Economy - Export to China drives Japan's economy

Japan's economic growth of 7 percent in the forth quarter of 2003 is mainly based on a fast expansion of its export to China, media write. Economic ties make Japan more depend on its long-term enemy, although that might not yet mean that both economic powers see also a new new spring in their icy political relations.
China has replaced last year the sluggish US economy, that used to be the dominant factor in much of Japan's export. A recent visit by the Japanese PM Koizumi to a the Yasukini shrine where war victims and war criminals are commemorated, has set off a new flurry of verbal hostilities.
Not only trade has been flourising, also Japanese investments and jobs are flooding to China too.