Yoshitaka Shindo, who assumed the cabinet post earlier this month, said that because China accounts for nearly a fifth of Japan’s exports, the Chinese economic troubles could cause Japan’s economy to move a notch downward.
Potentially, “the impact is really big” given China’s central role in the global economy, Shindo said in a group interview with Tokyo-based reporters. He observed that foreign investment in China has dropped sharply and real-estate companies there have fallen into trouble, leading to a sluggish recovery of the Chinese economy.