(Yicai) Nov. 7 -- Japanese businesses taking part in the sixth China International Import Expo in Shanghai account for 10 percent of the trade fair’s exhibitors, and besides showing interest in China’s rapidly growing outdoor economy, they are continuing to expand their presence in its cross-border e-commerce market.

The CIIE has become an excellent stage for Japanese companies to promote new products and technologies, Tetsuro Honma, president of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China and global vice president of Panasonic Electric Group, said yesterday. 

Some 350 businesses in autos, energy, chemicals, electronic components, and other fields are participating in this year's CIIE, he noted.

The outdoor economy is rapidly gaining traction in the Chinese market, so the Japan External Trade Organization aims to introduce more Japanese outdoor sports brands to the market through the CIIE, Xu Xiaolei, manager of JETRO Shanghai, which is taking part in the annual trade fair for the sixth time, told Yicai.

Hiroshi Takayama, deputy director of JETRO Shanghai, said that taking camping equipment as an example, Chinese research reports show that the domestic market was about 2.5 times larger than the Japanese market last year at about CNY178.1 billion (USD23.5 billion).

China's booming outdoor economy has drawn the interest of Japanese brands, including SnowPeak, Captain Stag, and Uniflam, which are now entering the Chinese market.

This is SnowPeak's first time to the CIIE and its first exhibition in China, said Offline Sales Director Zhang Yuanliang, who added that demand in the Chinese camping market is growing. Since September last year, the firm has opened brick-and-mortar stores in Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Yunnan, and other places in China.

JETRO will sign a memorandum of cooperation today with the self-operated trans-border brand outlets of Tmall Global, China's largest cross-border business-to-consumer online marketplace.

At last year's CIIE, JETRO launched a WeChat mini-program called Japan Business Pavilion. More than 600 Japanese businesses have since signed up, covering 700 categories of goods, and it has more than 1,000 registered Chinese buyers.

In addition to establishing a presence in China's traditional e-commerce channels represented by Tmall and JD.Com, JETRO will in future also collaborate with Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, to promote Japanese specialty products, according to Takayama. Due to Douyin's unique influence in the realm of video and live-streaming, Japanese firms will need to further explore this operating model, he added.

Based on the current consumption patterns of Chinese consumers, if there is no user experience for them on the lifestyle platform Xiaohongshu, it will be hard for them to make subsequent purchases on platforms like JD.Com, Takeyama pointed out. JETRO will continue to increase the promotion of Japanese small and medium-sized enterprises on Xiaohongshu in the future, he said.

Takayama said he hopes more Japanese businesses will follow the trend of the Chinese consumer market and more actively embrace online sales in addition to offline retail channels.

Editor: Martin Kadiev