Interested in business with Japan?
Want to know more about Japanese business culture?
Wish to learn keys to success in business with Japan?
Why not spending 75 minutes once a month with like-minded people?
“Moshi moshi, Japan?” is an informal meet-up with people doing business with Japan.
Theme “Amazing Japanese!” — What do you read from this? We will watch an amazing video clip and discuss what you read about Japan.
Presenter Yoshiko KURISAKI, Founder, Europe-Japan Dynamics, Geneva
Please enjoy fresh & hot news from Japan with comments by Europe-Japan Dynamics.
8 Jan. Training by Virtual Reality system — preparation for operation of Naraha Center for reactor decommissioning, Fukushima
Japan Atomic EnergyAgencyis using theVR (virtual reality) systemat its Naraha Sector of Research and Development located in Naraha-Machi, Fukushima, to train the personnel who will be involved in the decommissioning of the reactors of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO)’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.
Wearing special glasses, one may look at the state of the nuclear reactor built indoor three-dimensionally and assess the volume of radiation when working inside of the building. The VR system will be used for training and planning of the decommissioning work.
Comment: Using VR for dangerous tasks is a great step forward in the use of the information technology (IT). A remaining challenge is that the decommissioning must be done by human hands inside of the hazardous building. I’d expect that in the near future robots for this task will be created and work inn combination with the VR systems.
9 Jan. A Japanese beer giant, Asahi Group Holdings (HD), acquiring two major beer brands in Europe
Asahi Group Holdings Ltd., a holding company of one of the largest beer companies in Japan, may start negotiations to acquire Peroni (Italy ) and Grolsch (The Netherlands) soon. The acquisition is estimated to cost USD 3.4 billion.
Comment: An impact of the aging of population on the beer business is a major trigger of this move. The volume of beer consumption in Japan has been decreasing since 1994, though it is still the most consumed alcoholicbeverage. This is mainly due to a decrease in the beverage consumption in general, shrinking domestic market because of the aging of population, and shift of consumer preference to other non-traditional drinks. Asahi’s planned acquisition of the European brands is against such a domestic market situation.
11 Jan. Legal consultation web site is a big hit
Legal consultation via the web sites is hitting legal needs of a number of people in Japan. These are operated by lawyers for free or some fees, depending on a site operator. “While the face to face consultation is the best, the web consulting system provides the first step for people to access to the legal experts.”, said some layers.
Comment: The web provides an easy access to a professional service that used to be considered expensive and for special occasion only. A major challenge for the service providers (layers) is to create a business model to grow their real business out of free or low-cost consultation.
12 Jan. Increasing number of citizens visiting the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.
The number of visitors are increasing in the decommissioning site of the reactors of Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO)’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Among the 16,000 visitors since the disaster in March 2011, it is remarkable that the number of citizens are increasing. Their major interest is to witness the decommissioning in order to think what the Japanese society should do with the nuclear power in the future.
Comment: It is critical to have the first-hand experience with what is going on after the nuclear disaster. The visit would provide a good opportunity of public education for citizens to create a meaningful debate on the nuclear power in society.
13 Jan. Cyber attack at Univ. of Hokkaido
The University of Hokkaido (Sapporo) announced that a server of its career center had been attacked in December. Personal data of over ten thousand people, including the one of present and past students, could have been stolen.
Comment: Outflow of personal data happened several times in Japan in recent years. Business opportunities of data protection specialists are increasing.
All the news items are picked up from “Asahi Digital”, and summarized and translated by Europe-Japan Dynamics. These are not an official translation by the Asahi Newspaper.
Please enjoy fresh & hot news from Japan with my personal comments.
4 Jan.Tokyo is starting to provide subsidy to utilize empty houses.
Due to the aging of population, the number of empty houses are increasing in Japan. There are about 8 millions these houses in the country, of which about 10 % are located in Tokyo.
The Prefectural Government of Tokyo plans to introduce subsidies to those who utilize the empty houses for some public purposes, namely, accommodation for staff to take care of the aged, temporary housing for the child and family services.
Comments — The aging of the population has brought Japan a problem of an increasing number of empty houses all over the country. Being abandoned and unprepared, these houses are creating risks, such as the fire, security of the neighborhood or damage to the neighboring houses in case of falling down. How about in your country?
5 Jan. New Year’s resolution — “Most delighted if we’d declare the end of the deflation” said Mr. Amari
Mr. Akira AMARI, Minister of economic recovery, said when he was asked on his New Year’s resolution at the press conference on 4 Jan., “I’d be most delighted if the Government could declare the end of deflation”.
