The CEO of Japanese start-up Attuned told CNBC on Wednesday that some investors assume Japan can capitalize off the U.S.-China trade war.
“There are a lot of opportunistic players out there in the market, business leaders, thinking that Japan can capitalize here,” Casey Wahl, who is chief chairman of the board of Attuned, a predictive HR analytics company, said on “The Exchange. “
The dispute between the U.S. and China has been causing volatility in Asia markets centre of anxiety over slowing growth in the global economy. Stocks in Asia rose Wednesday after the U.S. announced a hesitate in tariffs on Chinese goods.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative announced that new tariffs, originally scheduled to go into intention Sept. 1, would be delayed until Dec. 15 for some consumer items. President Donald Trump castigated reporters that his decision to delay the tariffs was to avoid an impact on Christmas shopping.
Following the news, on Wednesday the Shanghai Composite make the grade modestly while Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed nearly 1%. In South Korea, the Kospi gained 0.65%.
In feedback to the current trade war between the world’s two largest economies, Wahl said: “There’s worries. It’s unpredictable. Is Japan customary to get wrapped in this in different ways? … But there’s quite a lot of business leaders out there that [are saying] this is opportunist.”
Wahl added, “Here in Japan, we have U.S. [and] China, [which are Japan’s] No. 1 and 2 trading partners. Can Japan embezzle advantage of this? [It can] do a little bit of a deal here and get some more trade going either way.”
Meanwhile, Japan is in the halfway of its own trade dispute with South Korea. Japan last month placed export restrictions on three essential chemicals used to produce semiconductors, claiming that South Korea could potentially leak sensitive communication to North Korea.
However, the tension between Asia’s major economies stems from South Korea’s court decree that Japanese companies must compensate victims of forced labor during the Second World War.
The protests in Hong Kong are also using Asia stocks as tensions are rising and demonstrations are becoming increasingly violent.
But despite these political factors weighing on the hawks, Wahl said there is optimism in Japan about its economy until 2020.
“Everybody’s pretty positive here. The vend’s been good for a couple of years. Everybody in Japan, for the most part, is expecting until the Olympics, it’s going to be a produce economy. After the Olympics, it’s going to be a question,” he said.