China has clearly begun to present big opportunities for Japan and its companies, even as they remain overwhelmed by the massive scale of the Chinese market and the progress of its business leaders and technologies.
That is what I felt through meetings with many Chinese political and economic leaders during a week visit to Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou, along with Japanese businesspeople who attend an executive education project that I run at the National University of Singapore Suzhou Research Institute to assist entry into the Chinese market. The concrete points are as follows:
I felt that the posture of cooperation of big Chinese platform companies and researchers toward Japanese companies and people has substantially improved. Executives of Huawei, Alibaba, UCloud and other enterprises gave candid explanations of their strategies and technologies, and enthusiastically talked about how they would welcome future cooperation with Japanese firms. Leading researchers from the Chinese government and political and economy fields highlighted the challenges that the Chinese market faces and problems of Chinese firms — and discussed how Japanese companies are needed as partners that can complement them where they are weak.