After a February meeting between U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May and 19 Japanese business chiefs, Tokyo¡¯s ambassador to Britain warned what might happen if Brexit took an unfavorable turn for foreign investors.
¡°No private company can continue operations¡± in the U.K. if it becomes unprofitable, Koji Tsuruoka told reporters on the steps of May¡¯s Downing Street residence, after the premier pledged to pursue frictionless trade with the European Union. ¡°It is as simple as that.¡±
Eight months later, as the risk of a no-deal Brexit looms larger and nearer, Japanese companies aren¡¯t waiting around to find out whether May can deliver. Instead, a growing number of them are heeding Tsuruoka¡¯s warning, shifting operations out of the U.K. or threatening to scale back if the country crashes out of the EU without a deal.
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