This is Nakajima from Sysmex. Let me explain our financial results for the first nine months of the fiscal year ending March 31st, 2020. Please turn to page two, financial highlights. The net sales were JPY 218.1 billion, up by 4.7%. Operating profit was JPY 40.4 billion, down by 5%. Net income was JPY 26.4 billion, down by 8.3%. The net sales were affected by the yen appreciation. Both Japan and overseas businesses grew to support the overall growth. Operating income, despite the gross profit increase supported by the sales increase, the profit declined, affected by yen appreciation, increased SG&A by reinforcing sales structure outside of Japan, and increased R&D spending due to a new diagnostic reagent base. Please turn to the left bottom chart. Foreign exchange. Yen appreciated against USD by JPY 2.4, EUR by JPY 8.4, and RMB by JPY 8.1 compared to the previous year.
The FX impact on sales was - JPY 9.43 billion. On operating income, it was - JPY 3.27 billion. Net income declined because of the FX loss impact, as well as the increased tax burden. The tax rate was 29.2%, up by 1.4 percentage points year-on-year. Please turn to the next page. A breakdown of net sales. In all regions, sales grew on yen basis as well as on local currency basis. On a local currency basis, AP, EMEA, and China had over 10% growth. Japan and the Americas had over 6% growth. The FX impact on the net sales was a -9.43 billion for the whole company. By destinations, it was a -JPY 1.38 billion impact on the Americas, and a - JPY 3.74 billion on EMEA - JPY 3.61 billion impact on China, and a - JPY 680 million impact on Asia Pacific. Please turn to the next page.
Sales by businesses and product types. IVD business. The sales grew by 9.2% if we apply the last year's rate supported by the growth in hematology and immunochemistry. Hematology sales grew by the increased number of installed bases, as well as the increased reagent sales due to the spread of dengue fever in Asia-Pacific. Hemostasis sales grew supported by Japan, where the new instrument products solid performance and growth in China. Urinalysis business, despite the delay in new product introduction in the U.S., sales grew supported by the growth of the direct sales in the U.K. and France, and the reagent sales growth by the increased number of installed bases. Immunochemistry sales grew by reagent sales increase in Asia-Pacific in addition to China and Japan. Life science business sales grew by 11.1% when we apply the last year's rate.
The sales grew by OSNA sales growth in EMEA, as well as the increased number of NCC Oncopanel contracted testings in Japan. Please turn to the next page. Breakdown of operating profit. Despite the gross profit growth supported by the sales growth, the profit declined affected by the appreciation of yen and increased SG&A by reinforcing sales structures outside of Japan and the increased R&D spending by building a new diagnostic reagent base. FX impact was a -J PY 3.27 billion. Cost of sales ratio worsened by 1.6 percentage point. Of this 1.6 percentage point, 0.7 was due to reclassification of service contract fee in China from SG&A to the cost of sales. Substantially, it was a worsening of 0.9 percentage point.
Despite the improvements in the product mix, the cost of sales ratio worsened because of increased purchases of third-party instruments along with the increase in the service costs due to headcounts increase in the U.S. and China. There was no FX impact on the cost of sales ratio. SG&A grew by the increased labor cost in Japan, driven by the headcount increases and the stock option provisions along with the labor cost increase in the Americas and EMEA for reinforcing sales structure. R&D increased due to the investment into hematology new products and LS businesses and because of spending into diagnostic reagent base. Please turn to the next page. Let me share information by destinations. First, with Americas. Sales were JPY 50.6 billion, up by 3.9%. Despite a decline in hemostasis and urinalysis business in the U.S., overall sales grew by a growth in hematology business in North and Latin America.
