Japan, as one of the world's economic powerhouses, is still a consumer market with great potential despite its economic stagnation and decline in recent years. Compared with other countries, it has its own characteristics in terms of commodity structure, market competition, management and seasonality.
In the series of quality overseas markets?
In the Quality Overseas Markets series, we've already covered the Korean market, and this week let's focus on our other neighbor, Japan.
Japan
The country of Japan (Japanese: にほんこく; English: Japan), referred to as "Japan". Japan is located in the eastern part of the Asian continent, the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean, with a land area of about 378,000 square kilometers, including Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, four large islands and more than 6,800 other small islands, and therefore also known as the "country of a thousand islands.
Japan's capital is Tokyo, the main ethnic group is the Yamato, and the Japanese language is commonly used, with a total population of about 124 million (2019 data).
Japan has three major metropolitan areas, the Tokyo metropolitan area, the Osaka metropolitan area, and the Nagoya metropolitan area.
Japan's Foreign Trade
01
Trade Scale
According to Japan Customs, Japan's exports and imports of goods amounted to $14262.7 billion in 2019, a decrease of 4.1% from $14865.7 billion in 2018.? Among them, Japan's exports of goods amounted to 705.53 billion U.S. dollars, down 4.4%; Japan's imports of goods amounted to 720.74 billion U.S. dollars, down 3.7%. Trade deficit of 15.21 billion U.S. dollars.
02
Industrial situation
By country (region), the United States, China and South Korea are Japan's top three export trading partners , Japan's exports to the three countries in 2019 139.80 billion U.S. dollars, 134.69 billion U.S. dollars and 46.25 billion U.S. dollars, a decline of 0.2%, 6.4% and 11.9%, accounting for 19.8%, 19.1% and 11.9% of Japan's total exports.
Japanese imports decreased by 0.2%, 6.4% and 11.9%, accounting for 19.8%, 19.1% and 6.6% of Japan's total exports.
The top-ranking countries for Japan's imports are China, the United States, and Australia, in that order, with Japan importing $169.22 billion, $79.08 billion, and $45.45 billion from the three countries in 2019, down by 2.5%, 3.1%, and 0.6%, respectively, and accounting for 23.5%, 11.0%, and 6.3% of Japan's total imports.
The main sources of Japan's trade deficit in 2019 are China, Australia and Middle Eastern oil-producing countries. The United States, Hong Kong, China, and South Korea are the top three sources of Japan's trade surplus, with surpluses of $60.72 billion, $31.56 billion, and $16.64 billion in 2019, respectively.
03
Commodity structure of import and export trade
Sub-commodity, electromechanical products, transportation equipment and chemical products are Japan's main export commodities, exports in 2019 for 240.05 billion U.S. dollars, 167.84 billion U.S. dollars and 61.55 billion U.S. dollars, electromechanical products, transportation equipment, respectively, decreased by 6.7%, 2.8%, and the chemical product growth of 0.8%, accounting for 34.0%, 23.8% and 8.7% of Japan's total exports.
Mineral products, electromechanical products and chemical products are the top three categories of Japanese imports , with imports of $179.04 billion, $169.27 billion and $64.98 billion in 2019, a decline of 9.7 percent, 2.7 percent and 3.0 percent, accounting for 24.8 percent, 23.5 percent and 9.0 percent of Japan's total imports.
Japan's three major categories of imports of goods, country / region composition, including electromechanical products imports mainly from China, Japan's imports of electromechanical products from China amounted to 78,109 million U.S. dollars, accounting for Japan's total imports of electromechanical products amounted to 46.1 percent.
Bilateral trade between China and Japan
According to Japan Customs, the bilateral import and export value of goods between Japan and China in 2019 was 303.91 billion U.S. dollars, a decline of 4.3%. Among them, Japan's exports to China amounted to $134.69 billion, down 6.4%; imports from China amounted to $169.22 billion, down 2.5%. Japan's trade deficit with China is 34.53 billion U.S. dollars.
The main products of Japan's exports to China are electromechanical products, chemical products and transportation equipment, with the export value of $54.88 billion, $16.89 billion and $13.82 billion in 2019, of which electromechanical products exports declined by 11.5%, chemical products exports increased by 2.3%, and transportation equipment exports declined by 0.7%, which accounted for 40.7%, 12.5%, and 10.5% of Japan's total exports to China. The export of chemical products increased by 2.3% and the export of transportation equipment decreased by 0.7%, accounting for 40.7%, 12.5% and 10.3% of Japan's total export to China.
Japan's main imports from China are electromechanical products, textiles and raw materials, and furniture, toys, miscellaneous products , which amounted to $78.11 billion, $20.67 billion, and $10.51 billion in 2019, down 1.0%, 5.5%, and 2.3%, respectively, and accounted for 46.2%, 12.2%, and 6.2% of Japan's total imports from China.
