Japan Additive Manufacturing and 3D Printing

Japan’s total Additive manufacturing/3D Printing equipment sales, including printing supplies and services, was 30.8 billion yen (about $291.1million) in 2017. IDC Japan, an IT research firm projected that this market will experience consistent growth for 5 years, with average growth rates at 9.1% until 2022.  

A key trend in the Japanese market is that the private use of 3D Printing machines is likely to decrease, and the industrial use will continue to grow. Experts believe that the private use of 3D printing equipment market is now in the saturation stage and passed a peak of market growth. Industrial use of 3D printing for large scale production is expected grow in automotive, aerospace, and machine tools mass production. A unique reason for Japan’s interest in this sector is the shrinking of Japan’s population. A projected net decrease of 2 million people is expected in the next 10 years. Additive manufacturing in mass production may play an important role in addressing this issue.   

The current use of industrial 3D printing machines are mostly for R&D purposes but it’s projected that the market will be open for mass production by additive manufacturing in the near term. Major hurdles to wider acceptance of additive manufacturing in Japan include traditional Japanese business culture, which is generally hesitant to try out new technology. Also the majority of the Japanese industry still believe that 3D printing is cutting edge technology but are unaware of U.S. companies which can introduce 3D printing to mass production. Therefore the key for success for U.S. additive manufacturing is brand awareness and value proposition  among Japanese buyers.  

TCT Japan (Formally 3D Printing Japan) is an influential 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing event that draws industry professionals to Tokyo to address the challenges of incorporating the adoption of these technologies into the Japanese manufacturing industry. The TCT 2021 will be held in December 2020. Over 120 exhibitors and 47,000 business professionals participated in TCT Japan last year.   

For further information contact U.S. Commercial Service Tokyo at Office.Tokyo@trade.gov.