Characteristics and performance of Japanese Foreign Direct Investment in Africa

This paper examines the characteristics and performance of Japanese foreign direct investment in Africa. A large sample of 1062 Japanese subsidiaries in Africa was analysed. Our findings reveal that: efficiency and market seeking was the common purposes for Japanese firms in Africa; the Japanese subsidiaries are young and small in lower middle income region, young and large in upper middle income region and old in low income region; their performance is good with a very high exit rate in low income region, high with high exit rate in low middle income region and moderate with a low exit rate in upper middle income region.