Mr. Jyrki Katainen, Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Finance of Finland, who was in Tokyo from 25 to 27 January on an working visit, was the guest speaker at the Joint Nordic Luncheon Meeting on Tuesday, 26 January.

During his visit to Tokyo, Mr. Katainen and his delegation had profound discussions with his counterparts and business leaders of Japan on the state of the Japanese economy, its recent changes and the outlook for the future. The Japan-EU relations where also on the list of topics as well as other global issues.

The theme of Minister Katainen's presentation at the luncheon was "Economic policy after the crisis". According to Katainen, the crisis hit hardest very open economies and for example the Japanese and Finnish exports declined by 30%. The goverment policies after the crisis should be to keep trade open, address the fiscal crisis, solve competitiveness problems, ensure financial stability and improve global governance.

For more about the luncheon meeting, attended by 35 members and guests, click here

The social highlight of the year of the Nordic Chambers in Japan, the Scandinavian Christmas Party, was held on Friday, 11 December at The Westin Tokyo Hotel.

413 members from FCCJ (65 participants), SCCJ (Sweden), DCCJ (Denmark), ICCJ (Iceland) and NCCJ (Norway) and their guests enjoyed a fantastic evening together with delicious Nordic Christmas influenced food and wine, and a lot of other drinks.

The party started with Santa Claus paying a visit, followed by Christmas Songs by a group from Sophia University, a much appreciated performance by BonBanGoo, a World Champion in juggling, and ending off the night with a lot of dancing to the tunes of Brad and the Hitmen.

For more about the party, with many pictures, click here

The traditional FCCJ Christmas Luncheon was held for the tenth time at the Embassy of Finland on Tuesday 8, December. The 40 participants enjoyed a delicious seafood style Christmas lunch prepared by the Embassy's chef.

H.E. Ambassador Jari Gustafsson gave us some impressions of his first three months "on duty". He said that actually he might need three more months before making any firm comments. He also gave an interesting insight on his view on the current political and economic climate in Japan. The new First Secretary at the Embassy, Jukka Pajarinen, introduced himself and explaned about his tasks at the Embassy and hope for a good cooperation with the business community.

For a picture report from the luncheon, click here

The FCCJ November luncheon meeting was held on Wednesday the 25th with the theme "Dairy Cooperation between Japan and Finland" The speaker was Dr. Fang He, Research & Development Dept. Manager at Takanashi Milk Products Co., Ltd.

Takanashi Milk Products have had a long and extensive co-operation with Valio, the leading Finnish dairy company and Dr. Fang He has been instrumental in this co-operation. He was also Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Department of Biochemistry and Food Chemistry, University of Turku from March 1999 to March 2000.

The meeting, held at Hotel Okura, was attended by 19 members and guests.

For more about the event, click here