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Would you like to seize business opportunities in Japan’s service economy? In considering a service-related business venture into a new market, one needs to maximize opportunities by taking all possible trade linkages into consideration. Access to reliable information is the key for success. When entering a particular foreign market, it is a rule of thumb to target local partners who have market knowledge and developed business networks. When growing your service-related business, it is...

How do I successfully prepare and negotiate a deal?Meetings with Japanese partners follow a different agenda than the one we are used to in Europe. They require a more meticulous preparation process and a good deal of formality. For European business people, the greatest challenge however lies in the fact that Japanese meetings tend to be lengthy and tedious and seldom produce any concrete output. Many try to speed up the process, insist on achieving visible results or put pressure on the...

What is Japan’s approach to address plastic pollution?Japan is a world leader producer and consumer of plastic and disposable products. Yet, marine pollution from plastic waste is a growing concern and, after the EU, Japan is actively preparing a new strategy to tackle this issue before welcoming the next G20 in Osaka in 2019. The webinar will introduce the Japanese market of single-use plastic products and potential substitutes, focusing on the items targeted by the EU. We will review the...

How can a European company efficiently set up and effectively utilise a representative office in Japan?This Webinar presents practical, step-by-step guidelines relevant to EU-based small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are thinking about entering Japanese markets by first opening a representative office. For many companies in Europe, Japan can appear both an attractive and a distant or unfamiliar market. For this reason, many European companies hesitate to invest in Japan, or do decide...

What Laws should you know when starting a business in Japan? Legal matters upon starting and operating a business in Japan from technical points will be described in this webinar. On the other hand, the presentation will focus on the course of actions for start-ups and how to overcome the challenges you may encounter rather in practical points of view. The webinar is targeted to EU companies seeking to launch a business in Japan, and who would need updated information about the laws and the...

Urban Technology Alliance offering European and Japanese Smart City TestbedsThe first objective of this webinar is to present the Urban Technology Alliance (UTA), a global alliance of smart city testbeds involving European and Japanaese cities and technological stakeholders. In addition, this webinar will be an opportunity to give a presentation of some of the ongoing smart city experiments within the UTA city testbeds. The webinar is targeted to EU companies and organisations seeking a testing...

How can European SMEs both overcome and exploit mutual perceptions of distance and difference between European and Japanese business environments?In contexts for international business and management, perceptions of ‘distance’ and ‘difference’ can appear as sources of high risk, threats to management control, and thus as obstacles to international business success. As illustrated in this webinar, distances between Europe and Japan can appear actual or perceived: e.g. ‘real’ in terms of geography...

Are there distinctive styles of Japanese business communication?Specifically, the webinar focuses on styles of business communication commonly used by managers in Japan, comparing these styles of communication to those commonly used by managers across Europe. The term ‘style’ comes from a Latin word stilus, meaning a ‘writing instrument’ or ‘pen’. Just as individuals vary in terms of their ‘style’ of handwriting, so individual managers in Europe and in Japan vary in terms of their preferred...

How can managers in EU-based SMEs most effectively prepare for investing in a business trip to Japan?Increasing numbers of small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe are looking to make initial investments in Japanese markets for their goods and services. Common approaches include attending a trade exposition or fair or by joining an EU-sponsored trade mission. This webinar offers practical guidance to European SMEs attempting to ‘stand out from the crowd’ and ‘get noticed’ in Japan...

How can EU-based small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that have invested in a business trip to Japan follow up on and gain a return from this investment?One of the challenges that managers face after returning from an overseas business trip is to identify which of the meetings and conversations at (for example) a trade fair, Expo or conference should be prioritised and followed up on. The return from business trips in Japan can be especially challenging in this regard: not only are there...

How can EU-based SMEs prepare effectively for hosting a business delegation from Japan?After having invested time, money and other resources into making initial contact and subsequently developing the basis for a business relationship with partners in Japan, one objective commonly shared by managers in European small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is to invite their Japanese partners to their ‘home base’ in Europe. One potential gain in having such an invitation accepted is that the...

What is the Japanese Renewable Energy Market Situation in 2013?BEFORE the Fukushima accident in March 2011, Renewable Energies accounted for only 9% (mainly hydroelectricity for 8%) of the total 2010 electricity production in Japan, far behind major conventional sources like gas, nuclear and coal. From a world ranking perspective, Japan was #13 in Wind Energy, #3 in Solar Energy and # 8 in Geothermal Energy. In short, the government was concentrating on nuclear and solar power generation...

How can managers in EU-based SMEs achieve clear and confident outcomes in their negotiations with Japanese business partners?Earlier Webinars in this series have illustrated how Japanese and European business cultures differ. In European cultures it is normal for people to express individual preferences and concerns directly and explicitly, while in Japan there is a shared expectation that these should be stated indirectly and implicitly, perhaps in order to avoid causing embarrassment or...

Are you familiar with administrative processes in sequence when exporting and selling your agri-food products to Japan?Agri-food sector is one of the three areas where the EU expects to make the greatest gains under the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) which came into force on 1 February 2019. This is the first webinar of a series of three practical guides for the EU producers and exporters of agri-food products to learn the administrative processes to follow and to make thorough...

Are you familiar with legal procedures to fully comply with when exporting and selling agri-food products to Japan?Agri-food sector is one of the three areas where the EU expect to make the greatest gains under the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) which came into force on 1 February 2019. This is the second webinar of a series of three practical guides for the EU producers and exporters of agri-food products to know the legal procedures and comply to full extent with legal...

Are you familiar with managerial planning to draw optimal results when exporting and selling your agri-food products to Japan?Agri-food sector is one of the three areas where the EU expect to make the greatest gains under the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) which came into force on 1 February 2019. This is the last webinar of a series of three practical guides for the EU producers and exporters of agri-food products to learn how to make managerial planning and optimise the outcomes...

What are the characteristics of the Japanese Circular Economy in terms of policy, business and trade?The Japanese government has taken significant steps to develop a circular economy policy framework. It incorporates the Japanese concepts of a Sound Material-Cycle Society (SMCS) and the 3Rs (reduce reuse and recycle) to promote waste minimisation and effective utilisation of resources, driven by a concern about the lack of landfill sites and the need for effective resource use. The Japanese...

How can I access the Japanese market as a novel biopharmaceutical product's owner?Japan includes a huge market for biopharmaceutical products which is open for innovative products and services, also those from abroad. Current trends are in immunotherapeuticals, cell-based products and genomic medicine. Japanese regulations favour innovative products and services and thus may offer an opportunity for fast-track market access. In view of specific rules and regulations, however, it may be...

Do you want strategic and pragmatic advice on how to deal with Japanese post-M&A challenges?Despite 2018 being a record year in Japanese outbound M&A activity, only 11% of Japanese companies admit to a successful post-M&A process. 'Who are the real stakeholders?'; 'Decision-making is very ambiguous’; ’What is their plan?' These reoccurring questions from top executives across a wide range of European companies indicate some of the underlying frustrations and challenges. The background for this...

Japan is quietly becoming a world leader in nanotechnology: what are the recent trends of this sector?It’s not very widely known or publicised by the Japanese government, but nanotech has reached a more mature stage in Japan which is leading to a variety of new initiatives and innovations which were not even conceivable when nanotech first came to the world’s attention a couple of decades ago. Japanese government initiatives as well as private company R&D has given Japanese researchers a much...