Japan now attractive to foreign investors, says Jetro

Tokyo

FACED with rising criticism that the depreciation of the yen has raised import costs and not boosted Japan's exports as much as hoped, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government is launching a campaign to show that the weaker currency has burnished the country's attractiveness as a destination for inward foreign business investment.

The semi-government Japan External Trade Organisation (Jetro) is emphasising that office rents in Tokyo are now well below those in Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul and Shanghai; expatriate rents in the Japanese capital are dramatically lower than in Singapore, and also lower than in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Jetro's campaign also draws attention to the significant loosening of legal and other regulations affecting foreign firms setting up in Japan. Jetro chairman and chief executive Hiiroyuki Ishige said one-stop investment centres will be set up from next month, and forei…