What makes Japanese exports so special?

According to the latest report, Japan’s trade surplus rose by 21% in October compared with the previous month. In column terms, Japan’s exports increased by 3.8% on a year ago, and the imports increased by 3.2%. Despite the fact of a weaker yen, the increase in its exports to China is another important factor that caused such increase in Japan’s trade surplus. Japan’s exports to China rose 26% on a year ago, and the demand from China has been shown very solid and would continue to contribute the Japanese economy. Although Japan’s exports to other nations also increased that the trade surplus with the US increased by 11%, the enormous demand from China is a major drive of the Japanese economy. China is a large international exporter, and often referred as “the world manufacturer”; then what makes China demand so many Japanese products, even when China is a large manufacturer already?

In China, there is still a myth that foreign products, especially those from more developed countries, have better qualities than domestic products do. In Asia, the economies that are more developed than the Chinese economy may only be the Japanese economy and the Korean economy. When comparing the Korean economy and the Japanese economy, the Japanese economy is more diversified that the Japanese economy is able to provide all types of products and services while the Korean economy seems to be more specialised in several particular sectors. Therefore, if Chinese want to demand products from these two countries, the demand for Japanese products and services is much more likely to be higher than the demand for Korean products and services. Moreover, standing at the Chinese people’s position, when they are comparing products and services across the world, the Japanese products and services are more preferred than the Western products and services, this makes the Japanese companies more likely to provide products that better match the Chinese people’s preferences. The culture differences seem narrower. For example, both Chinese people and Japanese people love eatin sticky rice, so the Japanese companies are more likely to produce the right type of rick cooker for the Chinese customers. Moreover, Asian people look different from people from other races, in terms of height, weight and skin colour and etc. Therefore, especially for clothing, the Japanese companies are more likely to design products that fit the Chinese people than the Western companies. Such biological difference does not only have impacts on the clothing and fashion industries, it also plays a role in other sectors as well, especially when ergonomics is becoming more and more important in our product designs. Moreover, when more people like using Japanese products, according to herding effect, more and more people would like to buy Japanese products. There is another important factor that makes people like using the Japanese products. It is that Japan still has a culture of craftsmanship, that it is able to produce handmade unique products. Under today’s highly industrialised environment, craftsmanship becomes an attractive selling point that matches the nature of people that we like to be different and unique from others.

However, it does not mean that the Japanese economy has no worry. The Chinese economy’s performance is able to affect the Japanese economy significant, as the demand from China is enormous. In addition, once the Chinese people become more confident in their domestic products and services, the growth in the demand for the Japanese products and services may slow down and even turn negative. But it is undeniable, in the Chinese economy, the Japanese products and services face relatively limited competitions at the moment, due to the natural advantages.