According to the 2020 trade statistics released by Japan's Ministry of Finance, Taiwan was ranked Japan's 4th largest source of imports, which was two places up from 2019 and the highest ranking so far. This result reflects the fact that Taiwan's effective control of COVID-19 has enabled manufacturers to maintain steady production and exports. At a time when global trade is suffering a major blow and countries are experiencing significant reductions to foreign trade, Taiwan has become a stable and reliable source of supply for Japan.

Statistics from Japan's Ministry of Finance show that Japanese imports from Taiwan reached 2.9 trillion Japanese Yen in 2020. Even though this was a drop of 2.4%, it was the smallest decrease among Japan's top 10 sources of imports. Additionally, Taiwan's exports to Japan out of all imports in Japan went from 3.7% in 2019 to 4.2% in 2020. Statistics from our Ministry of Finance, Taiwan's exports to Japan reached US$23.4 billion in 2020, or an increase of 0.5%; and imports from Japan amounted to US$45.9 billion, or an increase of 4.2%. This adds up to US$69.3 billion in total trade between the two sides. These figures are all record highs, indicating the close trade relations between Taiwan and Japan.

Looking back on Taiwan's ranking in the Japanese import market over the past 10 years, we were Japan's 12th source of imports in 2011. We then leaped to 7th in 2018, and levelled up to 6th in 2019, before moving to 4th in 2020. This improvement in rankings over the years reflects the efforts devoted by Taiwan's industry and exporters, whose products have increasingly met the needs of the Japanese market. In this difficult environment where the pandemic continues to wreak havoc across the world, Taiwan has become a steady and reliable source of supply for Japan.