Interview: China's opening up injects impetus into global economic recovery, says Japanese expert

TOKYO, April 14 (Xinhua) -- China, by holding the third China International Consumer Products Expo, has continued to open up its super-sized market, injecting strong impetus into global consumption and trade prosperity as well as world economic recovery, a Japanese trade expert said.

The expo is held at a time when the current world economy faces growing uncertainties, with rising unilateralism and protectionism, and many countries have entered their interest rate hiking cycles, Yuki Izumikawa, an official of the Japanese Association for the Promotion of International Trade, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Such a comprehensive trade exhibition that promotes trade exchanges demonstrates China's attitude of further opening up that offers drive for global economic and trade recovery, said the trade expert.

China remains the world's second-largest consumer market with its retail sales of consumer goods hitting 44 trillion yuan in 2022. It was the world's second-largest import market for the 14th consecutive year.

China is Japan's largest trading partner, export market and source of imports, said Izumikawa, stressing that it is necessary for the two countries to strengthen cooperation.

Trade with China is particularly important at a time when Japan is facing soaring prices and weak domestic demand, the expert noted.

While this year marks the 45th anniversary of both countries signing the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship and of China's reform and opening-up, the world has witnessed China's consumption growth in a diversified, personalized and specialized manner, said Izumikawa.

Trends such as the continuous expansion of the middle-income group are indeed reshaping China's consumer market, he noted, citing the 2023 McKinsey China Consumer Report.

"China's consumer market has seen upgrades, with a rich choice of consumer goods and increasing consumer demand for high-quality products," said the expert, calling on Japanese enterprises to continue developing new products tailored to Chinese consumer demand, which would drive their innovation.

Izumikawa, who finds online shopping very prevalent in China, said that the expo presents opportunities for Japanese companies to further explore the Chinese market amid the changing habits of Chinese consumers.

"While Japanese firms can display their products on-site, they can continue to sell goods online after the exhibition," he said.

In the early days of reform and opening-up, Japanese firms invested and set up factories in China to produce cheap and high-quality goods and sell them to other countries, Izumikawa recalled.

Nowadays, however, Japanese companies are eyeing China's huge market and high-end talent, he noted.