Rob Gorton of TMUK responds to questions during the panel discussion.
This year’s seminar, held March 3, focused on international strategies implemented by local authorities in Japan and the importance of UK local authorities forming long-term partnerships with Japan to support their local economies.
Over 70 professionals from UK and Japanese government, business and academia gathered in Westminster’s Church House, with the event being chaired by Sue Hudson, Director of Business Development at Fujisankei Communications International. Her introduction to the seminar emphasised the importance of both countries learning each other’s culture, paying tribute to the JET Programme as an example of how the participants return to the UK from Japan with a wealth of knowledge.
JLGC Director Kazuya Shima opened the seminar with a brief introduction of JLGC and was followed by Minister Jotaro Horiuchi from the Embassy of Japan providing the opening remarks, highlighting the state of Japan-UK tourism.
Daisaku Yukita, Director of Japan External Trade Organisation (JETRO), then gave an overview of Japan’s regional economies and the organisation’s collaborative efforts with local authorities in Japan. Director Yukita gave a comparison of eight regions in Japan that had GDP equivalent of European countries and showed how niche companies across Japan commanded high global market share for their products.
Martin Phelan then followed from the Department for International Trade (DIT), or in his words “the JETRO of the UK”, picked up the baton switching the discussion to a UK perspective on foreign investment. As the DIT Northern Powerhouse International Director, Mr Phelan briefly described the role of DIT in helping to raise the profile of businesses from the north of England, ensuring that they are represented on the same level as the rest of the country to provide foreign investors more options to make the best decisions.
Moving from trade organisations, Takashi Yanagisawa of the City of Yokohama Frankfurt Representative Office gave the first presentation from a local authority. The city has clear aims to expand its emerging and aging markets as well as increase its international presence by 2020.
Jeff Cao, Head of Asia Pacific at London and Partners, then gave on the state of Japanese investment in London. We learned that Japan has remained one of the top five investors into London and is in the top seven for largest tourist markets.
The next presentation by Richard McGuckin took us north with a look at Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council’s international strategy. The first half of the presentation gave a general overview of Stockton highlighting its domestic and international transport links while the latter half focused on their business related activities which entails a 15-year growth strategy and a more defined three-year growth plan, emphasising their strong relationship with Japanese companies deepening its ties with JLGC.
Kiyokata Kume, Deputy Director of East Japan Railway Company London Office, was the first of the final two presentations that gave a perspective from Japanese companies; JR East has established an international technical consultancy service known as Japan International Consultants for Transportation (JIC), and along with the London Office have four other global offices. As well as marketing activities, the UK office collects information on the UK passenger railway industry which has led to the acquisition of a Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) passport enabling them to participate in UK passenger rail franchise bidding competitions. Mr Kume highlighted the community development initiatives that the rail company is involved with in Japan – these include tourism promotion in areas that are in need of an economic boost or have a low number of visitors; educational programmes for children; and revitalisation projects in regions and core cities that suffer from declining population and a poor local economy.
The final presentation was given by Rob Gorton, a former JET participant and now Corporate Planning Manager at Toyota UK. The car manufacturing giant has two plants in the UK which together represent a £2.5 billion investment, provide 3,000 jobs and generate £2.1 billion export revenue – surprisingly Japan is among the export destinations.
The seminar ended with a brief Q&A session with most of the speakers on the panel, followed by the participants attending a reception allowing them to reflect on the discussions from the event.
A full report with links to presentations can be found here.
