Japan Inc has thrived in China of late
In 1977, five years after China and Japan re-established diplomatic relations, Miyakoshi, an electronics manufacturer, became the first Japanese firm to receive a business permit from the Communist Party, to make cassette-tape recorders. In 2017 around 32,000 Japanese companies had investments worth $117bn on the mainland, one of the biggest foreign corporate footprints. Last year they poured close to $11bn into China, up by half since 2010 and not far off America’s long-stagnating tally. Big listed Japanese firms derived 17% of their overseas profits from China, according to calculations by Jesper Koll, a fund manager in Tokyo.
1977年，中日两国恢复建交五年后，电子制造商日本宫腰成为了第一家在中国拿到营业执照的日本公司，生产磁带录音机。到2017年，中国大陆约有3.2万个日本公司，总投资1170亿美元。日本是在华投资最大的国家之一。去年，他们向中国投入了近110亿美元，比2010年增长了一半，距离美国长期停滞的投资量已经不远了。东京的基金经理杰斯珀·科尔的计算显示，日本大型上市公司的海外利润中有17%来自中国。
The rapport between the world’s second- and third-biggest economies has never been better. Last year Chinese officials paid a visit to Panasonic, Canon and Toyota in Japan to meet executives and lure their firms to new free-trade zones. A year ago Shinzo Abe, Japan’s prime minister, travelled to China, to a forum attended by 1,000 businesspeople. During the trip the two countries announced 500 deals worth more than $18bn. Yet for all the bonhomie, it is also an unusually delicate time for Japanese businesses in the People’s Republic.
世界第二大和第三大经济体的关系从未如此融洽过。去年中国官员访问了日本的松下，佳能和丰田，与他们的高管见面并欢迎他们的公司进入新的自由贸易区。一年前，日本首相安倍晋三来中国出席一个有1000个商人参加的论坛。访问期间，两国宣布了500笔交易，总价值超过180亿美元。然而，虽然有这些友善的信号，对于在中国的日本企业来说，现在也是一段异常微妙的时期。
The first reason is the changing nature of commercial relations between an enriched China and the world. Japan’s firms have navigated this shift well, displaying none of the overconfidence which bedevilled their gung-ho American misadventure in the 1980s. As Chinese labour has grown pricier, many have moved manufacturing to cheaper places in the region.uniqlo, a Japanese garment-maker, is one of a clutch to decamp to South-East Asia.
第一个原因是，随着中国逐渐富裕起来，其与世界的商业关系正在不断变化。日本公司已经很好地应对了这一转变。再也没有展示过他们的过度自信。过份自信曾让他们在1980年代的美国饱受折磨。随着中国劳动力价格上涨，许多公司将制造业转移到更廉价的地方。日本服装制造商优衣库就是撤离到东南亚的公司之一。
At the same time, many of the same companies have successfully turned themselves into desirable brands in China. Chinese shoppers covet uniqlo’s well-made clothes. Fed up with safety scandals at local producers, they prefer Japanese-branded snacks and beverages from Asahi or Yoshinoya or medical products made by Kobayashi. Kao, a Japanese consumer-goods firm, recently started making a premium version of its Merries nappies for the Chinese market only. This summer Toyota invested $600m in Didi Chuxing, a Chinese ride-hailing giant. Miyakoshi, which now sells property rather than cassette-players, generates all of its sales in China. Chinese consumption has gone “beyond the point of no return”, says Takeshi Niinami, the boss of Suntory, a giant Japanese distiller.
同时，许多相同的公司已成功地将自己转变为在中国受欢迎的品牌。中国的购物者垂涎着优衣库制作良好的衣服，他们受够了本地生产商的安全丑闻。因而更喜欢朝日或吉野家生产的日本品牌小吃和饮料，或小林制药的医用品。日本日用消费品公司花王最近开始生产只针对中国市场的高级版的Merries尿布。今年夏天，丰田向中国打车服务巨头滴滴出行投资了6亿美元。现在卖房地产而不是磁带播放机的日本宫腰公司，所有的销售都在中国。日本大型酿酒商三得利的老板新浪刚史说：“中国的消费量已经“到了无可挽回的地步”
Japanese wares appeal not only to China’s consumers but also to its corporations. In April Toyota agreed to sell electric-car technology to Singulato, a Chinese builder of low-emissions vehicles. In June it announced partnerships to build batteries with China’s catl, a technology company,and byd, a carmaker. When in 2015, jd.com decided to erect China’s largest hydroponics factory on the outskirts of Beijing, the Chinese e-commerce giant looked as far afield as Israel and the Netherlands for the right technology to regulate the temperature of its seedling rooms and soil-free vegetable beds. In the end, it settled for Mitsubishi Chemical. The Japanese firm has already helped build close to 20 factories like jd.com’s in China and aims to break ground on ten a year.
