Thank you very much for your support to Yamaha's business activities. Moreover, thank you very much for participating in our briefing today, sparing your precious time. Now I'd like to start the explanation of the full year results for the fiscal year ending March 2022. Here are the highlights. As the market continued to recover from the impact of COVID-19, we achieved an increase in both the revenue and profits year-over-year. In the meantime, we continually face the supply shortages due to the semiconductor procurement difficulties. That issue is still ongoing. As for the core operating profit, even though we suffered from the rise of various costs, we achieved an increase helped by the higher revenue. With regards to this fiscal year's forecast, we're continually anticipating the impact of semiconductor procurement difficulties, especially affecting our audio equipment business.
Since the musical instruments supply shortages would be eased, we are projecting a rise in both the revenue and profit. Now, here are the numerical results of the FY March 2022. We achieved an increase in both the revenue and profits, with a revenue of JPY 408.2 billion, which turned out to be higher than the revised forecast that we announced after the Q3 . It was the outcome of our efforts in various parts procurement activities and the favorable foreign exchange rates. In addition, we tried to sell everything at hand and actively sold all the slow-moving inventories. As a result, we achieved a result exceeding the forecast. The core operating profit also turned out to be slightly higher than the guidance. The major reason was the increase in sales.
On the other hand, compared against the previous forecast, the SG&A turned out to be higher. This is because anticipating the continued revenue growth, we spent extra strategic investments, namely IT investment. Also, due to the increased variable cost accompanying the sales increase and some provisioning that we had to make, the SG&A increased. As a result, the core operating profit became JPY 43 billion. Per each business segment, the musical instruments achieved the results that were basically in line with the Q3 forecast. Actually, the revenue turned out to be slightly higher than the forecast, but the core operating profit was almost in line with the expectation. Meanwhile, the audio equipment made further progress in addressing the various issues at hand, so we achieved an upside in the revenue compared against the forecast. Accordingly, the core operating profit also improved.
Right after the Q3 , we estimated the profit to be zero, but we managed to achieve a positive profit after all. As for the industrial machinery and components, IMC business and others, it was basically in line with the projection after the Q3 . We achieved a little upside in the core operating profit. Next, regarding this fiscal year's outlook, the revenue is projected to be JPY 440 billion, and the core operating profit is projected to be JPY 50 billion. We are expecting a year-on-year increase in both the revenue and profit. This is including some assumptions for the ongoing semiconductor supply issues to the extent that we can foresee at this moment. Especially the audio equipment can achieve much higher results without the semiconductor issue, but we include a more realistic assumption. Another concern is the lockdown in Shanghai.
The factory operation has been severely affected, and the sales distribution activities in April were far from the satisfactory level. Such factors are also included in the guidance. However, if the lockdown prolongs, it could bring about downside to our performances. Here are the factors making up the projected core operating profit of JPY 50 billion. The most prominent contributor will be the increase in sales and production and model mix, et cetera. On the other hand, the material cost increase and the ocean freight charges, which were already rising sharply in the previous year, are not getting any lower, but actually getting higher. We expect the negative impact to be about JPY 4 billion. In addition to such positives and negatives, we must also expect an increase of the SG&A.
This is because the variable cost increase accompanying the revenue growth and some fixed cost increase should be counted in. In total, the net growth of JPY 7 billion is expected for the core operating profit. Per each business segment, the musical instruments is expected to achieve further increase of revenue year-on-year, accompanied by the further core operating profit increase. With that, the profit ratio is expected to improve by 0.7 points to 14.2%. The audio equipment would continually be impacted by the semiconductor supply issue. Therefore, even though we are expecting a slight improvement year-on-year, we are continually anticipating the business situation to be tough. Regarding IMC business and others, since we have been making good progress in various business developments, we are expecting the revenue to grow.
