China Japan Photo: VCG

Japan's exports to China jumped 29.2 percent year-on-year in January, a key driver of its overall export increase for the month, Japanese media outlet Nikkei reported on Wednesday. 

The expanded exports reflected increasing Chinese demand and its economic recovery. The figure also highlighted the deep economic integration between the two countries and showed that the bilateral economic ties are difficult to break, experts said.

Japan's exports rose 11.9 percent from a year earlier to 7.33 trillion yen ($48.87 billion) in January, marking the second straight month of growth, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Wednesday.

Robust exports helped the country halve its monthly trade deficit from a year earlier to 1.76 trillion yen.

Among major export destinations, China-bound shipments grew 29.2 percent, while exports to the US increased by 15.6 percent.

A surge of nearly 30 percent in Japan's exports to China showed that Japanese companies are not willing to follow the decoupling moves of the US, Zhang Jifeng, a former vice director of the Institute of Japanese Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Zhang noted that major traded commodities between China and Japan are chips, semiconductor components, complete sets of equipment and transportation machinery.

Forming a "small yard, high wall" and using measures to strengthen export controls on China are untenable in the face of business profits, Zhang said.

Japan announced in March 2023 a draft revision to a ministry ordinance on its Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act, adding 23 chipmaking items that require government approval for export. The list included equipment for cleaning, monitoring and lithography, a technology essential in producing cutting-edge chips. It took effect in July.

The high-quality development of the Chinese economy and its huge domestic market will continue to drive China-Japan economic and trade cooperation, Zhang said.

A white paper released by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China in January showed that more than half of the surveyed Japanese companies increased or maintained investment in China last year, underlying the resilience of the Chinese market.

Strengthening bilateral economic and trade cooperation is in the fundamental interests of the people of both countries and in line with the trend of the times, Zhang said.