How long is the wait for a new Japanese CNC lathe?
About ten months, and about seven for a machining centre. Okuma's filing for the quarter to 30 June 2026 puts ¥27,530 million of NC lathes ordered and unbuilt against ¥7,720 million of lathes actually shipped in those three months — three and a half quarters of backlog. Machining centres and multitasking machines sit near 2.3 quarters. If the machine you want is a lathe, you are joining the longest queue on the floor.
That is one builder, but Okuma is the one that publishes the split by product, and nothing in the wider order book suggests it is unusual.
The queue, by machine
| Okuma, three months to 30 June 2026 | Order backlog (¥m) | Shipped in the quarter (¥m) | Quarters of backlog |
|---|---|---|---|
| NC lathes | 27,530 | 7,720 | 3.6 |
| Multitasking machines | 31,591 | 13,501 | 2.3 |
| Machining centres | 62,961 | 27,985 | 2.2 |
| All products | 124,767 | 51,903 | 2.4 |
The gap between the top row and the bottom two is the useful part. Turning is where the queue has lengthened, so a job that can be done on a multitasking machine or a machining centre reaches your floor roughly three months earlier — and that question is worth asking your agent before the model is fixed.
Nothing is easing it either. Japanese builders took ¥197.8 billion of orders in August, of which ¥146.3 billion, about 74 per cent, came from outside Japan — a record for foreign orders. New orders arriving at that rate hold the backlog where it is, so waiting for the queue to shorten is not a plan.
What to do with ten months
Book a slot, not a machine. Ask for a named build slot and a delivery window in weeks, and ask in writing what moves it — a specification change, an option added late, a payment stage missed. A delivery date with no stated dependencies is a hope.
Then fix the price in time. Okuma states plainly what it is doing to prices:
"We also worked to pass on cost increases and additional tariffs in the U.S. to sales prices to improve profitability." — Okuma Corporation, quarterly filing, 5 August 2026
So an old quotation is not a price you can hold, and the currency moves under it while you think. The yen went from 163.71 to the dollar on 27 July to 153.71 on 11 September and back to 156.87 on 18 September — a six per cent swing in seven weeks on the Federal Reserve's own daily table. Ask for the machine priced in yen with a validity date on the face of the quotation, and make the decision inside it. Whatever currency you settle in, a quote left open across a move like that is a different quote by the time you sign it.
Three things to get in the same document while you are at it: the yen price and its validity date, the build slot and the delivery window, and the list of what shifts that window. Everything else in a machine-tool quotation is negotiable later. Those three are not.
If a Japanese machine is in the 2027 budget, JIMTOF at Tokyo Big Sight from 26 to 31 October is where the 2027 delivery calendars and price lists will be. Builders staff that floor with people who can commit to a slot. Go with a decision, or send an agent who has one — a browse produces a brochure, not a build date.
And if the part cannot wait ten months for a machine, it does not have to. Vesprr's workshop turns and mills to drawing: CNC machining.
Sources
- Okuma Corporation, Consolidated Financial Results for the Three Months Ended June 30, 2026 (PDF), 5 August 2026: the order-backlog and net-sales tables by product, and the statement on passing on cost increases and US tariffs.
- Seisanzai Japan, Japan's machine tool orders total JPY 197.8 billion in August 2026; foreign demand sets new all-time high, 9 September 2026: the August total, the domestic and foreign split and the record foreign figure. Association index: JMTBA, Monthly Machine Tool Orders.
- Federal Reserve Board, H.10 historical rates, Japan: 163.71 yen to the dollar on 27 July 2026, 153.71 on 11 September and 156.87 on 18 September.
- JIMTOF, JIMTOF 2026 outline: 26 to 31 October 2026, Tokyo Big Sight.