However, this business would also be affected by the semiconductor cost increase, so the core operating profit growth would be flattish according to our assumptions. Here are the key management figures. Unfortunately, we could not meet the financial targets that we set forth in the midterm plan. That was the conclusive result of the previous midterm plan. However, as I would explain in details later, various non-financial targets were met successfully. From here on, I'd like to give you the detailed updates of each business segment. First, in the musical instruments business, we achieved revenue increase in all the product categories, especially the pianos grew well, and the wind, string, and percussion instruments, which struggled very much in the previous year, achieved a positive growth. The guitars continually achieved positive growth throughout the three-year midterm period.
The core operating profit grew year-on-year and is expected to improve further this fiscal year. These bar charts indicate the revenue of each product category, and all of these have achieved and are expected to achieve good recovery or growth year-on-year. It is likewise for each region. All the regions are expected to continually achieve revenue growth. Here are some of the distinctive products that we launched for your reference. Now I'd like to move on to the audio equipment business. Again, this business was impacted very much by the semiconductor procurement difficulties, and the revenue declined year-on-year. This year, we are expecting a slight improvement, but we must continue to anticipate the difficulties.
The core operating profit, which was JPY 1.5 billion in FY March 2022, is expected to improve a little this year, but we would still be far from the profit margin, which we used to enjoy. As for this semiconductor shortage issue, we are assuming that it would continue to impact us heavily until the end of this fiscal year, and it may even haunt us until the first half of the next fiscal year. Yet, as for its impact on the musical instruments, we have already minimized it almost completely by changing the design and others, so there should be very little impact this year. Here are the performances per each product category. As you can obviously see, the AV products were affected tremendously by the supply shortage.
Sales already dropped very much in FY March 2022. It is likely to drop further this fiscal year. This drop is not due to the market conditions whatsoever. It is completely due to the shortage of semiconductors. It is likewise per each region, especially in the regions where the AV products sales mix is high, such as North America. We cannot expect much recovery continually. In Japan, the PA equipment sluggishness is affecting our installation service company too, and it is still difficult to expect much recovery. Yet, we have been developing and launching various new products, as you see here. Now, the Others/IMC segment had achieved and is expected to achieve good growth continually. Especially with the improvement of the market conditions, the sales of the electronic devices and the automobile interior wood components are increasing steadily.
Meanwhile, the factory automation equipment sales declined due to the unfavorable market conditions. This fiscal year, we are especially expecting an expansion of the automotive related business, but the growth may be constrained by the impact of the semiconductor shortage issue. The operating profit will also be affected by the supply shortage and the rising cost. So the year-on-year growth is expected to be almost flat. As for the other financial figures, here's the balance sheet summary. There is not much to note except for one thing. In the previous fiscal year, we sold some of the shares of Yamaha Motor and therefore the cash balance increased. Since we have not paid the tax yet, this fiscal year's cash flow will see that impact. Other than that, there is nothing much to mention.
Regarding the capital expenditure and depreciation, since we had saved and minimized the investment in the past two years, we are going to ramp up the CapEx this year to JPY 25.6 billion. It may seem like a big jump, but it is because we really squeezed the investments in FY March 2021 and 2022, and all the postponed investments will have to be made this year. The R&D expense will be about the same level as the usual years. Our ESG initiatives have been appreciated and recognized in various areas. This is including the selection in various indices, such as the Health and Productivity Stock Selection. Furthermore, our brand value has been well-recognized, and with the steady improvement, Yamaha brand rose to number 28 in the Best Japan Brands 2022. The return to shareholders is as you see here.
During the midterm period, we have upheld the total return ratio target of 50%, and it actually turned out to be 78.8%. This is including the effect of the share buyback with the proceeds from the selling of Yamaha Motor's shares. We are happy to have realized such a high level returns to the shareholders. In the appendix, we are also showing the results of the Q4 alone for your reference. That concludes a quick overview of the results and forecast, as I would also like to explain about the new midterm plan hereafter. Thank you.