Weathernews, the Chiba-based private weather forecaster, told the Tokyo Stock Exchange that AI-driven changes to how it runs corporate weather services cut a cumulative 15,300 hours of monthly operating time compared with the start of the prior fiscal year. The company said the savings lowered personnel costs and contributed to profit growth for the year to May 2026: net sales rose 4.1% to ¥24.48bn, operating profit rose 16.1% to ¥5.24bn, and net income attributable to shareholders rose 22.2% to ¥3.81bn.
Shareholders got an unusually large share of that profit. Weathernews declared total dividends of ¥3.78bn for the year, a payout ratio of 99.1% of net income, up from 49.7% the prior year. The jump came from a ¥40 per share commemorative dividend layered on top of the ordinary ¥22.50 year-end payment. That combination is not meant to be permanent: the company's own forecast for the year to May 2027 puts the payout ratio back down at 58.3%, with the commemorative dividend dropped from the plan.
| Fiscal year | Total dividend | Payout ratio | Net asset dividend rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year to May 2025 | ¥1.55bn | 49.7% | 7.5% |
| Year to May 2026 | ¥3.78bn | 99.1% | 16.6% |
| Year to May 2027 (forecast) | Not disclosed | 58.3% | Not disclosed |
The underlying earnings guidance for next year is modest by comparison with this year's gains: Weathernews forecasts operating profit growth of just 3.0%, against 16.1% this year. The company disclosed the labor-hour savings as a cost driver behind this year's margin improvement; it did not quantify how much further AI-linked efficiency it expects to extract in the coming year, or attach a yen figure to the labor reduction itself.