We will now begin THK's financial results briefing for the fiscal year ending December 2023. The agenda will be the same as usual, starting with an overview of the financial results for the fiscal year ending December 2023, and then explaining our initiatives in the previous fiscal year and our future plans. We will also present our earnings guidance for the fiscal year ending in December 2024. First, an overview of the financial results for FY 2023. Consolidated sales decreased 10.6% year-on-year to JPY 351.9 billion. In the industrial machinery business, revenue declined year-on-year with general demand remaining low. Although we were able to convert the order backlog to sales in the first half, the demand did not recover in the second half, resulting in lower revenue.
On the other hand, the automotive and transportation equipment business posted a revenue growth as automobile production and sales started to show some recovery after the pandemic, with the lingering impact of COVID and moderating supply situation for components. The operating income decreased 31.2% year-on-year to JPY 23.7 billion. The automotive and transportation equipment business returned to profitability and exceeded the target revised up in August, thanks to the positive impact of sales growth and efforts to improve profitability. On the other hand, the operating income decreased in the industrial machinery business, mainly due to negative impact on volume effects associated with the sales decline. Despite lower sales and income, both sales and operating income on a consolidated basis overachieved the plan revised up in August last year. Next, I will explain the trend of revenue and profit by region.
While sales in Japan, China, and other Asian regions decreased from the previous year due to the factors mentioned earlier, sales in Americas and Europe were up due to the recovery of the automotive and transportation equipment business and the impact of the weaker yen. Next slide is on operating income. First, I will explain the factors behind the change in operating income in the industrial machinery business compared to the previous fiscal year. The decrease in operating income was due to the volume effect of JPY 35.4 billion stemming from lower sales and other income and expenses of JPY 0.7 billion.
On the other hand, factors contributing to higher profit included a change in the variable cost ratio of JPY 3 billion, a decrease in fixed cost of JPY 1.9 billion as cost control had been tightened, and the FX impact of JPY 2.3 billion. The negative impact on OP for the automotive and transportation equipment business was JPY 0.9 billion, stemming from the change in the variable cost ratio. On the other hand, factors contributing to profit growth included a volume effect of JPY 4.2 billion due to higher sales, a decrease in fixed cost of JPY 0.3 billion, foreign exchange impact of JPY 1.1 billion, and other income and expense of JPY 13.5 billion rebounding from the impairment losses booked in FY 2022. Next slide is a snapshot of the balance sheet.
Total assets decreased JPY 3.9 billion from the previous year to JPY 556.3 billion. Due to the interest of time, I will skip the details, so please have a closer look on this slide at your convenient time. Next, I will explain THK's key initiatives. This is the overall picture of THK's management, which I have shared with you many times in the past. First and foremost, there is no change in the pillars of a growth strategy, which are full-scale globalization, development of new business areas, and change in business style. We will further expand our business domain under our vision of becoming a manufacturing and innovative services company. In addition, we will further strengthen sustainability in ESG initiatives, which are key prerequisites for pursuing these strategies.
This page illustrates our approach as we pursue this kind of management that enhance our corporate value. Under the belief that the most important way in improving the corporate value is to raise the ROE, we have set the management target for FY 2026 as shown on the slide as a milestone for achieving our goal of corporate value enhancement. For that, we believe it is important to raise ROIC in each businesses, especially focusing on the profit, which is the numerator of ROIC. In the industrial machinery business, we believe that the most significant driver to enhance returns is the top line growth, as we continue to internally validate the high market growth potential.
In the automotive and transportation equipment business, we believe that improving profitability through various new product launches, in addition to the margin improvement initiatives that we have been pursuing, is the key to raising the profitability. To accelerate these efforts, we will allocate the capital to invest for future growth, including CapEx, R&D, and human resources. For investment into human assets, we will consider salary increases and expanding stock compensation programs that lead to better incentive programs. Considering these capital needs, we believe it is appropriate to maintain a dividend payout ratio of 30% at this time. However, if we see excess cash on the balance sheet while proceeding with this policy, we will actively consider share buybacks. Based on this philosophy, cash outflow in the form of dividends and share buybacks over the past three years totaled JPY 33.9 billion.
Vis-à-vis the accumulated free cash flow of JPY 16.2 billion. The share buyback is also positioned as a way to communicate your message to the market. Based on these concepts, we are promoting initiatives in each business segment to achieve our management targets. In particular, we expect the industrial machinery business to shift into a new phase from short-term adjustment to full-fledged recovery in FY 2024. I will now walk you through our key measures in both businesses targeted to steadily capture the market demand and achieve further growth. First, let me start with this diagram on the industrial machinery business, which you have seen many times in the past.