Since the official recognition of the deflation in March 2001, the Government has not yet declared that it’s over.
Comments — It’s the wish of all the people in Japan.
All the news items above are picked up from “Asahi Digital”, summarized and translated by Europe-Japan Dynamics.
Interested in business with Japan?
Want to know more about Japanese business culture?
Wish to learn keys to success in business with Japan?
Why not spending 75 minutes once a month with like-minded people?
“Moshi moshi, Japan?” is an informal meet-up with people doing business with Japan.
– What are other people doing to work well with Japan?
– What works and what doesn’t?
– What breakthrough did other people make?
Mr. Kiyoshi IMAI is Trade and Investment Adviser of Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) in Geneva. He has been helping the trade development between Switzerland and Japan in the past 28 years.
He kindly agreed to share his valuable experiences with us, including those unpublished.
Date and time: From 18h00 to 19h15, Friday, 20 November
Place: McDonald’s (find us at a table on the 1st Floor), 22, rue du Mont-Blanc, 1201 Geneva (1 min from Cornavin station)
Languages: French and English
Fee: CHF 10.- for Organisation and your own coffee
Registration: By e-mail or phone to Yoshiko Kurisaki, Europe-Japan Dynamics
Yoshiko.kurisaki@gmail.com, Tel. 076 411 6076
We had a very lively discussion at “Moshi moshi, Japan?” on 23 October, participated by professional women who have first-hand yet various work-relationships with Japan.
Highlights of the discussion are —
Too may people
“Japan is stressful. There are so many people.”
“No, that’s not true. There are so many people on streets in Tokyo, but they don’t touch each other. People know how to behave in the crowd. I was surprised to know it. In Europe, people don’t care.”
Communication
“Eye-contact is taken as too strong in Japan.”
“A good idea is to look at the area between the eyes of your counterpart.”
“One should take time in communication in English. It is also a sign of respect.”
Fashion
“Japanese professional women used to be dressed conservatively. Now I met many women who want to be unique, and look for personalization.”
Cultural training was needed
“One can’t leave the office at 6 PM in a Japanese company. If you do it, you are selfish. Being European, I took a training courseto learn the Japanese way of thinking in a Japanese company I worked.”
Wisdom of a frequent visitor
“The most important thing I leaned by working with Japan is patience. It has taken me four years to create a good work-relationship.”
”I try different things every time I go to Japan.”
The European professional women are doing well! Intellectual curiosity, respect and patience are three keys that lead to the work relationship built on trust.
Next meeting Friday, 20 November, 2015 ****************
Theme “Helping Switzerland and Japan for 28 years”
Moshi moshi, Japan?, Geneva, Friday, 23 October (Speaker is changed.)
“Moshi moshi, Japan?” is an informal meet-up with people doing business with Japan.
Theme “Clues for the western professional women visiting Japan”
What is the status of working women in Japan?
What is an appropriate business attire?
How to carry on negotiation with Japanese businessmen?
And more
Presenter Yoshiko KURISAKI, Europe-Japan Dynamics
Date and time: From 18h00 to 19h15, Friday, 23 October
Place: McDonald (find us at a table on the 1st Floor), 22, rue du Mont-Blanc, 1201 Geneva (1 min from Cornavin station)
Languages: French and English
Fee: CHF 10.- for Organisation and your own coffee
Registration: By e-mail or phone to Yoshiko Kurisaki, Europe-Japan Dynamics
Yoshiko.kurisaki@gmail.com, Tel. 076 411 6076
Next meeting ————————————————-
Friday, 20 November, 2015
Theme “Helping Switzerland and Japan for 28 years”
Presenter to be confirmed. Mr. Kiyoshi IMAI, Trade and Investment Adviser, Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), Geneva
Date and time: From 18h30 to 19h45, Friday, 23 October
Place: McDonald (find us at a table on the 1st Floor), 22, rue du Mont-Blanc, 1201 Geneva (1 min from Cornavin station)
Languages: French and English
Fee: CHF 10.- for Organisation and your own coffee
Registration: By e-mail or phone to Yoshiko Kurisaki, Europe-Japan Dynamics
Yoshiko.kurisaki@gmail.com, Tel. 076 411 6076
Source: Asahi Ahimbun, 8 Sep. 2015 and summarised and translated by Europe-Japan Dynamics
The real growth rate of Japanese GDP for the period of April to June 2015 was 0.3 % less than the one in the previous quarter (January to March), according to the second breaking news released by the Cabinet Office of the Government of Japan. The figure is equivalent to decrease by 1.2 % p.a., which was an upward revision from the first breaking news in August, that reported decrease by 1.6 % p.a.
