Japanese Exhibitors Dominate China Import Expo
Pan Yanru
DATE:  Nov 10 2018
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
Japanese Exhibitors Dominate China Import Expo Japanese Exhibitors Dominate China Import Expo

(Yicai Global) Nov. 9 -- Businesses from Japan have made up more than any other at the China International Import Expo, forming a 450 company strong delegation that dwarves the next largest nation.

South Korea brought 200 companies while the United States brought the third-biggest delegation of 180 firms, according to data from the Japan External Trade Organization, or JETRO. Japanese exhibitors occupied 20,000 square meters of floor space at the six-day event in Shanghai, which is taking place for the first time ever this week after opening on Nov. 5.

Most of the Japanese firms, 163, were focused on food and agriculture and made up the largest ever gathering of Japanese food companies in China. Other companies from the archipelago were from the service, automotive, electronics and smart manufacturing sectors, with displays spanning nine of the different exhibition halls.

Several industry leaders were among their ranks, including Hitachi, glassmaker AGC (formerly Asahi Glass) and robot manufacturer Nachi, as well as local governments from Nagoya and Yokohoma, two of Japan's biggest cities.

More than 80 percent of JETRO's corporate exhibitions are from small- to medium-sized enterprises hailing from as far as Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost prefecture, to Okinawa, its southernmost prefecture, director of JETRO's Shanghai office Xiao Li Dao Ming told Yicai Global.

The Japanese booths were also emblazoned with the All Japan logo and the national pavilion adopted the slogan "ingenuity x innovation," to signify that the country was, at a state and societal level, prepared to help meet China's growing import demands.

Debutants Aplenty

Many of the products put on display by the firms were showing up in China for the first time, including Hitachi's car dismantler.

The large red machine, which looks akin to an excavator, can disassemble about 60 cars a day, six times more than two manual workers. It can extract certain parts from a vehicle and sort them for recycling.

"Given how hot the Chinese auto market is, there is going to be a lot more scrapped cars in the future," a staffer revealed, adding that they have received six or seven orders of intent from Chinese clients and are optimistic about the sector's prospects.

Omron was showing off Forpheus, the world's first robotic table tennis coach, according to the Guinness Book of Records, which can monitor the ball's position on the table at a rate of 80 times per second.

First built in 2013, Forpheus uses Omron's unique factory automation and artificial intelligence technologies, which are now in their fourth generation.

Industrial robot maker Nachi brought its SRA series robots capable of high-density automotive spot welding on production lines. It features eight robotic arms simultaneously operating on various parts of the car, each with an understanding of its own duties, and lured in a number of intrigued passers-by. The bot is already in use at some of China's private carmakers, according to one of the booth workers.

Innovation in Daily Life

As well as developing large scale and industrial machines, several of the companies sought to bring innovative technology to day-to-day living.

ACG, hailed as Japan's glass king, brought five products to the expo, including stained glass for interior decoration and a 5G communication antenna for vehicles.

"As a century-old materials company, we are now making innovation our mission," said Chief Technical Officer Yoshinori Hirai. "We're adapting to the needs of the modern consumer through innovative products."

Another firm was looking to bring healthcare into daily life.

"More and more people are paying attention to sub-health [sub-optimal health status] now, but there are only very vague definitions of what that actually is," its general manager said.

His company offers home urine tests that can be sent off to a lab to be analysed to see if the subject has any mineral deficiencies.

"Aging is a common issue in China and Japan," he said. "How we can make it easier for us to self-examine our health status has become very important."

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Keywords:   Japan,Trade