According to B&Company Vietnam’s Enterprise Database, Vietnam had a total of 1.08 million active companies in 2023, with around 20,000 FDI companies generating 28% of the total net revenue. South Korea led with nearly 5,500 companies, followed by Japan and China.

FDI companies in Vietnam by country of investment in 2023
Unit: %

Source: B&Company Vietnam’s Enterprise Database

Despite the impact of Covid-19, the number of Japanese companies has tended to increase in the period 2019-2023. This also shows the trend of Japanese companies seeking to expand their market to Vietnam to reduce dependence on the domestic market during the Covid-19 period. In term of location, Japanese companies in Vietnam are mainly concentrated in the North (Hanoi, Thanh Hoa, Vinh Phuc, etc.) and the South (HCMC, Binh Duong, Dong Nai).

Number of Japanese companies in Vietnam 2019-2023
Unit: Companies

Source: B&Company database

Areas of operation of Japanese companies in Vietnam in 2023
Unit: Companies

Source: B&Company database

When looking at the breakdown of large investments. As far as Japan have been able to ascertain since 2005, the largest Japanese investments were in manufacturing, finance, real estate and retail. On the other hand, while South Korea made a smattering of large factory investments of USD 1 billion or more in the manufacturing sector, Japan lags behind in large-scale investments. One possible reason for that is South Korea is increasing its concentration in Vietnam as a trading and investment partner, while Japan is dispersing its investments among ASEAN countries.

Investment fron Japan to Vietnam by industry (cumulative total from 2005 to 2023)
Unit: 10 billion yen

Source: B&Company

With the strategic partnership between Vietnam and Japan being increasingly strengthened, we expect further development and increase of Japanese companies in Vietnam in the future, especially in areas where Vietnam is calling for investment from Japan such as semiconductors, DX, energy.