Japan M&A By the Numbers: Q1 2026

In YTD 2026, Materials displayed the highest growth at 362%, followed by Communication Services at 27%, and Industrials at 3%, within the domestic and inbound sector. As for the outbound sector, only two of the sectors increased in value – Consumer Discretionary by 216,772 %, and Consumer Staples by 92%.​

The outbound M&A volume decreased from 56 in YTD 2025 to 35 in YTD 2026, resulting to the total deal value of Japan outbound M&A decreasing by 97% to USD 536 million. At the same time, domestic and inbound M&A had a 35% decrease in transaction volume and value decreased by 32 % to USD 17.1 billion.