As you can see, demand for our products is expected to grow over the medium to long term, and we are focusing on new product launches in existing business fields to cater to the customer's needs, while striving to broaden the applications of our products in the new business domains. That said, we have announced a number of new products and new developments in linear motion and rotary components last year. The first one that I would like to mention is the product shown in the center of the slide, a highly rigid global standard ISO compliant LM Guide with H raceway grooves. Both semiconductor manufacturing equipment and machine tools require compactness and higher rigidity on the back of the nanometer measurement becoming the norm, and the rising need to suppress vibration as much as possible.
On that note, rigidity is becoming an important factor, and we offer products that meet global standards. We will continue to increase the number of such products. We are also expanding our product offering of Miniature LM Guides designed to improve the production efficiency of semiconductor manufacturing equipment. In addition, we are expanding the product lineup of retail C slide and wheel guide models as products for general industrial use, suitable for automation and labor-saving applications. Furthermore, we are adding new products to meet the demand for higher precision and higher rigidity for Ball Screws. Cross-Roller Rings for rotation application are also being used in various fields. We will continue to augment our product portfolio to suit each application. We are also promoting productivity improvement through DX.
As you can see, we are developing various digital solutions by further promoting Omni THK, developing digital human assets, and implementing the smart factory project at the customer's plants. We are also enhancing our OMNIedge offering. Initially, OMNIedge focused on predictive failure management of components. By leveraging this platform, we now have a wide range of solutions from predictive failure detection of linear motion and rotary components, as well as tool monitoring system, both fueled by AI solutions. Recently, we have introduced the skill management AI solution, which contributes to improving skill management efficiency. The OMNIedge skill management AI solution integrates equipment maintenance data and sensor data collected by OMNIedge with personal skill data managed by a skill management system called Skillnote.
The AI solution helps to optimize the assignment of human resources handling production equipment, and support strategic human resource development and facility maintenance planning driven by data. As we expand our offering with new solutions, OMNIedge has been adopted by many customers across a wide range of industries. The logos shown on the slide are just some examples of customers who have given us the consent to publicly disclose their adoption of OMNIedge after the many customers who enjoy this service. We will continue to develop and introduce new solutions to maximize the overall efficiency of our customers' facilities, while trying to penetrate our products further, quickly, and steadily. We are also expanding our new product lineup that contributes to cutting-edge automation.
For SIGNAS, a transport system that handles materials and goods between conveyor belts in factories and logistics centers, we have started to take orders for a new one-ton type model with twice the towing weight of the conventional model. In addition, we have launched a next-generation linear transport system as a new system that will replace both conveyors. With these new products, we will accelerate the proposal of automation solutions to enable smart factories for our customers. As you can see on this slide, we are also expanding our global production system to meet increasing demand in the mid- to long-term and to respond to BCP. At each of these phases, we are promoting cost reduction through automation and robotization. Together with the smart factory project introduced earlier, we will strive to thoroughly improve productivity.
Next, I will explain the progress of the reorganization of the automotive and transportation equipment business. First, we reduced costs by approximately JPY 2 billion in FY 2023 through the recovery plan shown at upper left of the page. Under our profit-oriented management, the benefit of discontinuing unprofitable products has started to bear fruit in the magnitude of JPY 60 million. Furthermore, negotiation for further price hike is underway. While we have an obligation to keep equipment for a certain period of time to supply maintenance parts, we are in discussion with the OEM clients so that by maintaining a certain amount of inventory, we would be able to free up the space for new business development. Under such circumstances, we have also made some investment for manufacturing industrial machinery products at THK RHYTHM, and achieved roughly JPY 2.1 billion in production value in FY 2023.
We intend to expand this further in FY 2024. We believe that these efforts will help to expand the business of new components related to future transportation equipment that suit the new era, and that this technology will definitely be useful. As a result of these efforts, we were able to return to profitability in FY 2023 and exceed our operating income target, which was revised up last August. From FY 2024 onward, we will achieve profitable growth through the expansion of next generation product launches and various initiatives illustrated on the slide. At the Japan Mobility Show 2023 held last year, we unveiled the LSR05, an EV prototype developed in-house. This prototype embodies our concept of how automotive technology would look like in the future, as CASE technology in the automotive industry continues to evolve. The main products are shown on this page.
