How dependent is Japan on Taiwan?

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%.

• Taiwan sells 23.7% of what the world exports of microchips; next come China (17.7%), South Korea (16.9%) and Malaysia (8.3%). The rest of the world exported 52.5 times what Japan buys from Taiwan.
• Taiwan sells 23.9% of what the world exports of copper foil; next come China (15.6%), South Korea (11.3%) and Malaysia (7.3%). The rest of the world exported 21.7 times what Japan buys from Taiwan.
• Taiwan sells 19.2% of what the world exports of walking-sticks, whips and riding-crops; next come China (57.9%), Czechia (4.8%) and Germany (3.8%). The rest of the world exported 17.1 times what Japan buys from Taiwan.
• Taiwan sells 11.1% of what the world exports of lead oxides and red lead; next come Germany (15.5%), India (9.4%) and Thailand (6.8%). The rest of the world exported 29.4 times what Japan buys from Taiwan.
• Taiwan sells 36.1% of what the world exports of tapioca and starch-based substitutes; next come Thailand (19.6%), China (12%) and India (5.9%). The rest of the world exported 36.3 times what Japan buys from Taiwan.
• Taiwan sells 3.8% of what the world exports of sulfuric acid; next come China (14.5%), Canada (8.5%) and South Korea (8.1%). The rest of the world exported 1,324 times what Japan buys from Taiwan.

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

Japan is Taiwan’s 6th-largest customer, with 4.9% of its exports.

• Trade between Japan and Taiwan
• Who does Japan rely on?
• Who does Taiwan rely on?
• Dependence of Japan on China
• Dependence of Japan on Australia
• Dependence of Japan on the United States
• 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 Malaysia
• Dependence of Japan on Thailand
• Trade profile of Japan
• Trade profile of Taiwan
• 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.