In the Japanese market, China's labor-intensive products still occupy a greater advantage, such as textiles and raw materials, shoes, boots, umbrellas and bags and other light industrial products, these products in Japan's imports of the market share of about 60%, in these products, China's main competitors from Asian countries and regions (such as Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan Province of China), as well as Italy, the United States and other countries.
Characteristics of Japanese businessmen
China and Japan have strong economic complementarities and are important trading partners. When carrying out trade cooperation with Japan, you should know more about the key points of concern of Japanese businessmen.
01
Product quality
Japanese businessmen have always been known for their strict product quality requirements and picky customers. Sino-Japanese trade has developed over the years, and has formed an inseparable trend with each other, and now Chinese goods have firmly occupied a place in the Japanese market. However, in recent years, some trade disputes caused by product quality have been reported by the media, leading to negative social impacts and damaging the reputation of Chinese export products in the Japanese market. Therefore, we should always put product quality in the first place, strictly control the safety and quality of products to ensure that the market recognition of products.
02
Emphasis on enterprise reputation
Japanese merchants attach importance to reputation, and most of them value long-term cooperative relations. On the basis of smooth cooperation between the two sides in the early stage of trade, it is generally easy to form a long-term stable trade relations. Chinese enterprises should fully grasp the characteristics of Japanese enterprises, honest and law-abiding in business activities, to win the respect and trust of the other party, and constantly consolidate and strengthen the foundation of long-term cooperation with Japanese enterprises.
03
Pay attention to business etiquette
Japanese businessmen generally behave very politely and implicitly in business activities, dress formally and appropriately, and negotiate well-prepared, serious and rigorous. But sometimes slightly ambiguous attitude, do not clearly agree or reject each other, leaving some room for maneuver. In the process of interaction with Japanese businessmen, we should pay attention to dress properly, polite attitude, familiar with the business, distinctive attitude.
04
Taking care of the etiquette
Taking care of the etiquette is the Japanese custom, usually people always meet each other bow, and say "hello", "goodbye", "" please take care of "and so on. Please take care" and so on. Japanese people attach great importance to exchanging business cards when they meet for the first time. If you don't bring a business card with you when you first meet, you will not only be rude, but the other person will also think that you are not a good person to talk to. When exchanging business cards, bow and receive the card with both hands. Receive each other's business cards, to read carefully, see each other's identity, position, company, with a nod of the head to indicate that the identity of the other party has been clear.
Japan's cross-border e-commerce market potential
Japan is the world's fourth-largest e-commerce market, Rakuten (Rakuten), Amazon and Yahoo! Shopping (Yahoo! Shopping) composed of Japan's e-commerce market, "the big three". However, Japan is one of the developed countries with low cross-border shopping rate. For cross-border e-commerce, Japan is still a blue ocean market is exploding.
01
High Internet coverage
Japan's Internet coverage reached 94%, online shopping users also accounted for 65% of the total population of Japan. It is reported that the current Japanese population of 124 million, daily independent IP access to Amazon up to 40 million, the flow is equivalent to Germany, is the United States 1/4.
02
E-commerce market value is high
Japan's e-commerce economic development is also very stable, according to the data shows that it is expected that by 2022, Japan's e-commerce market is worth more than 113 billion U.S. dollars.
03
Strong online shopping ability
Japanese people are very strong online shoppers. According to the survey, 60% of Japanese Internet users shop online once a month. Japan's per capita online shopping consumption amounted to 1164 U.S. dollars, equivalent to China's per capita consumption of two times, and exceeded the U.S. per capita online shopping consumption.
04
Three types of products are popular
Japan's cross-border e-commerce market is more hot products are jewelry, necklaces, bracelets, earrings in the whole of Japan's sales are relatively good; apparel, such as fashionable and popular dresses, trench coats, high-heeled shoes; 3C electronics, such as drones, Bluetooth headsets, stereos, watches, juicers, face mask machines, beauty instruments and so on.
Attachment: Consumption Habits of Japanese Consumers
Japanese consumers have the following characteristics:
01
High Repurchase Rate
Japanese consumers have a very high degree of loyalty to the brand, and once a brand is recognized, there will be a great deal of dependence on the brand, and the repurchase rate will naturally be high.
02
Low return rate
The Japanese are known for their strictness, and they are just as strict in their shopping behavior, once they have chosen a product, they will rarely return it.
03
High retention rate
This is also due to the rigorous attitude of the Japanese people, after the purchase of goods, if the goods are satisfied with the goods, they will also be rigorous with the evaluation of the goods, the goods to make a true evaluation.
04
High demand for commodities
The Japanese have high demand for commodities, not only for the quality, but also for the form and effect of the display of commodities.
05
High Holiday Consumption
Important holiday seasons often lead to peaks in consumption, and on the Monday of the second week of January every year, when the whole country goes on vacation, products such as apparel and jewelry can cause a boom in sales. In Japan, bonuses are paid out in July and December each year in amounts no less than three months' salary, so July and December are peak shopping months; and Amazon's July store celebration, as well as December's holiday season - Christmas, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday - coincide with such market realities.
This is what the Japanese marketplace is all about.