‘Neither practical nor feasible’

“All factors considered, no country in the world can completely replace China,” Izumikawa stressed. He said that voices advocating for Japan’s “decoupling” from China come from those who misunderstand China under the hype generated by certain Western media pundits and politicians. Such a move is, however, not in the best interests of Japanese companies.

Rather, Japanese companies do not want to be trapped by political interests, nor do they want to be involved in the “retaliatory economic war” that the US and Japan have initiated against China, he said. For Japan, a commercial “decoupling” from China is neither realistic nor feasible.

But Japanese companies’ appreciation of the Chinese market has not faded. Hideki Ozawa, head of Canon China, told the Global Times that his company has participated in the China International Import Expo (CIIE) for the last five consecutive years. He said that this year marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of Canon China. In retrospect, Canon’s rapid development in China in the last 25 years could not have been achieved without the support and care of the Chinese government, partners, and consumers, he said.

When All Nippon Airways (ANA) launched its China-Japan route in 1987, most of the passengers were

Japanese. But over the last decade, with China’s rapid economic growth and increasing people-to-people exchanges between the two countries, the demographic trend of Chinese and Japanese tourists has been reversed, with Chinese passengers having accounted for more than 60 percent of the total before the COVID-19 global pandemic, Yuzo Hara, senior executive director of ANA and president of its Chinese branch of the airline, told the Global Times.

The international and domestic situation in Japan are still in great turmoil, and the Japanese government needs more time to think about how to get along with China, Izumikawa said. “In this context, it is important to expand economic cooperation between the two countries, which is highly complementary, and to make the Japanese government and society realize the importance of China. At no time should normal economic and trade cooperation be used as a political ‘playing

card.’”