In 2002, there were over nearly 87,000 Japanese-owned firms in the U.S., employing more than 205,000 workers, and generating almost $31 billion in business revenues. These Japanese-owned firms accounted for 0.4 percent of all nonfarm businesses in the U.S., 0.2 percent of their employment, and 0.1 percent of their receipts.

The number of Japanese-owned businesses grew 1.6 percent between 1997 and 2002; however, business revenues decreased by 30 percent.

The 2002 Survey of Business Owners (SBO) defines Japanese-owned businesses as firms in which Japanese own 51 percent or more of the stock or equity of the business. The data in this report were collected as part of the 2002 Economic Census from a large sample of all nonfarm businesses filing 2002 tax forms as individual proprietorships, partnerships, or any type of corporation, and with receipts of $1,000 or more.

In 2002, 34 percent of Japanese-owned firms operated in professional, scientific, and technical services; and other services, such as personal services, and repair and maintenance, where they owned 0.5 percent of all such businesses in the U.S.

Wholesale and retail trade accounted for 45.5 percent of all Japanese-owned business revenue. Table A shows the industries accounting for the largest receipts for Japanese-owned firms.

California had the most Japanese-owned firms with 36,687 firms or 42.2 percent, with receipts of $12.5 billion or 40.9 percent. Hawaii was second with 19,850 firms or 22.8 percent, with receipts of $7.4 billion or 24.2 percent. Table B shows the six states with the largest number of Japanese-owned firms and corresponding business revenues.

Table C shows the seven combined statistical areas with the largest number of Japanese-owned firms and their corresponding business revenues.

Table D provides a comparison of the 2002 and 1997 published data for Japanese-owned firms and all U.S. firms. The table shows that when compared to all U.S. businesses, excluding publicly held corporations and firms for which race ownership is indeterminate, Japanese-owned firms accounted for 0.4 percent of firms, 0.4 percent of employees and 0.3 percent of receipts.

The kind-of-business data for 2002 for Japanese-owned firms are not comparable to 1997 due to the transition from the 1987 Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) system to the 2002 North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Additional changes affecting data comparability are discussed in detail in Methodology, in the section titled "Comparability of the 2002 and 1997 SBO Data."