The opening of a Swiss-owned chocolate factory northwest of Tokyo is a small but sweet milestone in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's crusade to lure foreign investment to Japan after decades of keeping local industries protected from outside competition.
Zurich-based cocoa and chocolates maker Barry Callebaut spent 18.5 million Swiss francs ($20 million) to build the factory, which opened Thursday on the site of a former brewery in Takasaki, smack in the middle of the country. The company aims to help sate the Japanese appetite for chocolate: about 2 kilograms (4 1/2 pounds) of chocolate a year for every person in lean times or fat, which makes this $11.4 billion market the biggest in Asia.Faced with Japan's economic eclipse by China, Abe hopes to double foreign investment this decade, a goal set long ago by one of his predecessors, Junichiro Koizumi, but never reached. Foreign investment in Japan is just a fraction of the levels in other wealthy countries, a legacy of mercantilist policies that helped foster giant exporters such as Toyota.
So far, both foreign and Japanese companies remain wary: deregulation and tax incentives are feeble weapons against the demographic odds of a country whose population is fast aging and already shrinking.
Source: NewsOnJapan
So far, both foreign and Japanese companies remain wary: deregulation and tax incentives are feeble weapons against the demographic odds of a country whose population is fast aging and already shrinking.
Source: NewsOnJapan
