Foreign direct investment in Japan in the year to March 2005 nearly doubled to a record 4.03 trillion yen (US$37 billion) the finance ministry last week.The investment rose 90.3% from 2.12 trillion yen the previous year, with a capital inflow from North American financial and insurance sector swelling more than 27 times.
By region, an inflow from North America, most of it from the U.S., increased six fold to 2.62 trillion yen. Of the 2.62 trillion yen, 2.54 trillion yen came from the financial and insurance sector. In the previous year, the inflow from the sector stood at just 91.3 billion yen.
By contrast, foreign direct investment from Japan in the year to March fell to a record low of 3.82 trillion yen, down 6.3% from the previous year.
But Japanese direct investment in China surged 38.2% to a record 490.9 billion yen, reflecting a rising trend among manufacturers to rely on low-cost production in China and its fast-growing consumer market.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2005
