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Outline of the Unincorporated Enterprise Survey
Purpose of the survey
The Unincorporated Enterprise Survey, which is a fundamental statistical survey based on the Statistical Act, aims to clarify the actual conditions of business management at unincorporated establishments in Japan, as well as obtain basic data on trends in business and for the promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises.
Coverage
The survey covers approximately 40,000 unincorporated enterprises whose main business is based in one the industries shown below. These establishments were extracted using a certain statistical sampling method from approximately two million unincorporated enterprises in Japan (according to the results of the 2016 Economic Census for Business Activity).
| Major Groups of Industries | Remarks |
|---|---|
| D Construction | |
| E Manufacturing | |
| G Information and communications | |
| H Transport and postal services | excl. "42" Railway transport and "46" Air transport |
| I Wholesale and retail trade | |
| J Finance and insurance | excl. "62" Banking and "63" Financial, institutions for cooperative organizations |
| K Real estate and goods rental and leasing | |
| L Scienteific research, professional and technical services | |
| M Accommodations, eating and drinking services | excl. "765" Drinking houses and beer hall and "766" Bars, cabarets and night clubs |
| N Living-related and personal services and amusement services | excl. "792" domestic services |
| O Education, learning support | |
| P Medical, health care and welfare | excl. "831" Hospitals, "832" Clinic of medical practitioners and "833" Dental clinic |
| Q Compound services | excl. "87" Cooperative association, N.E.C |
| R Services | excl. "93" Political, business and cultural organizations, "94" Religion and "96" Foreign governments and international agencies in Japan |
Survey date and period
This survey is conducted on June 1 every year. The survey examines the conditions in the past year for accounting items (excluding inventories), the conditions as at the end of December in the previous year and the year before last for inventories, and the conditions during the year from June 1 of the previous year to May 31 of the current year for hiring and separation from employment.
Survey items
1 Items regarding the establishments surveyed
1 Name and telephone number
2 Location
2 Business proprietor
1 Sex and age of business proprietors
2 Whether or not a successor has been found to take over the business
3 Items regarding the entire business
1 Business income from sources other than main business
2 Sales and purchases
3 Inventories
4 Operating expenses, etc.
5 Status of commissions received
6 Investment in plant and machinery
7 Number of persons engaged
8 Hiring and employment separation
4 Items regarding main business
1 Affiliation with chain organizations
2 Use of personal computers
3 Operating days and hours
4 Form of land and building ownership by business
5 Buildings for business use and for home use
6 Problems in managing business
7 Developing your business in the future
8 Plans for incorporating enterprise
Survey method
In this survey, private business operators outsourced by the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications sent questionnaires by post, and the business proprietors of business establishments surveyed or persons acting on their behalf responded to the questionnaires. The questionnaires were collected by post or via the Internet.
