AGN Live Country Guides

Doing Business in Japan

Published in June 2016

Japan is the world's third largest economy. It has 127 million people and scares on natural resources, which explains why the country has traditionally been highly dependent on raw materials imports, being the largest importer in the world. The economy has been strong during the last 70 years due to the combination of a government that has been supportive to the industry development, a strong work ethic of the Japanese culture, high specialization on technology and small defence allocation.

Japan has a good urban infrastructure and you will enjoy the low office rental costs. The World Bank rates their income category as High, with GDP of US$ 4.875T in 2014, and a GDP per capita of US$ 36.620. The GDP growth has experienced significant changes on last years: -0.5% in 2011, 1.8% in 2012, 1.6% 2013, -0.1% in 2014 and 1.3% in 2015. Japan is the fourth largest exporter in the world, exporting Cars ($93.3B), Vehicle Parts ($33.9B), Integrated Circuits ($31.1B), Industrial Printers ($15.2B) and Refined Petroleum ($12.7B). They are the largest importer in the world, buying mainly to China (22%), the United States (9%) and Australia (5.7%). Japan is buying Crude Petroleum (15%) and Petroleum Gas (11%). In 2014 Japan was qualified as largest foreign direct investor in the US (FDI), investing almost $45B.

Member of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), part of the free and fair economic zone, makes it easier for Japan to be a good exporter and importer. The main challenges of the country are the high national debt that is reaching 240% of their GDP, and also an ageing population, 21% being over 65 years old and low birth rate. Doing business rank 2016 (World Bank): 34 Relationships with international businesses continue. In order to avoid the 'redundancy' risk of the use of static data about various countries, this portal incorporates various live data feeds from:

• The World Bank
• The observatory of Economic Complexity

The intention is to provide access to live information extracted from the regularly refreshed databases maintained by these organisations.

Use the navigations buttons below to access to more live data:
Inflation, Development indicators, Exports, Trade Balance, and more.

World Bank Development Indicators

Exports

This graph is taken from The Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC). Products, represented by rectangles, are drawn from the 775 individual product classes found in the Standardized International Trade Code.

This graph shows volumes of goods exported from Japan.

Visit the source: OEC  CC BY-SA 3.0 / AS

Imports

This graph is taken from The Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC). Products, represented by rectangles, are drawn from the 775 individual product classes found in the Standardized International Trade Code.

This graph shows volumes of goods imported into Japan.

Visit the source: OEC  CC BY-SA 3.0 / AS

Trade Balance

This graph is taken from The Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC).

This graph illustrates the subsequent trade balance of exports and imports to and from Japan.

Visit the source: OEC  CC BY-SA 3.0 / AS

Destinations

This graph is taken from The Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC).

This graph shows the destinations of goods and services by country.

Visit the source: OEC  CC BY-SA 3.0 / AS

Business Opportunities in Asia Pacific:

Vietnam features at No3 in the top 5 best countries to invest in (August 2016)

Recently free trade agreements have been signed with the European Union and 11 members of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). Most economic indicators show resilience and point towards a continued and pro-longed period of growth.
As a rising middle class country Vietnam offers many interesting business opportunities. Vietnamese population is a young one with the average age of the Vietnamese people being around 29. Due to the Confucian way of thinking education is highly valued and these young people have a reputation for being very eager to learn and are hard workers. English is the most commonly used language for educational studies and so the language barrier is not often an issue. Economic growth is stable and the country enjoys a stable political environment.

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Top 5 Foreign Direct Investment (June 2016)

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) accounts for approximately 11% of global GDP and more than 80 million jobs worldwide. There are four critical motivators that drive companies to pursue direct investment in foreign countries:
Natural resource seeking, which speaks for itself. Market-seeking e.g. to gain access to new customers. Efficiency-seeking to reduce production costs by gaining access to new technologies or competitively priced inputs, and finally strategic-asset seeking such as valuable brands, new technologies, or distribution channels.

THE TOP 5 BEST COUNTRIES TO INVEST ARE:
NO 5 - IRELAND - Many viewed Ireland's tax environment as one of the best in the world, scoring just behind Luxembourg and Panama. Business starts ups get 3 years tax free and then move to a 12.5% rate, which is practically half the global average.
NO 4 - INDONESIA - Due to oil and massive reserves of other natural resources Indonesia has one of the biggest economies in the world. The Indonesian government are pursuing a radical agenda of reforms to assist FDI.
NO 3 - VIETNAM - Recently free trade agreements have been signed with the European Union and 11 members of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Most economic indicators show resilience and point towards a good period of growth.
NO 2 - SINGAPORE - Educated citizens and intellectual property protection law, along with large ex-pat communities make Singapore an attractive launch pad into the broader Asia region.
NO 1 - INDIA - Recently outperforming china as the top recipient of FDI in 2015, the governments campaigns to create favorable investment conditions in 25 key sectors, and the hugely successful Make in India campaign, have both contributed to India taking the number 1 slot.

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Big boost for business Start Ups in India...? (March 2016)

If you are looking for ways to develop your business in India, or you are seeking a supportive environment in which to innovate, this might be an option.
The Start-up India Action Plan is a set of structural and regulatory reforms designed to protect start ups in the face of aggressive anti competitive strategies from large established corporates.

A ‘startup’ is judged to be an entity that is headquartered in India and was started less than five years ago. It needs to have an annual turnover less than US$3.7 million. It can be foreign owned, or initiated by entrepreneurs from outside of India.

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