Corporate bankruptcies fell 11.31 percent from a year ago to 13,065 in fiscal 2010 as government support measures buoyed many firms, a credit research agency said Friday.
The drop marked the second consecutive yearly fall in corporate bankruptcies, Tokyo Shoko Research said, noting a law for improving credit conditions at small and midsize companies also supported the improvement.
Failures caused mainly by poor sales accounted for 82.9 percent of the total — the highest on record since the agency began tracking such data in fiscal 1952.
In March alone, 1,183 firms went under, down 9.96 percent from the previous year and down for the 20th consecutive month. The companies left behind debts of ¥270.24 billion, down 13.09 percent and declining for the fifth month in a row.
As of the end of March, the research agency had counted six firms that collapsed due to the March 11 disaster.
The survey covers failures of businesses with ¥10 million or more in debt.