More Japanese companies expected to increase business in China

In the next one to two years, an increasing number of Japanese companies are expected to expand business in China, with better profit outcomes in 2018, according to a white paper unveiled on Wednesday in Beijing, by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China.

About 71.7 percent of Japanese companies in China estimated in the survey conducted late last year that they made a profit in 2018, and a total of 48.7 percent plan to expand their business within the next two years, the highest amount in recent years, while about 44.8 percent plan to maintain the status quo, according to the white paper.

That reflects Japanese enterprises' increasing willingness to expand business in China, said Motoo Ono, the chamber's chairman, during a media conference held in Beijing on Wednesday to release the white paper.

The chamber started surveying Japanese companies in China to release white papers in 1998, and in 2015 it observed the lowest rate of Japanese companies in China wanting to expand business, with about 38.1 percent.

The figure climbed to 40.1 percent in 2016, and rose spectacularly to 48.3 percent in 2017.

The white paper, based on a survey on 8,765 Japanese companies in China, lists 470 suggestions from Japanese companies in China to the Chinese government.

China's first national foreign investment law, to be enforced in January 2020, covers the core suggestions of the white paper that are related to the establishment of the modern market mechanism, deepening reforms in administrative institutions, and further opening-up, according to Ono.

He said Japanese enterprises are looking forward to the enforcement of the law, which will help further open up the Chinese market, and will have great influence on Japanese companies.

The Chinese market is and will continue to be among the most important markets in the world for Japanese companies, despite uncertainties in the world economy and increasing labor costs, he said.

According to data from China's Ministry of Commerce, Japan invested $3.81 billion in China in 2017, an increase of 16.5 percent year-on-year.