Dependent on China? How Japan wants to tackle the coronavirus disruption

Japan will launch a subsidy programme to encourage domestic manufacturers to transfer their overseas production bases to Southeast Asia, as the coronavirus pandemic has greatly disrupted their supply chains heavily dependent on China.The 23.5 billion yen (US$220 million) programme, incorporated into the government’s emergency stimulus package to ease the economic fallout from the pandemic, will help firms diversify their supply chains by financially assisting the construction of production…