Instrument sales had a slight growth in the U.S. Sales declined in hemostasis, where we had a large commercial lab business in the preceding fiscal year, and affected by the delay in introducing new products to the market in urinalysis. Reagent sales grew by the increased number of installed bases in hematology devices and solid sales of reagents in North America and South and Central Americas. On a local currency basis, net sales grew by 6.4%. Sales growth by regions. The U.S. grew by 4.2%. Canada grew by 10.5%. South and Central America grew by 13.4%. From Q3, we changed the sales structure in Brazil to start a direct marketing for mid and low-end markets, resulting in reagent growth to drive the overall sales growth. Please turn to the next page. EMEA. Sales were JPY 57 billion, up by 3.2%.
In addition to the sales growth in hematology in Northern Europe and Middle East, direct sales grew in urinalysis in the U.K. and France to result in the overall sales growth. Instrument sales grew because of system product sales in Northern Europe in hematology business. We also received orders for the commercial labs in Eastern Europe. We saw the increased sales in urinalysis in the U.K. and France. Reagent sales grew supported by the increased number of installed instrument bases in hematology and urinalysis in the Middle East and Russia. On a local currency basis, sales were up by 10.4%. Growth rate by regions. For major five countries, sales grew by 5.6%. Other Europe grew by 13.2%. Middle East grew by 19.3%. Eastern Europe and Russia grew by 16.1%. Africa was up by 6.9%. Please turn to the next page. China. Net sales were JPY 56.5 billion, up by 3.3%.
In addition to the reagent and service sales growth in hematology, immunochemistry, and urinalysis, the instrument sales in hemostasis increased to result in overall sales growth. On a local currency basis, sales were up by 10%. Instrument sales increased driven by the growth of the Sysmex transport system, which we started to sell in Q3. Reagent sales increased by 8.9%, despite a decline in sales due to the reclassification from reagent to service. We saw solid sales growth in hematology, urinalysis, and immunochemistry, excluding the reclassification impact. By the way, the reclassification impact amount was about JPY 1.5 billion. Sales growth by businesses on a local currency basis. Hematology was up by 13.7%. Hemostasis was up by 6.8%. Urinalysis was up by 3.8%. Immunochemistry was up by 15.9%. In China, we received a regulatory approval for breast cancer lymph node metastasis testing system using OSNA method in December.
We expect to start selling this system in Q4. Let me also explain our situation regarding the new coronavirus pneumonia. With the outbreak of coronavirus, there's been increasing demand for hematology testing and CRPs in China. The number of installation and delivery requests increased for hematology instruments and reagents from some hospitals, and we are addressing them one by one. At this point of time, there is no major impact on our production and supply. Please turn to the next page. A-team. Sales were JPY 19.8 billion, up by 12.1%. Sales increased due to the hematology sales growth in India, where sales structure was changed from April, and hematology reagent sales growth, mainly in Southeast and South Asia. Instrument sales grew, driven by hematology in India and Thailand.
Reagent sales grew because of the sales growth in immunochemistry reagents, in addition to hematology reagent sales growth driven by the continuous spread of dengue fever, mainly in Southeast and South Asia. Sales growth by regions. Southeast Asia increased by 18.3%. South Asia was up by 29.3%. South Korea and Taiwan was down by 1.6%. South Korean business increased by 9.8% on a local currency basis, but the area sales declined because of the yen appreciation and the impact of last year's large project in Taiwan. In some areas, we still see an existence of dengue fever, which creates continued high demand for hematology testing. Please turn to the next page. Japan. Sales were JPY 33.9 billion, up by 6.8%. Sales grew due to the instrument sales growth in hematology and hemostasis, along with the reagent sales growth by the increased number of instrument installation bases. Instrument business increased by 18.3%.
Sales increased because of a large project in hematology, along with the solid performance of new instrument products for hemostasis. Reagent sales increased by 4.6% due to the reagent growth in hemostasis and immunochemistry. Service and other grew by 3.8% due to the increased number of NCC Oncopanel contracted testings, which started in June. Please turn to the next page. Consolidated earnings forecast. There is no change to the November forecast. This concludes my presentation.