China Eyes Japan as the Land of Opportunity

As China’s most successful telecom equipment company, Huawei Technologies had more than $32 billion in sales last year and a strong presence in Europe, India, the Middle East, and other countries. Japan is another story. Huawei’s sales in the world’s third-largest economy amounted to no more than $700 million in 2011, tiny for a company of its size. Huawei has been in Japan since 2005 but as the numbers show, “we are still very small,” says Yan Lida, Huawei’s Japan president.

China may enjoy a healthy trade surplus with the U.S. and Western Europe, but when it comes to Japan, the Chinese are always in the red. Last year China had a $19 billion trade deficit with Japan, thanks in part to Chinese imports of made-in-Japan machinery and components. Japan is the second-largest supplier to Huawei, after the U.S., with the Chinese company buying $750 million in Japanese parts in 2011. In return, the Japanese buy such low-cost Chinese goods as apparel, food, and electronics.