Japanese factory inventories rose in June for the first time in four months, and the sector that pushed them up was the one that had been pulling them down. METI's preliminary industrial production release puts mining and manufacturing inventories up 2.3% on the month in seasonally adjusted terms, against a headline production reading of plus 1.3%, a third consecutive monthly rise.
Motor vehicles were the largest single contributor to the inventory increase, adding 0.57 percentage points to manufacturing's 2.1% rise — ahead of electrical machinery and information equipment at 0.50 points — on a 7.0% month-on-month jump in the sector's own finished-goods stocks. The reversal is the notable part: in May's edition of the same release, motor vehicles were among the sectors driving inventories lower.
On the unadjusted year-earlier comparison the sector's stocks stand 25.1% above June 2025, though that is measured against a badly depressed base and is a different basis from the monthly contribution figures. The broader index is still falling year on year, down 2.7% in June for a 17th consecutive monthly decline.
These are preliminary figures and they move. May's inventory reading was revised from a 0.6% monthly fall to 1.1% between the May and June editions, and June's confirmed release is due in the middle of this month.