TOKYO: Japanese companies’ investments in Southeast Asia surged last year to almost three times the amount invested in China, after relations between Beijing and Tokyo soured in 2012 and Chinese labour costs rose, a government agency of Japan said on Friday.

Japanese companies invested 2.33 trillion yen ($22.8 billion) in Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam last year, compared with 887bn yen in China, Japan’s largest trading partner, the Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), said.

Investments doubled in Southeast Asia and fell 18 per cent in China over 2012 and China’s waning attraction is likely to continue as the ratio of companies planning expansion there fell to a record low of below 55pc, JETRO said, citing a survey of Japanese companies.

“Viewed from the Japanese companies’ headquarters, China’s economy and China’s political situation present a considerable amount of risk,” JETRO Chairman Hiroyuki Ishige told reporters at a briefing.

Sino-Japanese ties have been strained by a territorial row over tiny disputed isles in the East China Sea and perceptions in Beijing that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to rewrite Japan’s wartime history and tone down past apologies.