How dependent is Japan on Malaysia?

A product has a dominant supplier when a single country sells more than 50% of what is bought of it; we flag it separately above 75%.

• Malaysia sells 34.1% of what the world exports of palm oil; next come Indonesia (48.7%), Netherlands (2%) and Thailand (1.9%). The rest of the world exported 51 times what Japan buys from Malaysia.
• Malaysia sells 9.1% of what the world exports of cocoa butter; next come Netherlands (28.6%), Indonesia (10.6%) and Germany (10.2%). The rest of the world exported 62.1 times what Japan buys from Malaysia.
• Malaysia sells 21% of what the world exports of base metals, silver or gold clad with platinum; next come South Korea (24.2%), Singapore (6.7%) and Germany (4.8%). The rest of the world exported 2.8 times what Japan buys from Malaysia.
• Malaysia sells 5.9% of what the world exports of limestone for lime and cement; next come United Arab Emirates (47.1%), Oman (8.1%) and Belgium (6.4%). The rest of the world exported 34.2 times what Japan buys from Malaysia.
• Malaysia sells 2.9% of what the world exports of gold and silverware; next come South Korea (27.6%), Italy (20.1%) and China (15.2%). The rest of the world exported 59.3 times what Japan buys from Malaysia.
• Malaysia sells 25.9% of what the world exports of copper powder and flakes; next come United States (16.3%), Germany (9.3%) and United Kingdom (5.3%). The rest of the world exported 47.8 times what Japan buys from Malaysia.
• Malaysia sells 1.6% of what the world exports of wooden railway sleepers; next come United States (41.7%), China (11.2%) and France (10.3%). The rest of the world exported 62 times what Japan buys from Malaysia.
• Malaysia sells 5.7% of what the world exports of zinc scrap; next come France (16.5%), Germany (14.7%) and Netherlands (7%). The rest of the world exported 216.3 times what Japan buys from Malaysia.

Exports from the rest of the world already have buyers; the figure shows scale, not availability.

Japan is Malaysia’s 5th-largest customer, with 4.8% of its exports.

• Trade between Japan and Malaysia
• Who does Japan rely on?
• Who does Malaysia rely on?
• Dependence of Japan on China
• Dependence of Japan on Australia
• Dependence of Japan on the United States
• Dependence of Japan on Taiwan
• Dependence of Japan on Indonesia
• Dependence of Japan on South Africa
• Dependence of Japan on South Korea
• Dependence of Japan on Switzerland
• Dependence of Japan on the Philippines
• Dependence of Japan on Brazil
• Dependence of Japan on Thailand
• Trade profile of Japan
• Trade profile of Malaysia
• All countries

Sources and licenses

• CEPII BACI · Licence Ouverte Etalab 2.0
• Natural Earth · Public domain

Methodology

The data come from CEPII BACI (Etalab 2.0 licence), which reconciles what the exporting and the importing country report, in current USD, FOB. Data up to 2024.

Dependence is the share of a country’s imports (or exports) that each partner accounts for. It does not measure whether a product has a substitute or how much it would cost to change supplier.

The concentration index (HHI) adds up the square of each partner’s share, in percent: it runs from 0 to 10,000. Its equivalent is 10,000 ÷ HHI, the number of partners of the same size that would give that value.

Products are HS4 headings of the 1992 nomenclature (some combine different goods), with a floor of $1 million per product and country.

The EU is the 27 current members in every year; the United Kingdom is outside the EU throughout the series.

Re-exports: countries that act as redistribution hubs carry their notice and the figures are not corrected.