Who is Doing Well in Japan Today?

1 out of 7 companies saw both profits and sales rise last fiscal year, according to calculations by The Nikkei. The key words are "saving", "healing" and "caring". Here are some examples:

Benesse Corp. (9783), a correspondence school, logged a 9% year-on-year jump in pretax profit to 39.2 billion yen. The company benefited from a trend to switch to affordable correspondence courses away from expensive cram schools.

Nihon Shokuhin Kako Co. (2892) grew 16-fold to 3.6 billion yen from the popularity of low-malt beers, which are cheaper than regular beers. The company supplies ingredients to brewers.

Gourmet Navigator Inc. (2440) enjoyed a 45% surge to 3.9 billion yen. The company operates a Web site offering information on restaurants, enabling users to search for quality but affordable places.

Nintendo Co. (7974) recorded a 2% uptick in pretax profit to 448.6 billion yen on the back of growing global sales. As consumers cut back outside excursions, gaming devices that enable users to play and study at home flourish. Hosiden Corp. (6804), which supplies parts for Nintendo game systems, along with software developers Capcom Co. (9697) and Hudson Soft Co. (4822), also fared well.

Unicharm PetCare Corp. (2059), a pet food maker, saw its pretax profit zoom up 31% to 6 billion yen, buoyed by beefed up offerings for aging and obese pets.

Sawai Pharmaceutical Co. (4555) had its pretax profit soar 31% to 4.4 billion yen thanks to increased demands for generic medicine.

Hogy Medical Co. (3593) saw sales of kits containing surgical gowns, scalpels and other items gain more than 10%, lifting its pretax profit 5% to 7.6 billion yen. There was an increased demand from domestic medical institutions aiming to improve efficiency.