The Enterprise Europe Network is the world's largest business support network comprising of 600 organisations in over 60 countries. More than 3,000 experts support businesses to innovate and grow internationally. The EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation is the local Network contact point in Japan.

The Centre achieved or overshot all targets set for 2018 with the organisation of 823 face-to-face meetings between Japanese and European companies. Moreover, 143 expressions of interest were triggered by Japanese and European businesses for commercial & technology partnership proposals published in the EEN's Virtual Market Place. In 2018, the Centre further increased the number of business deals and technology transfer agreements (incl. contributions to advisory services outcomes) established between Japanese and EU companies. An increasing number of European EEN partners flag the Centre as contributor to advisory services, which they delivered to European businesses throughout 2018.

The workshops/trainings offered by the Centre raised interest among EU EEN partners and their company clients, with 22 cross-cultural workshops on how to do business in Japan with EEN partners organised in various EU Member States. The Centre generates also useful synergies between EEN and the other services offered by the Centre. This clearly indicates the added value the Centre brings to the Enterprise Europe Network.

A concrete example:

With the support of the EEN Japan, a premium Hungarian software development company successfully entered the Japanese market. The Budapest based company provides tailor-made IT solutions to clients. The executive staff of the Hungarian company attended managerial training organised by the Centre and participated in an ICT related trade mission part of the official EEN calendar. During the ICT mission, they were able to exhibit at a dedicated IT trade fair in Tokyo, and got acquainted to potential new Japanese business partners such as a Tokyo-based company providing innovative internet solutions in mobile internet engineering. Most recently, both companies have been collaborating in the development of innovative new products.