日本商品不仅吸引着中国消费者，也吸引着中国公司。4月，丰田同意将它的电动汽车技术出售给中国的低排放汽车制造商奇点。6月，它宣布和中国的科技公司宁德时代以及汽车制造商比亚迪建立伙伴关系来制造电池。2015年的时候，京东决定在京郊建造中国最大的水培工厂，这个中国电商巨头为了寻找控制秧苗和无土蔬菜植被温度的合适技术，找到了以色列和荷兰这么远的地方。到最后，它选择了三菱化学。这个日本公司已经在中国帮助了将近20个像京东这样的工厂，目标是每年10家工厂动工。
Japanese firms run into the same hurdles as others trying to do business in China. Bosses in Tokyo echo Western gripes about woolly, haphazardly enforced rules, a tax system skewed towards Chinese companies, unreliable courts and theft of intellectual property. But Japan’s government and industry groups may be doing more to help them than America’s or Europe’s do for theirs. Its embassy in Beijing and the Japan External Trade Organisation, an independent government agency, have employed ip experts to assist firms. Japanese advertisers have set up shop in China to help compatriots market to local tastes. Having had its fingers burned in China a few years ago, in May Rakuten, a Japanese e-commerce giant, opened an office in Dalian, a Chinese coastal city now home to some 1,500 Japanese companies.
日本公司遇到了和其他试图在中国开展业务的公司相同的障碍。东京的老板们和西方老板们都抱怨中国模糊的，随意的，强制施行的规则，偏向中国企业的税收政策，不可靠的法庭和知识产权盗窃。但是相比欧美国家，日本政府和行业组织会做更多来帮助日本公司。日本在北京的大使馆和独立的政府机构日本贸易振兴机构已经聘请了知识产权专家协助这些公司。日本广告商在中国建立了商店，来帮助同胞们针对当地口味开拓市场。在中国市场遇到多年挫折，日本电商巨头乐天在大连开了一个办公室，大连是中国沿海城市，现在已有约1500家日本公司。
For all its recent success in China, Japan Inc must still tread carefully there. One reason is ghosts of the past. In 2005 a controversial change to Japanese history textbooks, seen to whitewash Imperial Japan’s sins, led to riots in China and boycotts of Japanese businesses. In 2012, during a political row over the disputed Senkaku Islands, which Japan controls but China claims (and calls the Diaoyu), Toyota and Honda dealerships, as well as a Panasonic plant, were set on fire.
尽管日本公司最近在中国取得了成功，但它仍必须谨慎行事。一个原因是两国之间的历史问题。2005年，日本历史教科书发生了有争议的变化，被视为掩饰了日本帝国主义的罪行，导致中国人愤怒地抵制日货。2012年，在钓鱼岛问题的政治争执中，丰田和本田的经销商，还有松下工厂都成了攻击目标。
Japanese firms have got better at dealing with Chinese grievances over Japan’s failure to atone for its wartime occupation of parts of China, when firms such as Mitsubishi Materials forced Chinese labourers to toil in Japanese mines. Three years ago Mitsubishi even issued a rare formal apology and has been setting up a compensation fund. But resentment simmers—and could easily boil over if China’s self-confidence continues to find expression in an assertive nationalism.
日本政府始终未能平息中国人民对其侵华罪行的愤怒。在这方面，日本公司做得比政府要好一些。三年前，三菱综合材料公司（Mitsubishi Materials）甚至罕见地为其曾强迫中国劳工在日本的矿井中劳作的行为正式道歉，并且设立了赔偿基金。但是，中国人的怨恨会一直酝酿，并且很容易在民族主义的情绪中爆发。
Between the eagle and the dragon
在鹰和龙之间
Then there is the spectre of Sino-American rivalry. Japanese firms have long benefited from geopolitical proximity to America and geographical closeness to China. The two are the most important markets for many Japanese companies, whose supply chains criss-cross both. As the superpowers jostle over everything from trade to technology, this blessing looks ever more like a curse. Because Japan’s firms are more exposed to China than American ones are—China is Japan’s largest trading partner—they would find it harder to give up on the Chinese market. It would be “a nightmare” to have to choose between Japan’s biggest neighbour and its chief strategic ally, says Ichiro Hara of Keidanren, a Japanese business lobby. As geopolitics impinges on globalised commerce, the choice may become inevitable.
接着是中美关系的困扰。日本公司已经长时间受益于日美之间的地缘政治接近性，以及日中之间的地理接近性。中美都是许多日本公司最重要的市场，它们的供应链纵横交错。而当中美之间在从贸易到科技的各个领域都开始角力时，日本与两国的接近性就变成了一种尴尬。相比美国公司，日本公司更接近中国——中国是日本最大的贸易伙伴——日本更难放弃中国市场。日本商业游说组织日本经济团体联合会的原一郎说，要是让日本在它最大邻国和其首席战略盟友之间做选择，这会是一场噩梦。但由于地缘政治冲击全球化的贸易，这个选择可能将无法避免。
