(Yicai) Jan. 16 -- More than half of the Japanese companies with operations in China maintained or increased their investment in the country, according to an official survey.

Fifteen percent of the about 1,700 Japanese firms in China polled by the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China said they hiked their investment in the country last year from the previous one, while 38 percent claimed their investment in China remained unchanged in the period. Meanwhile, 25 percent of them reduced their investment, and the remaining 22 percent did not invest at all.

The main reasons for Japanese companies in China to hike investment in the country were business expansion in the post-pandemic era, implementation of planned investments postponed due to Covid-19, and interest in expanding the size of their businesses related to automobile electrification, intelligentization, and sustainability, according to the survey results published yesterday.

The guidelines to facilitate foreign investment issued by China’s State Council also played a significant role, said Tetsuro Homma, head of the JCCI in China. In addition, the Chinese government held events to promote foreign investment and set up platforms to communicate with representatives from various overseas business and industry associations at the local government level to solicit their opinions, noted Homma, who is also the executive vice president of Panasonic Holdings.

The survey also showed that the performance of Japanese companies in China improved in the fourth quarter of last year.

Twenty-five percent of the surveyed firms said their operating profit rose in the three months ended Dec. 31 from the previous quarter, up 2 percentage points from the same survey published at the end of the third quarter. Meanwhile, 49 percent said their operating profit shrank, down 4 percentage points in the period.

The percentage of Japanese firms in China satisfied with the country’s business environment rose by 3 percentage points to 54 percent in the fourth quarter from the third one, according to the survey.

Forty-four percent of the polled companies believe that the biggest advantage of the Chinese business environment lies in the concentration of talent. Other advantages the firms mentioned were the concentration of buyers, logistics, and supply chain at 32 percent, 32 percent, and 30 percent, respectively.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Futura Costaglione