Japan remains a hot business opportunity for American manufacturers, despite the world's growing interest in neighboring China, a top U.S. industry group official said Friday.
"The emergence of China and the vast size of China have become the front-page story. And people are missing what's already here right now," John Engler, president and chief executive of the National Association of Manufacturers, which represents a wide range of American firms, said in Tokyo while with a business delegation.
"There needs to be a remembering of what is Japan today," he said.
Engler said it will take years before China's economy, now the world's fourth-biggest, becomes as large as the Japanese economy, second-biggest behind the U.S.
"In a search for opportunities, don't miss what's right in front of you while on a quest to find something that may not even exist quite yet," Engler said in an interview.
Engler, the former governor of Michigan, said Japan was likely to see more mergers and consolidations among companies, creating opportunities for partnerships for American manufacturers.