THE Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) expects Japan to regain its lead as its topmost investor after investments declined in the first seven months of 2025.
“With the big-ticket investments and new leads generated from our recent mission to Japan, we expect the Japanese to regain their lead as our topmost investor in PEZA,” the Authority’s Director-General Tereso Panga said in a text message on Sunday.
In a social media post on August 2, PEZA said for January to July 2025, Japan brought in P2.168 billion in investments, trailing behind China’s P2.62 billion; the United States’ P3.24 billion and South Korea’s P10.765 billion as the top ecozone investors for the past 7 months.
Japan’s investment during the period was 72.87 percent lower than the same period last year, PEZA said without disclosing the figures.
Panga said the lower investment could be attributed to the uncertainties brought by the US tariffs.
“Japanese investors are being cautious as they await the final tariff to be imposed by US government on Japan and Philippine originated goods for export to the US. But with the announcement of a favorable tariff for the Philippines, being the second lowest in the region, we anticipate the entry of more Japanese investments this second semester of 2025,” Panga said.
Data from PEZA showed as of March 2025, Japan remains number one in terms of FDIs under the PEZA framework. The Philippine ecozones have a total of some 800 Japanese companies which generated above P500 billion in investments and provided direct jobs to more than 343,000 Filipinos as of March 2025.
In the social media post, PEZA said it recently embarked on an investment mission to four key cities in Japan namely, Hamamatsu, Osaka, Nagoya and Tokyo, the third mission this year.
The mission was held to attract more Japanese companies to set up facilities in the country’s ecozones, and reinforce the status of Japanese as the topmost investor in PEZA, it added.
PEZA said during the seminars, Panga outlined the advantages and benefits of investing in the Philippines as well as the opportunities for ecozone investments citing the generous fiscal incentives available under the CREATE MORE law.
Panga also cited the favorable findings of the 2024 Japan Bank for International Cooperation survey on the Philippines as among the top destinations for Japanese investors in Asia and Oceania—besting other countries such as Australia, Malaysia, Thailand and China.
A separate survey conducted in 2024 by Japan External Trade Organization presented the top five advantages of the Philippines according to Japanese investors such as fewer communication problems, low labor cost, market scale/growth potential, ease in recruiting local staff, and tax incentives.
Panga also highlighted the Philippines’ favorable tariff rate for exports to the US vis-à-vis the higher 20 to 49 percent import duty imposed on other Asean economies, except for Singapore’s 10 percent and Indonesia’s 19 percent.
“This will boost the competitiveness of the Philippines as a hub for FDI (foreign direct investments) —that will sustain the country as consistently one of the best performing economies in the region,” Panga said in the social media post.
PEZA said investors that attended the three investment seminars are mostly from the manufacturing, information technology services, food and agri-equipment, mineral processing, transport, telecom, trading, real estate, construction and energy sectors. PEZA said Tsuchiya Kogyo (Phils.) Inc., an existing locator, has expressed its intention to expand this year but did not disclose the details.
