Business is back in Japan!

For an organization whose core mission is to bring together European and Japanese companies, the Covid-19 lockdown has been a challenge. It was therefore a relief for the business community when Japan finally reopened its borders on October 11 after two and a half years of travel restrictions. This is good news for business travellers who no longer have to go through the tedious administrative procedure to get a visa. This also means the return to physical missions and trainings in Japan for the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation.

Attracting a new category of participants: SMEs with limited resources

The Centre took this challenge as an opportunity to reinvent itself, by developing and proposing online services. The digital format allowed not only to maintain our services to support European companies, but it also enabled the Centre to attract a new category of participants to our services: those SMEs and managers that do not have the time and financial resources to come to Japan and participate physically in trade fairs, matchmaking events, or trainings. These digital services are now part of our normal services and are here to stay. They are complementary to the physical events organised; the hybrid format is the new norm.

Re-start of physical missions and trainings in Japan by the Centre

In the past months, we have gradually started our physical events again. On 1 September we had the pleasure to welcome 20 university students of engineering and science for our 1-year Vulcanus internship programme in Japanese industrial companies. On 11 October we welcomed again 9 European SMEs to our Biotech and pharma Partnering Conference in Osaka and to our booth at the BioJapan trade fair from 12 to 14 October, leading to hundreds of bilateral online and physical meetings between European and Japanese companies. 
On 15 November, the EU-Japan Centre organised the 24th edition of the EU-Japan Business Round Table in Tokyo with the physical participation of close to 140 participants, half of them from Europe. The event allowed business leaders to have informal discussions and follow-up meetings, which the digital format has more difficulty to capture. Recently, from 29 November to 2 December, the EU-Japan Centre organised a digital mission at the Innovation Leaders Summit with the participation of 10 European SMEs. It was a real pleasure for the Centre to serve the participants at these different events and help them connect with Japanese business partners.  

How is the business environment in Japan today? 

Japanese business confidence is rather low following the geopolitical developments affecting the world. Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine has led to a surge in energy prices for Japanese businesses whose country is, like the EU, dependent on foreign energy sources. Supply chains disruptions that were witnessed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic are being aggravated by the conflict in Ukraine and by the US-China tensions. Rising demands for green technologies and batteries are creating tensions on the semiconductor market and key raw materials markets - an opportunity for some, for example the producers of chips, but a challenge for those in demand of particular input materials, such as in the automotive sector. 
The tightening of monetary conditions set by the US Federal bank in particular - but also by the European Central Bank, combined with the loose approach of the Japanese Central Bank, has led in recent weeks to a historic weakening of the yen compared to the US dollar and other international currencies. As a result, Japanese businesses, although in principle more competitive on outside markets thanks to the weak yen, are suffering from expensive imported raw materials. The hope for Japanese business leaders is to have the Chinese and US economies maintaining a positive growth outlook.  As for EU-Japan business relations, the very positive bilateral political relationship should further support growing exchanges between the two partners. 

What’s next for the Centre? 

More physical missions are scheduled in 2023 starting with the nanotech mission from 31 January to 2 February and the Green/cluster SME mission from 15 to 17 March.  We will also resume our physical World Class Manufacturing training program with a session on the week of 13 March.  Stay tuned to our website, social media accounts and mailings for updates on our services and deadlines to apply to our programmes. Whether online or physically, we look forward to helping you get the most out of your Japanese experience.