This is based on the report given to the Forty-third General Assembly meeting by Mr Hiroki Ishigaki, Deputy Director; Non-Ferrous Metals Division, Manufacturing Industries Bureau of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan, METI. Although 2000 was a year in which domestic production by the electronics and information technology (IT) industries in Japan' set new records (see Figure 1), the equivalent result in 2001 was 21.4 trillion yen, a drop of 16.3 percent, one of the highest year-on-year falls on record. The main factor in this decrease was the occurrence of the so-called 'global IT recession'. In particular, domestic production of electronic components and devices fell considerably in 2001, as demand for cellular telephones, personal computers (PCs) and other equipment was sluggish around the world. Exports from Japan of electronics and IT products, and components and devices in particular, also decreased after a record year in 2000. At the same time, the production of tantalum products in the world decreased 30 percent.
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