• Japan's headline 'flash' manufacturing index was slightly lower at 49.7 from 50.4 in March, its lowest level in a year. 
  
  
• New orders were weaker at 48.5 from 49.5 in March, and inventories also fell to 50.5 from 51.0. 
  
  
• The gap between these two continued falling to -2.0 from 1.5 in March. This suggests that Japan could still have further weakening.