Message of the President

A Lot of Good News

Dear SJCC Members and Friends,

I am pleased to inform you that the Chamber is improving continuously its activities and its visibility. More top leaders and opinion makers from Japan and Switzerland as well as Europe are invited to speak at the Chamber to give you privileged Japan related contacts and information.

Now I draw your attention to the SJCC’s upcoming after work event on 16 November 2016 with Professor Waldenberger, Director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies in Tokyo, and invite you to join his presentation on „Abenomics 2.0 – How can the productivity revolution succeed?“

Prof. Waldenberger is well known in Switzerland through his guest commentaries in the NZZ. He will discuss the opportunities and challenges for Japanese multinationals to develop management structures that allow the pursuit of globalization by leveraging diverse human resources also for management.

Furthermore I would like to inform you on

SJCC welcomed and supported Swiss-Japanese Parliamentary Groups
In September 2016, a delegation of the Japanese House of Representatives visited Switzerland. They met with members of the Swiss parliamentary group Switzerland-Japan. The Japanese group was headed by Seishiro Eto, Member of the House of Representatives. The Vice-President of the Swiss Foreign Affairs Committee and President of the Parliamentary Group Switzerland-Japan, National Councillor Elisabeth Schneider-Schneiter headed the Swiss parliamentary group. It was the first meeting ever between the two parliamentary groups.

News from SJCC Scholarship Fund
Good news can be shared from our Scholarship Fund which successfully acquired new partners and sponsors: SCCIJ and GC Corporation.
Through its Fund, SJCC enables young professionals to spend one year in Japan: 6 months intensive language improvement course, 6 months work experience in a company in Japan. The successful programme, that started over 25 years ago, registered over 225 scholarship recipients for a total amount of over CHF 2.8 Mio.
New sponsors are always very much welcomed and the chamber is at you disposal for more information.

WEF: Japan’s Economic Growth – a Question of Calculation?
The WEF published an article that Japan’s economy might be in much better shape than we thought. According to official data, Japan’s economic growth slowed by one percentage point, in real terms, in the 2014 fiscal year. However according to Bank of Japan researchers, tax data suggest that growth was more than three percentage points higher than the official figure, implying that GDP was some JPY 30 trillion (CHF 280 billion) larger than officially reported.

I thank you for your continuous support and hope to see many of you at our upcoming events.

Best regards

Martin Herb
President SJCC