People walk on a street in Tokyo's Ginza area at dusk on Sunday. Japan reported about 230 new COVID-19 cases as of Sunday, bringing the total number of infections to about 1.72 million, with more than 18,000 deaths. Photo: AFP

Japan's industrial output dropped 1.3 percent in January from a month earlier, marking the second successive month of decline, due to the global semiconductor crunch amid the downside effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the government said in a report on Monday.

According to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), the index of production at factories and mines stood at 95.2 on a seasonally adjusted basis, against the 2015 base of 100.

The latest reading comes on the heels of a 1.0 percent decline in December, the ministry's data showed.

Despite the decline in factory output in the recording month, however, METI retained its assessment of the data for the third straight month. The ministry said that output at factories and mines "is showing signs of an upward movement."

According to the ministry's data, industries that mainly contributed to the decrease in production in the recording period were motor vehicles, iron, steel and nonferrous metals and inorganic and organic chemicals, in that order.

Output in the auto industry dropped the most, diving 17.2 percent, as the rapid spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant of coronavirus Japan-wide caused factories to be suspended and rattled supply chains, a ministry official was quoted as saying.

As for organic and inorganic chemicals, output dropped 3.8 percent as the pandemic and a large earthquake in southwestern Japan also forced some plants to temporarily shutter operations in the reporting month.

The ministry said, meanwhile, that industries helping to trim losses by their output gaining in the recording period, included electronic parts and devices, production machinery, chemicals, in that order.

Xinhua