Yet to fly high.
It must be noted that the main factor of the upward change was largely due to increase in stock, which does not necessarily signal the improvement of GDP. It is three quarters since the last negative economic growth.
The increase in stock would be due to a still weak buying power of consumers, rather than the increase predicting sales increase in the near future, according to the chief economist of SMBC.
The capital spending was largely revised downward from 0.1% decrease of the first breaking news to 0.9% decrease. This is due to influence of the slowdown of the China’s economy.
Recommendations to Swiss companies – If you wish to sell goods and services to Japanese companies, you must emphasize cost savings first, before efficiency and quality. It is a good timing to travel to Japan.
Santen, the top Japanese company of eye drops has inaugurated its European office in Geneva, reported by Tribune de Genève on 2 September. It is reported that the company had selected Switzerland for its stability that is indispensable for a long term project, which is to become the third largest company in the ophthalmic field worldwide, from the present 15th. Major reasons of the selection of Geneva, among other Cantons, were its professionalism and good understanding of the company’s needs.
Santen’s office in Geneva will have fifteen (15) managers at the begining, and double the number in three to five years to come.
(Note, Information from Japanese source was not available yet as of 3 September.)
Point of interest: Santen had a long-term strategy in mind.
Facts aout Santen
Established in Osaka in 1890
Revenue (March 2015) — US$ 1,419.2 Million
Products — Eye drops for a variety of eye diseases, including glaucoma and dry eye, supported by research and development, production and quality compliance, and sales and marketing
The number of employees — About 3200 worldwide
The company web site –> http://www.santen.eu/eu/Pages/default.aspx
What did a French man find when he was a president of a Japanese company in the aerospace industry for 8 years?
At the age of 29 years old, Patrice was appointed to be the president of a Japanese company, that had been just acquired by a French company. Though he spoke Japanese already, he still had a number of findings in the Japanese business culture.
The Japanese are uniform. When “No necktie” is recommended, all do the same. (Tokyo)
A long time to sell to major Japanese companies
Our major clients are well-established and large Japanese companies. They were conservative and didn’t trust us as quick as European and American clients did. The Japanese clients asked us requested us various data and samples, that even included confidential information.
The CEO and factory managers of my parent company didn’t understand such Japanese business culture. My role was to educate them. To do so, I brought them to to meetings with Japanese customers.
What was a clue to success?
It is important to show commitment to clients. In my case, I always visited the customers with the Director of Sales of my company, rather than staying in the office. I did sals myself. This worked to the clients. In addition, the attitude of customers were softer to me than they were to my Japanese staff.
Very high quality requirements
Quality requirements of Japanese clients are much higher than the one by European and American companies. For example, even a smallest scratch on your product is unacceptable for the Japanese, even though it has nothing to do with its functions. This is because the Japanese are concerned about the root cause.
You must have a system in place to be prepared for a case something wrong happens. It is another way to show your commitment.
How to assess the satisfaction of Japanese customers
The Japanese customers do not complain, hence you can be profitable at a small scale. In contrast, the French complain and the Americans, cheat the system. For the Japanese, you must get a feel of dissatisfaction or satisfaction. If you don’t feel their dissatisfaction, the Japanese customers may just disappear.
How to manage the Japanese staff
I was 23 years old when I entered the company and became the president when I was 29. I spoke Japanese and my young colleagues took me around. I even participated in “Settai”, a dinner with clients. These experience helped me to manage the staff.
Japanese staff wait for a boss to tell them to do A, B, C, …. In addition, a close follow-up is needed. In contrast, the Europeans are independent and they take initiatives. You can let them go. The French needs much motivation but not being told.
Strong resistance to the change
In recruitment, I found that many people were afraid of working in a foreign-owned company, We offered high salary but it didn’t work well. We could hire only those who worked in other foreign companies before.
Japanese people are highly uniform in their working habit. A strong leadership counts to make any change.
Forthcoming meetings — “Moshi moshi, Japan?” will meet again in the autumn 2015. Planned dates are, 23 October, 20 November and 3 December. Will keep you posted.
Wish to know how to succeed in business with Japan?
Please ask Yoshiko KURISAKI for more –> yoshiko,kurisaki@gmail.com
