SUNDAY, APRIL 24, 2005
No anti-Japanese sentiment in Honda's China plant
REUTERS
Relations between China and Japan are at their lowest in decades, but at the Honda plant in China’s southern city of, workers are unconcerned.
And the cars, among China’s most popular, are sold before they are finished. Guangzhou was one of several Chinese cities rocked by rare street demonstrations this month. Thousands marched to oppose what they see as Japan’s failure to own up to World War II atrocities and Tokyo’s bid for a permanent UN Security Council seat.
“It is a problem between governments. I don’t think it will have any effect on the companies here. It doesn’t have anything to do with us,” said 22-year-old Li Longtong, one of a line of workers in white jumpsuits streaming into the plant’s canteen for lunch.
Despite calls from protesters for a boycott of Japanese goods, Guangzhou Honda, a 50/50 venture between Honda Motor and Guangzhou Motors, shows no sign of backing away from its leap into the China market.
The company’s sprawling campus, which does everything from research and development to assembly and marketing, was in China’s top five by sales in March, shifting 22,000 units. It is aiming to invest 2.1bn yuan ($254m) to increase capacity to 360,000 units by ‘06 from 240,000 in ‘04.
“Our production is stable, everything is as usual here, including production and sales,” said a Honda public relations official surnamed Yang.
He said Honda’s Accord was still the country’s most popular sedan, selling at a premium, with a long waiting list for buyers. The workers at Guangzhou Honda, one of a string of car plants lining the route in an industrial suburb, say their bosses have not mentioned the anti-Japan movement.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made an unusually public apology on Friday for Japan’s past atrocities in Asia and met China’s leader Hu Jintao on Saturday during an Asian/African summit in Jakarta, where the two agreed to mend ruptured ties.
But even as China replaced the US last year to become Japan’s biggest trading partner with about $212bn in trade, analysts say that, privately, Japanese companies have long been worried by political tension.
“Japanese firms are paying a price for the anti-Japanese backlash on the mainland,” wrote Shanghai-based Andy Rothman, China macro analyst at CLSA. His survey of 200 Japanese firms found that even a year ago — before the current wave of protests, but when relations were still marred by longstanding disputes over the war and contested territory — 80% said tension between Beijing and Tokyo was hurting their businesses.
But the survey also showed that after years of lagging their European and American counterparts in terms of manufacturing in China, Japanese companies were finally there.
One-third of Japan’s FDI in Asia goes to China, up from just 17% in ‘00. And that could be part of the problem.
“There has been a ratcheting up for the level of Japanese presence in China and part of what’s going on may be a backlash against that,” said Arthur Kroeber, managing editor of The China Economic Quarterly.
Since the protests, Honda has warned its people to keep a low profile and refrain from unnecessary travel. But Honda workers say they are not interested in protest or politics.
“None of us took part. We don’t need that kind of thing,” said a 25-year-old worker surnamed Li. Across town at Guangzhou’s premier Zhongshan University, the feeling were different.
“We support a boycott. Not because we don’t like Japanese goods, but to show our feelings toward Japanese history,” said Carrie Liu, a 22-year-old student from the southern city of Shenzhen.
She shrugged off the notion that a boycott might hurt China as much as Japan, even though some 1m Chinese are employed in Japanese factories on the mainland. “In this instance it’s more important to show Japan how we feel than any economic impact,” she said.
But surrounded by Chinese workers at the Honda plant, Japanese worker Takahashi Ryuji feels more at home than anywhere else in the city.
“In Guangzhou, when there are a lot of crowds I feel afraid. All the newspapers and TV are anti-Japanese,” the 26-year-old said. “But here, relations are good. We don’t have any problems.”
Copyright © 2005 Times Internet Limited.