150 Japanese companies: the Bajío supply base

Bajío Ventures · June 2026 · Japan in the Bajío, 3 of 5

An assembly plant is the visible tip of a chain. Behind every Japanese plant in the Bajío stand tier-1 and tier-2 suppliers, steel processors, toolmakers and service firms. This instalment counts how many there are, who they are and where they are heading.

How many

Indicator	Figure	Source and date
Japanese companies in Guanajuato	~150	Guanajuato state government, Feb 2026
Japanese investor companies in Guanajuato	151	Guanajuato state government, mission to Japan, 25–29 May 2026
Cumulative Japanese investment in Guanajuato since 2007	over USD 9,640 million	Same
Jobs at Japanese companies in Guanajuato	48,953	Same
Japanese business sites in the León consular district (6 states)	~800	Consul General of Japan, Feb 2025
Japanese business bases in Mexico	1,498	MOFA, Oct 2023 (11th worldwide)
Japanese auto-parts plants in Mexico	~550	JETRO citing MarkLines, Mar 2025

Cumulative investment figures differ between sources from the same government: USD 8,900 million in March 2026 and USD 9,640 million in June. We use the latest and flag the difference.

In foreign direct investment, Japan was Mexico’s second-largest investor in 2024, with USD 4,285 million. In 2025 it fell to fifth, with USD 2,293 million according to the Ministry of Economy’s preliminary figure.

Who they are and where

A sample of Japanese suppliers with plants in the Bajío:

Company	City	Product	Year
Jatco	Aguascalientes	CVT transmissions	2005 and 2014
Denso	Silao (Puerto Interior)	HVAC units, radiators, alternators	announced 2012
Hirotec	Silao (Puerto Interior)	Dies and body welding systems	2013
Toyoda Gosei	Irapuato	Grilles, consoles and plastic parts	2016
NSK Warner	Silao (Puerto Interior)	Clutch components for automatic transmissions	2018
Nucor-JFE Steel Mexico	Silao	Galvanised steel, 400,000 t/yr	2020
F&P MFG (F-Tech)	Irapuato	Chassis, suspension and brakes	2021
Mitsui High-tec	Apaseo el Grande	Motor cores for electric vehicles	decided 2023
NHK Spring	Irapuato	Motor cores for hybrids and EVs	announced 2025

Two parks hold a large part of the base: Guanajuato Puerto Interior in Silao, with Denso, KYB, Honda Lock, Hino and NSK, and Castro del Río in Irapuato, with Aisin Takaoka, NHK Spring, Yuken and Takamatsu.

Supplier development

Between 2013 and 2015, Japan’s cooperation agency JICA and ProMéxico ran a project to strengthen the automotive supply chain in Guanajuato, Querétaro and Nuevo León. The method was kaizen: continuous on-site improvement, applied to Mexican suppliers that wanted to enter Japanese supply chains.

The 2025–2026 signals

The signals point both ways.

Retrenchment:

• Yazaki León suspended operations in October 2025 after a geological fault was found and closed on 18 December 2025, paying off about 2,400 workers. In March 2026 Yazaki announced a second harness plant in Guatemala, USD 250 million and 3,500 jobs, with start-up planned for September 2027.
• JETRO’s 2024 survey showed the share of Japanese automotive companies in Mexico planning to expand fell from 41.7% to 32.4%; the share planning to downsize rose from 6.3% to 8.1%.
• Japanese residents in Mexico fell from 9,985 (October 2024) to 9,344 (October 2025), a 6.4% drop, according to Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Expansion:

• NHK Spring announced in May 2025 a USD 55 million, 233-job plant in Irapuato for hybrid and EV motor cores.
• Mitsui High-tec decided in November 2023 to build an EV motor-core plant in Apaseo el Grande, with MXN 671 million and construction scheduled through January 2025.
• The Guanajuato government’s 2025 mission to Japan added about MXN 2.1 billion and 513 jobs: Nagase in León, Senyo in Abasolo, NHK Spring and the SK Tec expansion in Irapuato.

The reading

The Japanese base is not growing or shrinking evenly: it is changing its mix. Wire harnesses, which are labour-intensive, are looking for lower wages in Central America. What arrives is more capital- and energy-intensive: motor cores, galvanised steel, components for electrified vehicles.

For an infrastructure investor, the number that matters is not the company count but consumption. A motor-core plant or a galvanising line uses more electricity per job than a harness plant. That is instalment 5 of this series.

In this series: 1. Forty years of Japan in the Bajío · 2. The Bajío’s Japanese automakers by the numbers · 3. 150 Japanese companies: the Bajío supply base · 4. 15 versus 19: the tariff · 5. Powering the Bajío’s Japanese plants

Bajío Ventures is a Mexican energy infrastructure investment group based in Guanajuato. We originate and structure USD 5–50 million projects across the Bajío corridor.

Sources: Cluster Industrial, Guanajuato and Japan: 150 companies, Feb 2026 · Cluster Industrial, the top 10 Japanese companies in Guanajuato, Mar 2026 · Cluster Industrial, Guanajuato mission to Japan, Jun 2026 · Consulate-General of Japan in León, Consul General speech, Feb 2025 · JETRO, Japanese companies in Mexico, Mar 2025 · El CEO, Japanese FDI 2024 · El Financiero, FDI 2025 · just-auto, Jatco, 2014 · just-auto, Toyoda Gosei Irapuato, 2014 · Cluster Industrial, NSK Warner, 2018 · Steel Market Update, Nucor-JFE, 2020 · Cluster Industrial, F&P MFG, 2021 · Cluster Industrial, Hirotec, 2023 · Mitsui High-tec, Mexico investment notice, Nov 2023 · Cluster Industrial, NHK Spring, May 2025 · Cluster Industrial, Guanajuato Puerto Interior, 2021 · Cluster Industrial, Castro del Río, 2018 · Mexico Business News, Yazaki León suspension, Oct 2025 · El Congresista, Yazaki León closure, Dec 2025 · Bloomberg Línea, Yazaki in Guatemala, Mar 2026 · Líder Empresarial, Japanese investment in Guanajuato, Jan 2026 · JICA, automotive supply chain project report, 2015 · MOFA, Japanese nationals overseas, 2025 edition