Before You Argue the Price, the Contract Has Already Changed: Japan Print Market Half-Year Report (H2 2025)
Six months in which pass-through shifted from a “best effort” to a topic of routine investigation and guidance. For mid-sized printers, which deal terms should become KPIs that decide whether to accept an order?
In H2 2025, the most consequential change in Japan’s print market wasn’t demand moving up or down. It was the “shape of the deal.” Before anyone even gets to a price increase, buyers are starting to ask first about evidence of consultation, payment terms, written purchase orders, and how spec changes will be handled.
Gathered with AI. Thought through on the shop floor. Written for the future of print.
BPJ WIRE: stories selected and drafted by the BPJ desk from world news, fact-checked against the source ledger — published alongside the editor's own picks.
Coverage: H2 2025 · Written: Aug 20, 2026. Market reports are written after official statistics for the period are released. US BLS indexes include preliminary values, which may be revised for up to four months.
Translated from Japanese by AI. The Japanese original is authoritative.
Purchase order templates changed—quietly.
This is not about price. Over these six months, traces of consultation, payment terms, and procedures for spec changes started getting written down first. In H2 2025, Japan’s domestic print market was better read not by the strength or weakness of demand, but by measuring how fast regulation and enforcement expectations were dropping into ordering conditions. That is what connected directly to management decisions.…
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Sources
- e-Stat（生産動態統計 データセット一覧ページ）
- 公正取引委員会（周知広報等に関する資料PDF）
- 公正取引委員会（価格転嫁 特別調査結果） / 2025-12-15
- 日本製紙連合会（月次需給統計PDF）
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 生産者物価指数（系列 WPU0913・公開APIから取得）
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 生産者物価指数（系列 WPU0911・公開APIから取得）
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 生産者物価指数（系列 WPU0914・公開APIから取得）
- 国立国会図書館（カレントアウェアネス・ポータル 記事） / 2026-01-26
- 出版科学研究所（商品/ページ）
- e-Stat（機械統計：印刷機械 DBビュー）
- 帝国データバンク（印刷業 2025年度レポート）
- 帝国データバンク（倒産集計ページ）
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