ブラック ジャック ストラテジー with Prime Minister Abe

On September 28, JETRO held an ブラック ジャック ストラテジー featuring Prime Minister Abe, the Governor of Mie Prefecture and the Mayor of Yokohama City making a direct appeal to US companies to consider investment in Japan. Executives of US-based companies who have extensive history investing in Japan also took the podium and made speeches and talked about the advantage of investing in Japan. The seminar received 280 participants from US companies, indicating that interest in investing Japan among US companies is fairly high.

ブラック ジャック ストラテジー sent a strong message to the audience by stating, “Japan is committed to doing reforms to make itself the most business-friendly country in the world.”
He also underlined that “Japan has a hidden treasure trove sitting dormant, called ‘manufacturing technology’. I hope that foreign companies make good use of this technology. To that end, Japan is going to establish a dedicated section within the government-affiliated financial institution which has transactions with Japanese SMEs to support collaboration between foreign companies and these SMEs. Japan is no longer a country closed to foreign people. Foreign workers belonging to the category of highly skilled personnel are allowed to stay in Japan indefinitely after an initial three-year residence.”

Douglas Beck, Apple’s Vice President of North America and Northeast Asia, referred to the company’s strong thirty-year long relationship with Japan. He mentioned that Apple employs over 2,100 people directly and has been seeing robust expansion of sales in recent years. He expressed Apple’s continuous commitment in investing in Japan for many years to come starting with establishment of a research and development center by receiving support from the city of Yokohama.
Eran Westman, CEO and Board Member, Vidyo, Inc. a developer and supplier of video conference technology, mentioned how important the Japanese market for his company is, calling it the second largest market for his company after the US. He mentioned the significance of making goals clear and having good business partners in order to become successful in Japan.

The question and answer session was another opportunity for participant’s high interest to be displayed. It also allowed the advantages of Japan as an investment destination to be fully conveyed to the participants and increased their understanding of investing in Japan.

At the reception held after the seminar, local governments, including those from the venue of the ministerial meetings at the G7 Ise-Shima Summit scheduled for 2016, conducted PR activities by setting up booths, displaying local specialties and engaging in proactive communication with participants.