2025 Briefings and lectures to European Companies about Japan on behalf of EU Japan Centre and European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).

Our MD Sarah Parsons was delighted to be able to work with EIT again this time on their 🇪🇺 🇯🇵 Calling2Scale Gunma programme taking 12 European start ups from 11 countries to Gunma, Japan to meet Gunma-based corporates, see the Gunma ecosystem, find out about the prefecture’s innovation strengths, have peer-to-peer engagement with Japanese start ups, do site visits including a tour of Subaru’s innovation operations as well as attend start-up networking events in Tokyo.  Sarah kickstarted the first day of the pre-trade mission workshop organised alongside Deloitte , where she presented about 'Navigating business culture differences between Japan and Europe for high-level collaboration’. Gunma is particularly special to Sarah, as she lived there from 1995-1998, for 2 years in Ojima-machi not far from the Subaru factory in Ota-shi, and for one year in Kiryu-shi, a city famous for silk production. It is wonderful to see such collaboration taking place between Gunma and Europe.

Sarah also really enjoyed delivering the final day of on-line lectures for the delegates going out on the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation Get Ready for Japan programme, to a wonderful mix of businesses from all over Europe about B2B and B2C considerations, linking in with key cultural insights from the Japanese market. They covered some interesting discussions ranging from kaizen, detail orientation/risk aversion, patience and relationship building needed for B2B success, Japan's different consumer groups, Eight (digital business card sharing app), IP and importing considerations to Tik Tok and LINE!

Earlier in the year, Sarah also presented about Japanese business communications, processes and practices on behalf of EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation to Austrian Life Science Start-ups and Agencies going out to Japan with the FFG Austrian Research Promotion Agency on a mission co-organised with encognize G.K.