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Last month, The Japan Market Expansion Competition (JMEC) announced the winners for the JMEC 25 program. More than 220 guests—including senior executives and other leaders from embassies and foreign chambers of commerce in Japan—attended the JMEC Awards Ceremony and party at the Tokyo American Club. 

The team that won the first prize drafted the business plan for NCCJ member and Dutch high-tech company Plugwise, a leading company in the area of intelligent heating control solutions. 

Remco Aberson, Head of APAC at Plugwise shared his enthusiasm: “The whole process of this past year was very professional. The team had a good idea of where they wanted to go with the business plan and they made it work. The meetings we had were to the point and very efficient—the right questions at the right time. The mindset and the efforts of the team were outstanding. I truly believe they gave up their private lives to make the best business plan and win the competition. Very surprising to me was to find out that the market is much bigger than I first anticipated. While the team did their job and won the competition, it is now my job to implement the business plan and make it a success. I can recommend all NCCJ member companies to participate in JMEC and let a third eye review their business strategy” 

NCCJ companies have a good track record in terms of JMEC. In previous years, business cases for DSM and Heineken also won the first prize. 

As of last year, the NCCJ established a scholarship for young professionals of the NCCJ member companies that are interested in joining JMEC. Kazumi Watanabe, Marketing Manager/Auditor of Control Union Japan joined the 9-month program: “I really enjoyed the JMEC program very much and I wanted to thank the NCCJ for this opportunity and scholarship. It was a great experience for me with amazing lecturers, JMEC staffs, mentor, consultant and participants. I am sure that it will become a huge asset to myself. I also got a gift of a great network and friendship through the program.” Her team was given the Best Market Research Award. 

JMEC now welcomes applications for clients as well as for participants. Clients can contact JMEC directly through info@jmec.gr.jp Employees of NCCJ member companies and individual NCCJ members that are interested in becoming a participant and want to hear more about the scholarship, please contact the NCCJ through nccj@nccj.jp

 1st Prize Winners: Project Client: Plugwise

From left:Remco Aberson, Head of APAC, Plugwise; Tomoji Nogami, Business Development Manager, Finnair; Keiko Marutani, Mary Joy Tolentino, Masaomi Tsunoda, Hiroyuki Kosuge, Justin Dart (team mentor), Absent: Akira Havermans (team consultant) 
Photo by Antony Tran - PhotoLIFE.14 - www.photolife14.com