There have been few signs of recovery in Japan since April but the rest of Asia has been stronger, according to the president of Fuji Xerox, one of Asia's largest suppliers of printers and photocopiers.
Business results were somewhat better in markets such as Singapore, Korea and especially Australia, "but by far the strongest is China", said Tadahito Yamamoto in an interview with the Financial Times.
Mr Yamamoto's comments show how the recovery in demand for technology equipment is not yet fully established, and varies by area and product.
"We mainly deal directly with big businesses in China and they have come back strongly," Mr Yamamoto said.
In Japan, Fuji Xerox is hoping for an improvement in the coming months because companies tend to invest in office equipment only with a three-month lag after their own business improves and "until May industry was almost at a standstill", he said.
Better results from Australia and South Korea are partly due to a strengthening of their currencies, Mr Yamamoto said - a trend that is helping the Japanese technology sector as a whole.
A joint venture between Fujifilm of Japan, which now owns 75 per cent, and Xerox of the US, the company jointly develops and manufactures Xerox products and distributes them in the Asia-Pacific region.
Mr Yamamoto conceded that the split between the two is becoming an issue because customers are demanding a global service, while Fuji Xerox is also affected by lower exports of its printers because of the recent struggles of Xerox in the US. But he said a merger of the two companies would be "extremely difficult".
Future growth would come from companies outsourcing the management of their printing to Fuji Xerox and from expansion into low-volume production printing of items such as brochures and posters, Mr Yamamoto said.
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