We are proposing new products such as Stealth Seat-Slide System, Variable Magnetic Flux In-Wheel Motor, Electric Service Brake, Active Level Control Suspension, MR Fluid Active Damper Tube, and Contactless Power Supply. Next, I would like to explain our thoughts and initiatives on sustainability management. Based on the policies shown on the slide, we are promoting various initiatives to realize a sustainable society. In addition to supplying linear motion products that contribute to energy saving, we believe that services such as Omni THK and OMNIedge, which help to improve our customers' productivity, can also make a significant contribution to sustainability. Let me share some of the recent activities around sustainability management. We set the indicators and targets corresponding to each materiality, and they're preparing for disclosure next month.
In addition, we will be sharing information next month on our progress in responding to the TCFD recommendations and information on human capital. As part of our efforts toward carbon neutrality, we have set a mid to long-term goal of true net zero in order to realize a decarbonized and resource recycling society. CO2 emissions and solar power generation for our operation in Japan for FY 2023 are illustrated by the graphs on this page. We will continue to reduce CO2 emissions and promote the use of natural energy. We are exerting these efforts not only in Japan, but also overseas. We will proactively promote these initiatives in China, Thailand, Vietnam, India, and other countries. Our goal is to contribute to the realization of a sustainable society by promoting more environmentally friendly business activities. I would now like to go through the earnings guidance for FY 2024.
Let me start with the current order trend. This slide shows orders received by region in the industrial machinery business. As you can see, orders have bottomed out, and we expect to see a strong recovery in the second half of the year. In line with what I have explained so far, for FY 2024, we are projecting revenue of JPY 365 billion, operating income of JPY 27 billion, income before income taxes of JPY 28.8 billion, and net income of JPY 20.8 billion. This will conclude the presentation on the financial results. For the current fiscal year, while continuing to control short-term costs, we will prepare to steadily capture demand in the recovery phase and vigorously promote various measures to achieve medium to long-term growth.
We have also decided not to use the word domestic in our company starting from this year, as domestic implies our thought process of focusing on Japan. However, domestic also means respective local market outside of Japan. Therefore, from a global perspective, Japan is simply a market within a broader global market. With that as a background, we decided to prohibit the use of the word domestic because it can be misleading. We'd love to hear from you if you have any feedback on this point. As announced last November, as of January 1st, 2024, I, Akihiro Teramachi, have assumed the position of Chairman and CEO, and Takashi Teramachi was appointed as the President and COO. I'm sure many of you thought that I would remain in a present position for many more years to come. The world is now at a major turning point.
In my view, the biggest theme is how people will coexist with AI. Currently, we are now thinking about how to make the best use of AI, but I can foresee a future in which the environment for the society will be very challenging. In order to adapt to this new era, we need to better capitalize on younger generation, and I feel that we are ready for this transformation. While I will continue to manage the overall direction, the new President and COO will take the lead in managing the day-to-day operations. Now let me introduce our new President, Takashi Teramachi.
Thank you for the introduction. I am Takashi Teramachi. I assumed the role of President and COO on January 1st this year. First, I'd like to take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude for your continued support.
On January 5th, I made my first speech as the president to the employees to share my management policy, and now I'd like to share a part of that with you. In managing the business as president and COO, I promised the employees that I would embrace the following four factors as something truly important. The first is the employees. At THK, we have always believed that human resources are our most valuable assets. People are the company's greatest asset. The second is to value our customers and business partners. As a manufacturing company, we need to make every effort to ensure quality of our products, but we cannot achieve this alone. It is important to co-create with your customers as well as your suppliers. Thirdly, we will embrace innovation.
We have advocated being an innovative and development-oriented company since our founding, but we believe that true innovation does not end with the creation of new products. It's only when they penetrate into the society. We can call it a true innovation. To achieve this, I conveyed my resolve to work closely as one team with the employees. The fourth point is to value our shareholders. Shareholders are the ones who support your business activities. While we listen to the criticism and encouragement from shareholders, we hope that we can also serve our part in helping them deepen their understanding of your business. This is what I mean when I say we value our shareholders.
I understand that many of you attending today are investors, analysts, and media, and I think it is important for us to help you understand our business activities so that our shareholders can better understand our business. In that sense, we consider you to be our partners in spreading the word about our business activities, and we would like to improve our business by listening to your opinions as well. I intend to continue with our existing policy, and as explained by the chairman, make effective use of new means and methodologies to transform ourselves into a manufacturing and innovative services company, enhance our corporate value, and return profits to our business partners and customers, including our shareholders. We will carry out reforms as necessary to achieve these goals over the medium to long term.
I would like to thank you for your continued support and look forward to working with you in the future. Thank you very much for your attention.