Tokyo (People's Daily) - The US-dependent Asian economic structure will witness a dramatic turnaround, with China's influence over Japan and the Southeast Asian countries to surpass the US by 2030, according to a report on Saturday by Japanese business newspaper Nikkei.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun said that the US, as the world's largest consumer country, became the biggest export destination for Asian countries after the World War II. The report added that the situation changed when ASEAN exports to China reached $143 billion in 2016, 9 percent higher than to the US. In the first 11 months of 2017, Japan's exports to China amounted to 13.4 trillion yen, breaking the 2014 record, the report said.

Kengo Tahara, principal economist of the Japan Center for Economic Research, said he believes trade value between China and Japan and Southeast Asia will be 1.8 times that of 2015, or 40 percent higher than the US.

China's influence over Japan has been more significant than the US’s since 2015 as 2.8 billion dollars economic effect would be brought to Japan as China's demand expanding 1 percent, 100 million more than the US did. In 2030, the number will increase to 4.6 billion dollars and China's 1 percent demand expansion will bring the five countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam) of the ASEAN 3.3 billion dollars, doubling the figure in 2015, far surpassing the US’s 1.9 billion dollars.

The report also cited specific cases of China's growing influence on Japan's economy. Mitsubishi Electric is planning to invest in industrial robots in China. Besides trade, profits made by Japanese companies which directly invest in China will return to Japan as salaries and investments in the country.