Japanese Investors’ Perceptions of Location Advantages

Abstract

Asia’s industrializing economies — the NIEs and the ASEAN-4 — have been one of the most rapidly liberalizing host regions for Japanese FDI from the developing countries. China has now emerged and is one of the frontrunners in this process. India is also set to join this league. And although India and China have received the world’s attention for being the ‘last significant untapped markets left in the 21st century’, yet India, as we saw in the last chapter, ranks lowest in the ladder in attracting Japanese FDI. It appears to be trapped in a self-fulfilling low level unable to attract Japanese FDI, which remains at less than 1 per cent of overseas Japanese foreign investment. Therefore, we had to look for an answer which might offer an adequate explanation of Japanese investors’ perceptions of location advantages and devise an appropriate methodology.