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TOKYO -- Japan depends heavily on a single country, often China, for imports of many more types of consumer and industrial products than do Tokyo's Group of Seven peers, a government white paper shows. The report released in July 2024 analyzed 2022 trade data on around 4,300 items imported by Japan, the U.S. and Germany, as well as the G7 overall. It applied the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI), a measure of market concentration in which a reading above 50 for a given product means one specific country accounts for more than half of imports.
Japan scored above 50 on the HHI for nearly 40% of these products, which range from computers to chemicals. This compared with about 5% of items for the G7 as a whole, around 10% for Germany and 20% for the U.S.
The single supplier is often China. This is especially true of Japan, where China supplied more than 50% of imports in value terms for 1,406 specific items, over 30% of the roughly 4,300 products studied. The U.S. provided a majority of Japanese imports for 252 items while South Korea ranked third at 151, according to the report.
The U.S. had 567 products for which China had a reading above 50. Germany's tally was even lower at 221.
Products with heavy dependence on China include laptop computers, air conditioners, organic chemicals and rare-earth metals. More than 90% of Japan's imports of home appliances such as laptops and washing machines come from China, trade data shows, and the country is also a key supplier of phosphorus, a crucial ingredient in fertilizer.
Japan also trails G7 peers when it comes to having diverse supplies when measured by the share of products where no one country owns the majority share of the imports, and at least four countries supply the goods.
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https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Trade/Ja...0-of-goods
Japan scored above 50 on the HHI for nearly 40% of these products, which range from computers to chemicals. This compared with about 5% of items for the G7 as a whole, around 10% for Germany and 20% for the U.S.
The single supplier is often China. This is especially true of Japan, where China supplied more than 50% of imports in value terms for 1,406 specific items, over 30% of the roughly 4,300 products studied. The U.S. provided a majority of Japanese imports for 252 items while South Korea ranked third at 151, according to the report.
The U.S. had 567 products for which China had a reading above 50. Germany's tally was even lower at 221.
Products with heavy dependence on China include laptop computers, air conditioners, organic chemicals and rare-earth metals. More than 90% of Japan's imports of home appliances such as laptops and washing machines come from China, trade data shows, and the country is also a key supplier of phosphorus, a crucial ingredient in fertilizer.
Japan also trails G7 peers when it comes to having diverse supplies when measured by the share of products where no one country owns the majority share of the imports, and at least four countries supply the goods.
 https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Trade/Ja...0-of-goods
You've got friendly neighbours? Grow Up! - 李光耀 2013
