[Blazing fire and black smoke rise from an oil storage facility in Lviv, western Ukraine, on March 26, 2022, following missile strikes in the war against Russia. (Photo by=Kyodo)]

TOKYO: Fifty-five percent of Japanese companies based overseas have had their business operations impacted, or foresee they will be impacted, by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a recent survey by a Japanese staffing firm showed, Kyodo reported.

The online survey of 699 Japanese entities across 10 economies, conducted by Pasona Group Inc. in mid-March, found that firms based in France were by far the most affected with 92.3 percent responding they had been impacted in some way. As the only European country included in the survey, this was followed by Malaysia at 72.0 percent and Singapore at 66.7 percent. Of the 55 percent of the overseas-based firms, 43.2 percent said they already feel the effects of the conflict, while 22.7 percent said they expect to do so within a month and 26.8 percent within three months. The most cited impact among the 43.2 percent was soaring costs of raw materials including oil, chemicals and metals. This was followed by rising logistics costs and energy prices.

The economies covered by the March 11 to 16 survey were the United States, France, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and India. The manufacturing sector made up the biggest group of companies at 43.6 percent, followed by trading houses at 20.7 percent and retailers and wholesalers at 9.9 percent.