Japanese Foreign Direct Investment in the Visegrád Four: Trends, Characteristic and Driving Forces

Abstract

Japan continues to be the most important Asian investor in Poland and Czechia, and the second most important player in Hungary and Slovakia (after South Korea). Japanese multinationals, operating in the automotive, electronics and other industries, as well as in certain services, play an important role in the Central and Eastern European economies, enhancing the performance of the respective V4 economies. Although compared to, for instance, German MNCs’ investment, Japanese MNCs represent a rather minor share in the total FDI stock of these countries, the number of companies increase year-on-year. The paper briefly presents the history and main trends of Japanese investment in the V4 region, maps out the main characteristics of Japanese investment flows, and identifies the driving forces of Japanese FDI within the V4 region. The last section of the paper also sheds light on a new opportunity for the V4 countries to attract more investment from Japanese companies, that is the Japanese companies’ possible relocation to the V4 region from the United Kingdom, as a result of Brexit.