Mainland China surpasses U.S. as JapanÆs biggest trading partner
China has become Japan's biggest trading partner, surpassing the United States, the Japanese Ministry of Finance said this week.
Japan's two-way trade with Mainland China rose to $214 billion through March, up 9 percent over the same period in 2006. It's the first time that China-Japan trade, when Hong Kong is excluded, has exceeded Japan's trade with the United States. If Hong Kong is included with the mainland, then China surpassed the United States as Japan's biggest trading partner in 2004. U.S. trade with Japan rose 10.3 percent in the period, to roughly $210 billion.
Japanese exports to China rose 21 percent to $95 billion, while imports rose at 13 percent to $119 billion.