Japan needs China: Ministry of Commerce

A Ministry of Commerce researcher, writing in the China Youth Daily, said that China's economy is the main hope of Japan's economic revival, the South China Morning Post reported. "China has already replaced the United States as the crucial factor that could determine the recovery of the Japanese economy," said Jin Bosong, a researcher with the ministry's Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation. Sino-Japanese trade growth has slowed with Japan ceasing to be China's biggest trading partner in the 1990s, falling into third place last year behind the EU and US. Annual trade has fallen from 24% of China's total external trade in 1994 to 13% in 2005.