A well-attended NCCJ Business Round Table held on Wednesday, 22 January 2010 at the Deshima Lounge of the Netherlands Embassy welcomed Wendela Elsen, founder of Open Rabbit KK, as guest speaker with her presentation with the intriguing theme “Women – The Way Forward for Smart Business Strategy.”

Ms. Elsen presented the business case for actively increasing the participation of women at all organizational levels, providing several reasons why and in what way companies could benefit from doing so. She referred to examples in other countries, such as the Netherlands, where a high participation of women already exists. Japan, with its graying population, might benefit from introducing some of the principles that drove the increase of women participation in those countries.

Mr. Rio Praaning Prawira Andningrat was the guest speaker at the NCCJ  luncheon meeting held on Wednesday, 10 February, 2010.  Mr. Praaning is Founder and Managing Partner of  PA Europe,  PA Asia, PA Russia, PA Middle East and PA CSR, which provides senior company management with advice on Corporate Social Responsibility strategies and projects.  The luncheon was well-attended by both NCCJ and EBC members who were interested to hear the insights of this  CSR expert based on his 30 years of strategic advice to more than 400 clients (from authorities, companies and civic organizations to non-governmental organizations).

I'm from Los Angeles. After studying at Brigham Young University in Hawaii, I joined PwC, first in Long Beach, California and then transferred to Honolulu and then came to Japan to work with a different consulting firm. After that, I ran my own company for about 8 years before joining TMF Japan K.K. group. It is the first time for me to work with Dutch-based clients and is a different work environment. Now a little about TMF: TMF Japan K.K. delivers back-office services for foreign companies in Japan, sort of like a big secretary for companies. We

Interview with Erik Oskamp,  12 November 2009

Please tell us something about yourself
We are a small company with two employees, including myself, located in Akasaka.  Hours are 10:00- 18:30 but we often work until late to be accessible for our clients. As we are open on Saturdays and Sundays, we are often closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. We focus on our relations with our clients and try to find good deals for them within an often locked-down and controlled market. With my background in programming and financing for well-known institutions, I set up my company to provide my clients with a custom-made software tool that analyses the current real-estate market in Japan. In 2007, I started it with the help of my wife who has a Japanese real estate license.

Mr. Fasol illustrated how technologies invented and first marketed in Japan changed the world: the mobile internet revolution, the solid state lighting (LED) revolution, and camera phones were all originated in Japan. Some European high-tech companies have 80% of global business in Japan - at the same time several of Europe’s most important technology giants have failed in Japan.