Japanese companies will remain committed to the Chinese market over the long term as they expect the country's market scale, growth prospects and business opportunities to outweigh fluctuations in bilateral ties, said executives and market watchers.
They said Japanese investment in China is an integral part of global industrial specialization, with economic spillovers from these investments helping support China's industrial upgrading. The two countries remain deeply interconnected through their economic and supply-chain linkages.
Despite headwinds in Sino-Japanese relations occurring since late last year, the proportion of Japanese-funded businesses in China choosing to stay committed to the market is as high as about 85 percent, said a white paper issued by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China last week.
According to the chamber, China hosts about 30,000 of the more than 70,000 overseas affiliates operated by Japanese companies worldwide.
Tetsuro Homma, the chamber's president, said that China is no longer viewed simply as a vast consumer market by Japanese companies, but also as a vital manufacturing base and a hub of innovation.
