去年中日貿易赤字增加六倍

Last month the NHK News on-line reported the following:
去年１年間の日本と中国の間の貿易収支は、東日本大震災や歴史的な円高の影響で、自動車や食料品などの中国向けの輸出が落ち込む一方、中国からはスマートフォンなどの輸入が急増し、中国に対する貿易赤字は、前の年のおよそ６倍に拡大しました。
ジェトロ＝日本貿易振興機構のまとめによりますと、去年１年間の日本から中国への輸出額は１６１４億ドルと、前の年より８．３％増加しました。しかし、震災や歴史的な円高の影響で、自動車や食料品それに半導体の輸出が落ち込むなどしたため、伸び率は、前の年が３６％の伸びだったのに比べて大幅に縮小しました。
一方、中国からの輸入額は、急速に普及しているスマートフォンの輸入が増えたことや、震災以降、乾電池や扇風機といった停電や節電に備えた製品の輸入が急増したことなどから１８３４億ドルと、２０％増えました。
この結果、輸出から輸入を差し引いた中国との貿易収支は、２１９億ドルの赤字となり、赤字額は前の年の５．９倍となりました。
ことしの見通しについてジェトロでは、「中国経済の減速で輸出は伸び悩む一方、日本企業が中国での生産を拡大し、いわば逆輸入する形が増えており輸入は大幅な増加が続くとみられる。貿易赤字はさらに拡大する可能性が高い」と話しています。
(試譯文)
The trade balance between Japan and China for whole year of last year was affected by the East Japan great earthquake and the historical strong yen; while cars and food exported to China fell, the import of smart phones etc from China had increased rapidly, and it increased the trade deficit with China by about 6 times compared with last year.
According to the conclusion of JETRO, the organization that aimed at improving Japanese trading, last year the export value from Japan to China had increased by 8.3% to 161,400 million dollars. However, the export of cars, food, and also the semiconductors fell due to the influence of the earthquake disaster and the historical strong yen, and thus reduced the pace of expansion sharply compared with the previous year of a 36% growth.
On the other hand, regarding importing amount, after the earthquake, the import of the popular smart phones had increased; the import of products used for power failures standing by and for power saving purposes, such as dry cells and electric fans increased rapidly, the amount of import from China went up by 20% to reach 183,400 million dollars.
As a result, the trade balance with China, which deducted import from export, went into the red of 21,900 million dollars, and the amount of deficit became 5.9 times more than the previous year.
According to JETRO, about the prospect of this year, it was being said that "while on the one hand the Chinese economy would slowdown and export could be sluggish, yet Japanese companies in China could expand production, it is a form re-imported so to speak, and there is a possibility of an increased import. Also there is a high possibility that the trade deficit would expand further."

It is interesting to note that Japan, as a country that is good at producing electronic goods, has to increase the import of smart phones from China.