Chinese internet users are showing interest in reports that Japanese companies are successively withdrawing from China.

On September 30, Chinese media outlet Guancha.cn reported, citing a report by the English newspaper South China Morning Post, on a report announced by Teikoku Databank on September 28.

According to the report, as of June this year, the number of Japanese companies operating in China was 10,118, the lowest level since 2010. Since the previous survey conducted in '24, 1,221 Japanese companies have newly entered the Chinese market, falling below the total number of companies that newly entered during the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of companies that have withdrawn from China, or whose business continuation could not be confirmed, was 4,137.

The article explained that the number of Japanese companies operating in China reached a peak of 14,394 in '12, and pointed out that "currently, it has decreased by about 30% from that time, and by 22% in the past two years alone." As reasons, it cited the deterioration of Japan-China relations due to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's remarks on "Taiwan contingency," the accompanying reduction of flights from China to Japan, a decrease in business exchanges, and price competition with Chinese companies.

In Japan, rising labor costs in China, concerns about the revised "Anti-Espionage Law," and China's real estate downturn are also cited as reasons, but these are not mentioned in the article.

The article also published an announcement from China's Ministry of Commerce stating, "China has consistently adhered to a high level of opening-up to the outside world and has strived to build a first-class business environment that is market-oriented, rule-of-law-based, and internationalized. Stable and healthy Japan-China economic and trade relations are in the common interest of the people of both countries. We once again urge the Japanese government to earnestly reflect on and correct its errors, and to create conditions for normal economic and trade cooperation between the two countries."

Comments from Chinese internet users include: "It's a normal phenomenon," "They simply didn't do well in China," "It's normal to be eliminated if you can't adapt to competition," "In the industrial relocation during the early to mid-stages of the trade war, Japan was more active and radical than Americans," "A country's image also affects the impression of its companies. That's a market principle," "Japanese automakers will also soon leave China one after another," and "Japanese companies, having lost the Chinese market, their only growth point, how far will they decline?" (Translated and edited by Kitada)