According to Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), the China-Japan trade volume maintained growth for 9 successive years to US$236 billion in 2007, accounted for 17.7% of Japan’s total trade volume, with a growth rate of 12% (excluding Hong Kong area), which was slightly higher than the growth rate of 11.5% in 2006. Therefore, China has become Japan’s largest trade partner. The US fell to the second place and its trade volume with Japan accounted for 16.1% of Japan’s total.

As regards export, spurred by China’s strong demands for electronic products, transport vehicles, auto spare parts, synthetic resin and fiber production materials, etc., Japan’s export volume to China surged by 17.5% to US$109.1 billion; Japan’s import from China increased by 7.6% to US$127.6 billion. Since China became Japan’s largest import source country in 2002, its import growth rate saw a continuous fall since 2004. JETRO pointed out that part of the reasons resulting in the said continuous fall is the draggy PC sales. In 2007, the Japan-China trade deficit narrowed by 27.9%, and dropped to US$18.5 billion from US$25.5 billion in 2006