DTI readies to boost earnings from Japan

THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is beefing up strategies for the country to sustain its annual export earnings of over $7 billion from the Japanese market.

In a paper titled Exploring Market Opportunities in Japan, the DTI sets out to characterize Japanese consumers and identify crucial market developments in Japan aimed at crafting strategies to address the virtually flat growth of export earnings from Japan in the last six years.

Post your reaction to the Manila hostage crisis

While the emergence of China and Asean as increasingly important export destinations has contributed to the decline in Japan's export share from 20 percent in 2004 to 15 percent in 2008, much of said decline appears to be largely occasioned by a host of market developments in Japan.

Competition in the Japanese market is increasingly becoming stiff as shown in the proliferation of bargain stores, such as the Y100 stores. Philippine products face intense competition from both locally-made products and developing country exports, which have been flooding the Japanese market.

The paper noted that there has been an oversupply of foreign goods which tend to shorten the product life cycle, spelling the need to continually innovate and keep abreast of market developments and trends.

The Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) affords some market access advantage, particularly for industrial goods, agricultural exports, marine products and leather articles which are accorded duty-free entry to the Japanese market.

Such market access advantage, however, should be accompanied with practical strategies and action plans to take advantage of the vast export opportunities in the world's third largest economy.

Some of these strategies as detailed in the DTI paper are the importance of developing unique products, targeting a specific segment of the market and working closely with the Japanese importer in the design and packaging of the products as Japanese consumers are known to be fastidious in the quality, the price, functionality and even the size of the products.

The paper likewise reiterated the importance of actively participating in local and international trade fairs to gain wider exposure and broaden networks with domestic and foreign suppliers and buyers.

Japan is the Philippines' second largest export market, particularly for ink jets, electrical and electronic machinery, equipment and parts, semiconductor devices, wiring harnesses for motor vehicles, electronic micro assemblies, other chip type fixed inductors, bananas, optical disk drives and copper anodes. (PR)