R&D by the Numbers

Each of the thirty-five June 2026 annual securities reports read here carries, in 第２ 事業の状況 of its first part, 企業情報, a section headed 研究開発活動, research and development activities, and in most of them it ends, or begins, with one number: the group's research and development figure for the year. In the June 2026 reports of thirty-five of the largest filers, twenty-eight print such a figure and seven print a line saying there is nothing to report. Toyota prints ¥1,522,881 million (US$9,297 million) of research and development spending and, in a note, ¥1,567,910 million of research and development expense; Sony Group prints 7,620億円 with a three-line table by segment; Daiichi Sankyo prints 4,660億円 and a ratio to revenue of 21.9%; Takeda prints 6,759億円 and a sentence saying why it reports no breakdown; Denso prints ¥690,073 million split five ways by region, with 約88％ in Japan. Twenty-one of the twenty-eight figures are higher than the same company's figure of a year earlier, and seven are lower.

The section sits in 第２ 事業の状況, the business section, as its last item, numbered 6 in every one of the thirty-five reports read here, after 5 重要な契約等, material contracts, and immediately before 第３ 設備の状況, the section on plant and equipment. What goes into it is the company's account of its research: purpose, main themes, organisation, results, and the amount spent, which several filers tie explicitly to their segments. Hitachi heads a sub-item 研究開発費 and prints セグメントごとの研究開発費, research and development expense by segment; Nintendo writes that it is a single segment and so makes no segment-linked statement; Tokyo Electron writes the same of its single segment, 半導体製造装置, semiconductor production equipment. The number itself carries a label that differs from company to company, and the label is part of the answer.

This desk read the section in seventy reports — the June 2026 and June 2025 annual securities reports of the same thirty-five companies — from the printed heading to the heading of 第３ 設備の状況, and took from each the figure the company itself prints as its total, in the unit the company prints, 百万円 or 億円, with the label the company gives it. No ratio, difference or growth rate in this piece is computed by the desk: where a ratio to sales appears it is the company's own, where a change from the prior year is given as a percentage it is the company's own, and where a figure is described as higher or lower than the prior year, that is a comparison of two printed figures. The desk's own work is the count of companies, that comparison, and the US dollar conversions at ¥163.8 = US$1. Segment figures are the lines the section prints; the piece does not add them, and where the lines visibly do not reach the total — Sony Group's three, HOYA's two — it says so and leaves the remainder alone. Most of the twenty-eight figures are labelled 研究開発費, research and development expense, with or without a qualifier; Toyota and Honda print 研究開発支出, spending, NTT prints 研究開発費用, and Murata Manufacturing heads its table 研究開発活動に要した費用, the cost of research and development activities.

Toyota's section, on pages 67 and 68, says that the research and development spending incurred in the year was ¥1,522,881 million (US$9,297 million), against ¥1,326,496 million in the June 2025 report, and that part of that spending is capitalised as intangible assets. By business segment it prints ¥1,507,038 million for the automotive business and ¥15,843 million for その他の事業, other businesses, where the basic research of Toyota Central R&D Labs in energy and the environment, machinery, information and communication and materials is placed; the prior-year lines were ¥1,310,754 million and ¥15,742 million. The research organisation it lists runs from Daihatsu, Hino, Toyota Auto Body, Toyota Motor East Japan, Toyota Central R&D Labs and Woven by Toyota in Japan to Toyota Motor North America, CALTY Design Research and Toyota Research Institute in North America, Toyota Motor Europe and TOYOTA RACING in Europe, and a set of Chinese entities including FAW Toyota, GAC Toyota and BYD TOYOTA EV TECHNOLOGY. Two footnotes date the list: Hino Motors left the consolidated group on 1 April 2026 on its integration with Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus, and Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe was renamed TOYOTA RACING on 7 January 2026.

The spending figure is not the figure in the income statement, and the section says where that one is: note 28 to the consolidated financial statements, on page 194, which prints the spending incurred, ¥1,522,881 million, less the amount transferred to development assets, ¥106,751 million, plus the amortisation of development assets, ¥151,780 million, for a research and development expense of ¥1,567,910 million (US$9,572 million); the prior-year column reads ¥1,377,018 million. Honda's section is built the same way and shows the two figures moving in opposite directions. Its spending incurred in the year was １兆1,748億円 — ¥1,174.8 billion, US$7,172 million — against １兆2,106億円 a year earlier, split 1,123億円 to motorcycles, １兆292億円 to automobiles and 332億円 to power products and other businesses. Its note 21, on page 171, prints that spending as ¥1,174,848 million, a transfer to development assets of ¥198,806 million, and a line headed 開発資産の償却費、減損損失ならびに除却損失 — amortisation, impairment and derecognition of development assets — of ¥564,604 million, against ¥175,960 million the year before, for a total research and development expense of ¥1,540,646 million (US$9,406 million) against ¥1,099,482 million. The note refers the reader to the segment note's item on the effect on the automobile business of changes in the EV market environment for the detail of the EV-related impairment and derecognition losses.

