NOTE: The FCCJ Office has moved on 20 February , new contact information:
Forest View Meguro 101
5-11-17, Shimomeguro
Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-0064
Tel. 03-5725-9596 Fax. 03-5725-9597
On Wednesday, 16 May the Dutch Chamber and Tohoku Planning Forum, supported by 17 national chambers of commerce and Hitotsubashi University ICS, presented the GIVING BACK TO JAPAN 2: Community Leaders Report. Leaders of cities and towns across Tohoku (Ofunato, Yamada, Aizu Misato, Iwanuma and Onagawa) explained about their current and planned reconstruction efforts.
Television and radio presenter Peter Barakan will guided the discussion about communities' rebuilding processes and ongoing needs as well as for ways in which individuals and organizations can help their communities toward their goal.
At the reception there were 12 NPO charities present to answer questions on how help can be extended through them.
For more about the event, which was attended by 415 persons,
click here!
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The Foreign Chambers in Japan (FCIJ) has been conducting Business Confidence surveys online twice a year since 2002 among foreign-affiliated companies in Japan. This, the 21st, survey was conducted between April 10 and 20, 2012, and received 325 valid responses from members of 17 foreign chambers of commerce and business organizations.
The survey was run and processed on behalf of all the chambers by the FCCJ.
This survey shows, as could be seen already in the Fall 2011 survey, that the problems and uncertainties caused by the 3.11 disaster are now to a large extent behind and now 3.11. is more seen as an opportunity than a threat. All indexes, from views on the Japanese economy to the performance of the companies, as well as their forecasts for the future, rose about 15-25% from the Fall 2011 survey. Only the profitability forecast for the next 6 months was same as in the previous survey, but still showed a healthy index of +0.68 on the scale from -2 (strong decline) to +2 (strong improvement).
The Japanese economy for the next 6 months is expected to grow further - the index (on a scale from +2 to -2) was now +0.47 (compared to +0.31 in fall 2011), and looking 12 months ahead, the companies see an even stronger turn for the better and the index was now +0.67, an improvement from the +0.55 in the previous survey.
The strategies of the foreign-affiliated companies in Japan continue to be rather bullish. 73% (68% in the fall 2011 survey) are looking for further growth and 22% are expecting to sustain their current level and 4% downsizing. Only 1% (four companies out of the surveyed 325) considers withdrawing from Japan.
For the full report,
click here!
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Left Stora Enso's Tuomo Kuuppo (no.2 in the competition) presents the trophy to Sakari Romu (no.1), FCCJ Tomoichi Onishi (no. 2) and Hiroaki Sugawara (no. 3). Behind SCCJ's Eiji Takagi.
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The 20th Stora Enso Cup, the golf challenge between the Swedish and Finnish Chambers was played on Friday, 20 April at Taiheiyo Club Gotemba West in Shizuoka Prefecture. The event was played in quite nice spring weather, mostly cloudy, a few drops of rain but warm enough for a fine day of golf.
36 players participated in the competition (17 from FCCJ , 19 from SCCJ), including four guests. Notable was that 19 (more than half) of the players were Japanese.
The Finnish Chamber came on now top after the SCCJ had taken the previous Cup. This FCCJ beat the Swedish Chamber by a fairly large margin, 3.8 strokes on average per player, 80.2 versus 84.0 as average for the best 80% in each team. The FCCJ now has two more wins than the SCCJ, 11 against 9.
The best golfer on the day was, with some margin, Sakari Romu (FCCJ) who was Best Net (71), Best Gross (79) and also took one near pin prize.
For a full report from the event,
click here 
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The inaugural EBC Sustainable Development Conference, titled "The End of Business as We Know it", was held on Tuesday, 10 April at Hotel Okura attended by about 270 members from 15 chambers of commerce. .
Paul Roberts, author of The End of Oil and The End of Food, Taro Kono, M.P., House of Representatives, LDP, and Hans Dietmar Schweisgut, Ambassador of the EU to Japan, headed a lineup of distinguished speakers who covered many key areas that will determine the outlook for business and people's quality of life in the future.
For more about the conference, organized by the European Business Council in Japan (EBC), in collaboration with other foreign chambers of commerce in Japan, click here  .
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The thirteenth FCCJ Annual General Assembly was held on Tuesday, 3 April at the Embassy of Finland attended by 35 chamber members and members of its Board of Trustees. Due to the anticipated strong spring storm, there were a large number of late cancellations.
Re-elected FCCJ President Marko Saarelainen greets the members after the assembly.
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Three new board members were elected, Yasuyuki Oda, Kone Japan, Marko Salonen, Finpro/Finland Trade Center and JP Takala, Nokia Siemens Networks Japan Corp..
After the assembly proceedings, Ambassador Jari Gustafsson hosted a buffet dinner with a lot of active discussions between the members.
For more about the general assembly and many images,
click here
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