Conflicting views
Japan Times says that Japanese investment in China is on the wane:
Japanese investment in China, which dropped in the first half of 2007, is unlikely to pick up in the near future as manufacturers scale down investments in the country, a Japanese trade organization said Thursday.
Even as overall overseas Japanese investment more than doubled in the January-June period, that to China dropped 11.2 percent from a year earlier to ¥342.8 billion in the same period, a report by the Japan External Trade Organization’s Beijing office says.
The drop comes after a sharp rise in Japanese investment in China in the first half of this decade, particularly after the country’s entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001. “Manufacturers’ initial investments to China have been all but completed, and those in the future will be for enlarging existing facilities or for sales, so a major increase in the near future is not expected,” the report says…
In contrast to the drop in Japanese investment in China, that in Southeast Asia from January to June shot up 72.8 percent from a year earlier to ¥427.5 billion, while that in India quadrupled to ¥107.3 billion…
Meanwhile, the Peoples Daily has quite a different spin: “Over the years, Japan has invested up to 39,000 projects and as much as 60.8 billion US dollars of promised capital in China, making it the second largest source of foreign capital for China. Japanese companies have flourished in various sectors, all with highly complementary industries, sound management, and significant return…Since the 1980s, Japan’s investment in China has reached three heights. Currently, it is riding its third high tide.” Somebody’s fibbing, or some important facts have been left out.