Sony Group's section, on page 46, says that research and development expense for fiscal 2025 was 7,620億円 — ¥762.0 billion, US$4,652 million — an increase of 274億円, or 3.7%, on the prior year, and that the ratio to sales of continuing operations was 6.1%, the same level as the year before. The table under it has three lines, in 億円, with the prior year alongside: Ｇ＆ＮＳ, game and network services, 2,792 to 3,161, up 13.2%; ＥＴ＆Ｓ, entertainment, technology and services, 1,389 to 1,380, down 0.6%; and Ｉ＆ＳＳ, imaging and sensing solutions, 2,284 to 2,385, up 4.4%. A note under the table says that the expense of the corporate research and development organisation has not been shown separately since fiscal 2024, following a reorganisation of the company's technology-related organisations in that year, because the amount had ceased to be material. The June 2025 report, on page 56, gave the prior year's figure as 7,346億円, a decrease of 82億円, or 1.1%, and put the ratio on a different base — consolidated sales excluding the financial services segment, 6.6% falling to 6.1% — the base having changed in the June 2026 report to continuing operations.

What Sony says it did with the money is listed by segment. In games, an evolved version of PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution, whose algorithm and neural network derive from technology co-developed with Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., was delivered to PlayStation 5 Pro users in February 2026; the Sony Engagement Platform, a common network foundation for the group's entertainment businesses, began rolling out functions, and Sony Revenue Recognition was introduced at Crunchyroll; and Gran Turismo Sophy 3.0, a reinforcement-learning game-play agent developed with Polyphony Digital and Sony Research, shipped in the Power Pack for Gran Turismo 7. In electronics, the XYN spatial capture solution, which turns photographs from a mirrorless camera into photoreal 3D assets, entered beta in November 2025, and the WH-1000XM6 headphones carry a new QN3 noise-cancelling processor. In sensors, the IMX828 automotive image sensor is described as the first in the industry to build in the MIPI A-PHY interface, removing the external serialiser chip, and the IMX908 is a 4K security sensor with a 1.45µm LOFIC pixel that the section says delivers 96dB of dynamic range in a single exposure; the first-in-industry claim is footnoted as Sony's own survey.

Daiichi Sankyo's section, on pages 49 to 53, prints research and development expense on an IFRS basis of 4,660億円 — ¥466.0 billion, US$2,845 million — up 6.9% on the prior year, and a ratio of research and development expense to revenue of 21.9%; the June 2025 report printed 4,360億円, up 19.4%, and 23.1%. That 21.9% is the highest ratio printed in any of the thirty-five sections. The strategy the section names is 5DXd ADCs and Next Wave: concentrating resources on five antibody-drug conjugates built on the company's own DXd payload and linker, and discovering a next wave of products meant to change the standard of care. It says trastuzumab deruxtecan and datopotamab deruxtecan are co-developed with AstraZeneca, and patritumab deruxtecan, ifinatamab deruxtecan and raludotatug deruxtecan with Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA, and it then walks through the year's approvals, filings and phase 3 starts trial by trial, from DESTINY-Breast09 and DESTINY-Gastric04 to DESTINY-Endometrial01, with numbered notes explaining what an ADC, a standard of care and a modality are.

Takeda's section opens, on page 68, with the total: research and development expense for the year of 6,759億円 — ¥675.9 billion, US$4,126 million — against 7,302億円 in the June 2025 report, one of the seven figures in the set that is lower than the year before. The next sentence is the one a reader looking for a breakdown needs: because the research and development budget is set company-wide and particular outlays are subject to reallocation according to development results and priorities, the company does not report its research and development expense by disease area or by clinical stage. What follows is a description of the drug-development process — phases 1 to 3, the regulators in the United States, the European Union, Japan and China, and the filings that end the process — and then the three focus areas, gastrointestinal and inflammatory disease, neuroscience and oncology, which the section says account for the largest share of its research investment, together with plasma-derived therapies; the June 2025 report framed the same activity as three fields, innovative biopharmaceuticals, plasma-derived therapies and vaccines. As extracted, the section runs from page 68 to page 92, the longest of the thirty-five: after the focus areas come pipeline tables by therapeutic area and stage, a table on page 82 of projects removed from the pipeline since 1 April 2025 with the reason for each, and then tables of licensing and collaboration agreements and of patents and their expiry dates.

