Orix Corp. aims to expand its overseas assets by 12 percent this year to tap growing demand for machine tools, aircraft and ships in Asia as the domestic market slows.

The Tokyo-based company, Japan's largest equipment-leasing company, plans to spend ¥100 billion to add equipment for leasing and raise equity stakes in companies abroad to about ¥960 billion by March from ¥860 billion last fiscal year, Chief Financial Officer Haruyuki Urata said in an interview Tuesday.

Orix, whose businesses also include banking, real estate and brokering, aims to increase sales in China, India, Malaysia and Indonesia as Asia powers the global recovery. China, which overtook Japan to become the world's second-biggest economy in the second quarter, is the priority market, Urata said.

"We need to globalize our company at a much faster pace," he said. "China keeps us busy for the time being for our overseas business expansion, and is the main country in Asia that we are pouring financial resources into now."

Orix opened its Orix (China) Investment Co. unit in December in Dalian in a bid to boost leasing business, adding to its existing firms and joint ventures in China. Its business in China dates back to 1981, Urata said.

"Japanese companies have increasingly been entering Dalian's industrial complex, and they will be our most vital clients in addition to local Chinese businesses," he said.

The number of Japanese firms registered in Dalian increased 62 percent to 4,023 in 2009 from 2,476 in 2003, according to a report by the Japan External Trade Organization in April.

U.S. companies registered in the city totaled 1,569 last year, climbing 30 percent from six years earlier.

Orix, which operates golf courses as well as the Orix Buffaloes baseball team, earned 80 percent of revenue from home in the year ended March. "Our shareholders are expecting to see our efforts at competing more on the global stage," Urata said.