Japan is 2013's Biggest Investor into ASEAN Region

Japan has ended traditional US dominance with investments worth $9.2bn this year. The high value of the Japanese yen, has led Japanese companies to become the leading foreign investors in the Association for South East Asian Nations region (ASEAN) this year. Among ASEAN, Thailand and Indonesia are two main targets for Japanese investments.

While the coal, oil and natural gas sector, alongside the automotive original equipment manufacturing and real estate attracted the lion's share of capital from Japan, accounting for $4.4bn worth of greenfield FDI between January and October 2013, fDi Markets revealed that business services and automotive components received the largest number of greenfield projects, with 14 and 11 projects respectively. This FDI expansion into the ASEAN region illustrates that Japanese companies are using their cash surpluses to make strategic investments across the region.