Denso's section, on page 37, prints the group's research and development expense, including the portion capitalised as assets, at ¥690,073 million (US$4,213 million), against ¥619,404 million a year earlier, and then splits it by its geographic segments: Japan ¥608,205 million, North America ¥31,658 million, Europe ¥14,120 million, Asia ¥34,867 million and other ¥1,223 million, with a sentence putting Japan's share at 約88％, up from 約87％ in the June 2025 report, where the lines were ¥537,824 million, ¥31,636 million, ¥16,498 million, ¥32,375 million and ¥1,071 million. The activity is organised under the three pillars of its CORE 2030 plan. Under products, it names the inverter and two battery-management parts adopted in Toyota's new bZ4X in October 2025 — the inverter using Denso's own silicon carbide power semiconductor and double-sided cooling, which the section says cuts power loss by about 70% and shrinks the core module by about 30% — and a gas-method crystal-growth process for silicon carbide that it says raises productivity about fifteenfold, with a target of cutting energy use and CO2 in manufacture by about 90%. Under manufacturing it names a Knowledge Graph Agent for AI-driven software development and the Zenmyo-Minami plant under construction in Nishio; under people and partners, a ten-year agreement with the University of Tokyo signed in March 2026 with wireless charging of moving vehicles as one focus, the acquisition of the Dutch seed company Axia Vegetable Seeds B.V. in July 2025, and the Toyota Software Academy set up by five Toyota-group companies.

Five more sections print a segment table or a segment list. Hitachi, on page 55, prints 2,903億円 (US$1,772 million) at 2.7% of revenue, against 2,594億円 at the same 2.7% a year earlier, and a table in 億円: デジタルシステム＆サービス 496, エナジー 708, モビリティ 336, コネクティブインダストリーズ 1,051, other 14, corporate and eliminations 295 — where the June 2025 table had three operating segments, with グリーンエナジー＆モビリティ at 855 in place of this year's separate energy and mobility lines. Kyocera's table on page 44 gives the two years side by side in 百万円 with a change column: コアコンポーネント 21,404 to 26,120, 電子部品 13,988 to 15,888, ソリューション 41,028 to 37,499, その他の事業 39,667 to 36,194, a total of 116,087 to 115,701, down 0.3%, and a 売上高比率, ratio to sales, of 5.8% to 5.6%. Murata Manufacturing's table on page 55 reads コンポーネント ¥57,083 million, デバイス・モジュール ¥93,048 million, other ¥8,739 million, total ¥158,870 million (US$970 million), from ¥149,274 million the year before. FUJIFILM Holdings, on page 41, prints a total of ¥157,790 million (US$963 million), down 3.4% by its own reckoning and 4.7% of sales, then ¥53,346 million for healthcare, ¥28,209 million for electronics, ¥55,406 million for business innovation and ¥13,366 million for imaging, plus ¥7,463 million of basic research not allocated to any segment. Panasonic Holdings prints 4,264億円 (US$2,603 million) against 4,778億円, and lists the main components under six segment names — コネクト 1,327億円, エレクトリックワークス 519億円, HVAC ＆ CC 465億円, エナジー 486億円, インダストリー 587億円, スマートライフ 716億円 — where the June 2025 list had five names, くらし事業 1,454億円 and オートモーティブ 613億円 among them.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, on pages 28 and 29, prints a group total of ¥289,078 million (US$1,765 million), against ¥218,662 million, and says that ¥208,911 million of it is the cost of contract research and the like; by segment, エナジー ¥55,716 million, プラント・インフラ ¥17,407 million, 物流・冷熱・ドライブシステム ¥8,783 million, 航空・防衛・宇宙 ¥185,418 million — from ¥120,537 million a year earlier — other ¥1,932 million and corporate ¥19,819 million. NTT, on page 56, prints a table of 研究開発費用 by segment in 百万円 — 総合ICT事業 123,776, グローバル・ソリューション事業 41,993, 地域通信事業 82,110, その他 149,987 — with a sub-total of 397,866, inter-segment eliminations of 119,217 and a total of 278,649 (US$1,701 million), against 268,669 a year earlier; it adds that a further 3,603億円 of investment and expense went to service development, 6,389億円 in all, and that the parent company's own basic research cost 1,306億円 and earned 1,170億円 of basic research income. SoftBank Group, on page 70, prints ¥975,471 million (US$5,955 million) against ¥507,590 million, of which ¥592,199 million arose in the AI computing segment, mainly at Arm — the June 2025 report gave the Arm segment ¥368,806 million — and describes Arm's work on the Armv9 architecture, compute subsystems and its own silicon including the Arm AGI CPU. Nippon Steel prints 827億円 (US$505 million) with 707億円 to steelmaking, 30億円 to engineering, 52億円 to chemicals and materials and 37億円 to system solutions; Daikin prints ¥150,756 million (US$920 million) with ¥134,097 million to air conditioning and refrigeration, ¥12,823 million to chemicals and ¥3,834 million to other; and HOYA prints ¥36,291 million (US$222 million) for continuing operations, with ¥22,479 million in ライフケア, life care, and ¥13,208 million in 情報・通信, information and communication, two lines that do not reach the total.

