MORE Japanese firms are expanding business in Southeast Asia and scaling down operations in China due to its escalating tensions with the United States, reported Vietnam News Agency.

Japan External Trade Organisation’s new trade and investment report quoted its survey conducted late last year as saying that 41% of Japanese companies are considering expanding operations in Vietnam in the next three years or so, up 5.5 percentage points from a year earlier, and 36.3% of respondents had given a similar answer for Thailand, up 1.5 percentage points.

Meanwhile, 48.1% said they would boost business in China, down 7.3 percentage points.

Since 2018, an intensified confrontation between the US and China has pushed up Japanese companies’ investment in Asean, added the report.

The gap between the amount of Japanese investment into Asean and China increased to 20.4 billion yen (RM800 million) in 2019 from 10.2 billion yen in 2017.

The Covid-19 pandemic has significantly reduced Japanese investment in the Asian market, as well.

In the first five months of this year, Japanese investment in Asean dropped by 35.5%. – Bernama, August 17, 2020.