Japan's Interchange Association and Taiwan's Association of East Asian Relations executed the "Agreement between the Interchange Association and Association of East Asian Relations for the Mutual Cooperation on the Liberalization, Promotion and Protection of Investment" on 22 September 2011 (the "Agreement"). The Agreement includes a number of provisions that facilitate both parties' investment in each other. These provisions deserve the attention of Taiwanese investors eyeing the Japanese market and Japanese investors who are interested in the Taiwanese market or seeking a route into the Chinese market through Taiwan.

The Agreement addresses three areas: (1) investment promotion; (2) investment protection; and (3) investment liberalization. With regard to investment promotion, the Agreement permits unfettered inward and outward remittances of the funds of the parties, and there can be no mandatory ratio of local raw materials or quotas on local directors and managers employed. On trade protection, one of the focuses is that disputes between investors and the local government may be submitted to international arbitration. As for trade liberalization, the Taiwan-Japan Investment Agreement includes provisions on national treatment and most-favored-nation under which investment from one side may enjoy treatment no less favorable than that given to local investors or to foreign investors by the other side.

As to Taiwanese industries that are not open to foreign investment such as telecommunications, finance and marine transportation, they are still closed to the Japanese under the Agreement. In addition, in order to discourage exploitation of the Agreement intended to allow investment from China, which is subject to stricter restrictions, the Agreement adopted mechanisms to deny benefits to certain enterprises or indirect investments from certain areas.