ICCJ and Ibaraki Prefecture Cooperation

The main scope of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ICCJ) is to promote Made in Italy in Japan. Having said that, the way the ICCJ has been doing so has changed significantly in the past 10 years.

One of the most effective ways the ICCJ has experimented is to enhance fruitful collaborations between Italy and Japan. In order to do that, Japan has to be thoroughly introduced and explained to Italians before they can really commit. Since Milan Expo in 2015, the ICCJ has been introducing more and more Japanese producers on a B2B level resulting sometimes in new business adventures that would eventually bring the Italian counterpart to Japan. Lately, the ICCJ won a bid to promote Ibaraki food and beverage culture to Italy and the entire promotional strategy was built on creating a bond between Japanese producers of local produce (natto, matcha powder, renkon, satsumaimo...) and 20 Italian chefs who, after having been educated on the products, have integrated them in their daily recipes giving not only suggestions to producers on how to customize their offer according to the Italian taste, but also suggesting new Italian recipes based on Ibaraki local products that can be adopted by chefs around Ibaraki.

The second part of the campaign will be centered on introducing the above products to organic and healthy distributors in Italy with the help of the 20 chefs.