Press conference on the release of the "Japanese Business in China White Paper 2015" is held in Beijing on June 17, 2015. Kazuaki Tanaka (middle), chairman of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Yoshihisa Tabata (right), director-general of the Beijing office of the Japan External Trade Organization, addressed the media. (Photo: Ecns/Qian Ruisha)
(ECNS) – Japanese companies in China hope that clearer anti-monopoly guidelines and more transparency in other policies will help promote fair competition, according to a white paper analyzing the difficulties facing Japanese firms in China.
The "Japanese Business in China White Paper 2015," released Wednesday by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) in China, is the sixth since its first release in 2010. It covers the results of a survey of 8,874 Japanese companies operating in China.
What's new in this year's white paper, according to chamber chairman Kazuaki Tanaka at a press conference on Wednesday, is the callout for clear competition laws.
"A lack of detailed guidelines for regulations set out in Article 17 of the Anti-Monopoly Law (abuse of dominant market positions), and unclear boundaries between legal and illegal cases, have resulted in increased discretion by the authorities and the impeding of corporate activities," the white paper reads.
"We'd like to request the Chinese government to clarify these insufficient guidelines," Tanaka said, adding that Japanese firms in China will otherwise be lost as to what they should and shouldn't do.
In August 2014, China levied a record antitrust fine of $200 million against 12 Japanese auto parts makers. According to the National Development and Reform Commission, these companies colluded over prices of 13 components used on 20 car models.
The white paper also shows dismal trade and investment numbers.
According to statistics by the Japan External Trade Organization, trade volume between China and Japan stood at $79.25 million in 2014, down 0.8 percent year-on-year. Japanese exports dropped 2 percent to $82.8 million, while imports rose a slight 0.1 percent to $96.46 million. Rise of labor costs was the most cited reason for the decline in bilateral trade.
Japan scaled back its investment in China by a whopping 38.8 percent to $4.33 billion in 2014, according to China's Chamber of Commerce. In the first four months of 2015, Japanese investment in China stood at $1.44 million, a year-on-year fall of 7.8 percent.
"The figure was largely swayed by China's overall economic slowdown," said Yoshihisa Tabata, director-general of the Beijing office of the Japan External Trade Organization. "None of the firms surveyed said they want to pull out of China."
According to the paper, 46.5 percent of Japanese companies intend to expand their operations in China in the next two years, compared with 66.8 percent in 2011. Also, in 2014, more than 64 percent of the firms reported profit growth.
