Prime Minister Shinzo Abe promises that his growth policies will revive the nation's industrial might. For Takumi Tanaka at auto parts maker Uchida Co., times are worse than after the 2011 quake-tsunami catastrophe.
Tanaka, managing director of the company, which was founded in 1955 and whose 94 employees supply Honda Motor Co. with parts molds, is contending with higher costs after an 18 percent drop in the yen over the past nine months drove up the price of imported metals and energy. At the same time, he's under pressure from clients to build factories near their overseas plants.
"We see very little benefit" from "Abenomics," Tanaka said in an interview in Miyagi, where two of the company's three factories are located. The prefecture suffered some of the worst damage from the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.