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China's economic recovery
EconomyChina Economy

Japanese business leaders tour China to spur investment as political ties turn frosty over Fukushima

  • Trade groups from Japan attempt to build rapport with Chinese peers despite growing antipathy over Tokyo’s release of waste water into Pacific
  • The two sides take pragmatic approach and avoid hot topics in attempt to insulate trade from hostilities, says delegation leader

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Visitors attend the 23rd China International Fair for Investment and Trade, which opened on Friday in Xiamen, Fujian province. Photo: Xinhua
Frank Chenin Xiamen, Fujian province

Unfazed by frosty ties, a Japanese business delegation is making its way across China to pitch two-way investment while relations between Beijing and Tokyo fester in the wake of the Fukushima water release.

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The delegation from a leading chamber of commerce in Osaka, Japan’s second-largest city, arrived in China in late August.

But their carefully planned journey across the country to build rapport with Chinese peers – their first trip to China in four years – was nearly scuppered by harsh blowback after Japan began releasing treated radioactive waste from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean last month.

The Japanese foreign ministry’s latest safety advisory urged Japanese nationals in China to exercise caution and avoid speaking the Japanese language in public.

But the business group was not deterred.

Takayoshi Negoro, director of the international division at the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry, led the delegation to Xiamen in the southeastern province of Fujian for the China International Fair for Investment and Trade.

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