China's booming market has opened more industries for Japanese investors and more investment from China to Japan should be welcomed, researchers said.
Japan’s dependence on China has grown stronger since 2000, when the Chinese economy began to blossom and rapidly develop, Tsugami Toshiya, a researcher at the Tsugami Workshop, said at the "Prospects for Sino-Japanese Relations: From the Past to the Future" forum on Wednesday in Beijing.
The forum was held in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the normalization of Sino-Japanese relations and hosted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
In 2011, the amount of trade between China and Japan reached a record $340 billion, from about $1 billion four decades ago.
China is now Japan’s largest trade partner and the second-largest destination for Japanese exports. Japan is China’s fourth-largest trade partner.
Japanese companies can play a bigger role by working with local partners in green industry, energy and environmental protection. This can lower their costs to compete with other foreign joint ventures from Europe and United States, Toshiya said.
Video games, cartoons and fashion are also new industries where young Japanese entrepreneurs can play a larger role, he added.
Jin Baisong, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce, said China’s trade dependence on Japan dropped to 7.6 percent in the first seven months this year from 25 percent during the peak period, while Japan’s trade dependence on China grew to 19.6 percent in the first seven months.
Jin said cooperation in high-speed rail between the two countries will make both very competitive players in the global market.