Thirteen sections print a total and no segment figure; Daiichi Sankyo's and Takeda's are above, and the other eleven follow. Nintendo prints 1,778億円 (US$1,085 million) against 1,437億円, says it is a single segment, and describes the year as the launch of Nintendo Switch 2 in June 2025 and the titles that followed it, Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bananza among them. Tokyo Electron prints ¥277,866 million (US$1,696 million), up 11.1% by its own figure, at 11.4% of consolidated sales, 1.1 points higher than the year before; Advantest prints 781億円 against 714億円 and adds that research and development staff are about three tenths of the group's headcount; Keyence prints ¥32,839 million against ¥28,856 million, and says most of the group's research is done by the parent. Recruit Holdings prints 1,459億円 (US$891 million) against 1,683億円, and says the bulk is the personnel cost of engineers and technology developers, most of it in the HR technology segment; Shin-Etsu Chemical prints ¥77,819 million against ¥73,129 million; KDDI prints a total of ¥39,995 million against ¥37,333 million; FANUC prints ¥44,959 million against ¥46,666 million; SMC prints ¥39,986 million, up 19.9% by its own figure. The two railways print totals in 億円: East Japan Railway 250億円 — ¥25,000 million — against 231億円, and Central Japan Railway 430億円 against 367億円, which it describes as the research and development expense included in operating expenses.

Six sections print a ratio of research and development to sales, and the six do not share one denominator. Daiichi Sankyo's 21.9% and Hitachi's 2.7% are against 売上収益, revenue; Tokyo Electron's 11.4% is against 連結売上高, consolidated net sales; Sony Group's 6.1% is against the sales of continuing operations; Kyocera's 5.6% is headed 売上高比率 and FUJIFILM Holdings' 4.7% 売上高比, without further qualification. The other twenty-two sections, as extracted, print no such ratio; a reader who wants one will have to build it, and this desk has not: the numerator would be a figure whose definition, as the next paragraph shows, differs from company to company, and the result would not be a number any of the reports prints.

What the figure is differs by company, and the section says so in its label. Toyota's and Honda's are 研究開発支出, spending incurred, before the transfer of part of it to development assets and the amortisation of those assets, with the income-statement figure in a note. Denso's is research and development expense including the portion capitalised. Daikin's is the research and development expense included in general and administrative expenses and in manufacturing cost for the year; Central Japan Railway's is the amount included in operating expenses; HOYA's is for continuing operations; Daiichi Sankyo's is on an IFRS basis; NTT's is 研究開発費用 from basic research through to applied development, and it prints a second, larger figure that adds service development. Twenty-eight numbers, then, but not one definition, and a table that lines them up — the chart below does — lines up labels as much as amounts.

Seven of the thirty-five sections consist of a heading and one line. Mitsubishi Corporation and Mitsui & Co. print 特に記載すべき事項はありません, there are no matters requiring particular mention; ITOCHU prints 特記すべき事項はありません, the same in different words; Oriental Land and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group print 該当事項はありません, there are no applicable matters; and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group print 該当ありません. Each of the seven printed the same line in its June 2025 report. Those are the companies' own statements about the section, and this piece reports them as printed.

Set against the June 2025 reports, twenty-one of the twenty-eight figures rose and seven fell, each comparison made in the company's own unit and on the company's own label. The seven that fell are Honda's spending, Recruit Holdings, FANUC, Kyocera, Panasonic Holdings, Takeda and FUJIFILM Holdings; Honda's is the case to keep in mind, since the expense its note carries to the income statement rose from ¥1,099,482 million to ¥1,540,646 million in the same year that its spending fell. The increases the companies themselves put in percentage terms are SMC's 19.9%, Tokyo Electron's 11.1%, Daiichi Sankyo's 6.9% and Sony Group's 3.7%, and the decreases FUJIFILM Holdings' 3.4% and Kyocera's 0.3%; SoftBank Group's figure went from ¥507,590 million to ¥975,471 million, with the AI computing segment's line where the Arm segment's line was. None of this is a judgement on any company's research, and a section that prints one line is a section that prints one line; what the reader gets from the thirty-five is the number each company chose to print, the label it put on it, and, in fifteen cases, the segment lines under it.