China takes over U.S. as Japan’s largest export market
Japan’s exports to China rose 16.8% year-on-year - the highest level since Tokyo began tracking the statistic - while shipments to the US fell 11.5%, a report from Japan’s Finance Ministry said. Overall, Japanese exports climbed 8.1% in the month. As the US economic slowdown intensifies, Japanese companies, including Honda and Komatsu, increasingly look to China for growth. Honda, for example, announced double-digit increases in its China sales in the three months to June, compared with a 5% fall in the US.
Shawn in Tokyo on Tue, 26th Aug 2008 11:44 pm
Leading up to this, Japan has been pouring in record FDI to China:
http://asiagander.typepad.com/asia_gander/2006/04/japan_fdi_in_ch.html
I have to imagine that a good deal of these export numbers include an increasing number of products and materials required for Japanese companies operating in China, and not purely finished goods for the Chinese market. At the same time, Japanese companies in the US have ramped up enough manufacturing and sourcing capacity in the US to enable reducing exports directly from Japan (this is somewhat projection on my part based on my experience working for a Japanese manufacturer 4 years in the US).