991, declined in 1992 from the previous year, and has continued the same trend since then, the year 1995 showing the same result and declining 0.2 points from the previous year. In the past, year-on-year decline has been experienced only in 1975 (89% of the previous year) and 1986 (98%).

3) Volume shipment makeup of packaging materials by types of raw materials

Volume shipment makeup of packaging materials from 1991 to 1995 is shown in Table 2. Total volume shipment in 1995 was 225.883 million tons, with the order and ratio of each category as shown below.

‡@ Paper/paperboad products 57.4% ‡A Plastic products 15.1% ‡B Metal products 12.0% ‡C Wooden products 5.4% ‡D Glass products 9.9% ‡E Other products 0.2% Total 100.0%

Table 2 shows yearly changes in volume shipment makeup of packaging materials by type of raw material. Volume shipment of packaging materials, which had grown steadily since 1972, showed no growth in 1991, decliming for two consecutive years to 98% of the previous year in 1992 and also to 98% in 1993. It represented a slight growth of 2.4% in 1994 and 0.1% in 1995 from the previous year. recovering to the level of 1990 at long last. However, rising graph movement in volume shipment asin the past may no longer be expected mor because of on-going changes in Japan's industrial structure and the coming enforcement of the Container Package Recycling Law, which was legislated last year.

4) Production statistics fos packaging machinery

Value production of packaging machiney in 1995 was 496.91 billion in total (including value of machines planned for production). Its composition and transition since 1991 are shown in the table below. The 1995 value includes that of machines planned for production, and will be finalized in the following year. During the period convered by these statistics such finalization has mostly resulted in a downward revision.

Upper column: Value shipment (in 100 millions of yen)

Lower column: Year-on-year ratio (%)

Parenthesized fingures are indices calculated based on 1990 as 100.

Name of machines	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995
Packaging & packing
4,623.3	4,665.1	4,118.7	4,165.7	4,432.2
machines	106.7	100.9	88.3	101.1	106.4
	(106.7)	(107.6)	(95.0)	(96.1)	(102.2)
Bag making	331.7	301.5	292.8	249.1	266.6
machines	108.5	90.9	97.1	85.1	107.0
	(108.5)	(98.7)	(95.8)	(81.5)	(87.2)
Paper converting	435.6	360.7	312.4	237.8	270.3
machines	99.0	82.8	86.6	76.1	113.7
	(99.0)	(82.0)	(71.0)	(54.1)	(61.5)
Total	5,390.6	5,327.3	4,723.9	4,652.6	4,969.1
	106.1	98.8	88.7	98.5	106.8
	(106.1)	(104.9)	(93.0)	(91.6)	(97.8)

Statistical data for packaging & packing machines and bag making machines are production
statistics of the year. Of the data released this year, those until 1994 are actual (final) fingures. The 1995 results include value of machines planned for production, and will be amended to actual finguresd in the statistics for the following year.