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2020 edition of biennial Deshima Business Awards for successful initiatives in Japan with a Dutch flavor. On Monday the 7th of June 2021, Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Sigrid Kaag presented the Deshima Business Awards winners of 2020. During the official opening of the TEAM NL Expo, the online expo in the context of the Olympics, the Award in the category ‘newcomer” was presented to Mimetas and in the category ‘well-established’ Elsevier was awarded.

Newcomer award for Mimetas Japan K.K., runner-up for VanMoof

MIMETAS is a biotechnology company developing human organ-on-a-chip tissue and disease models for drug development. Its proprietary organ-on-a-chip technology, the OrganoPlate® platform, supports the development and high-throughput screening of physiologically relevant disease models. MIMETAS’ headquarters are based in Leiden, The Netherlands. After a smooth entry experience into the Japanese market in 2015, an official subsidiary in Tokyo, Japan was established involved in selected R&D, customer support and business development. MIMETAS is committed to help Japanese pharmaceutical companies to develop medicines that address the challenges of our times.

VanMoof, selected as runner-up in the newly established category, is a bicycle meet tech company from Amsterdam - In 2017 VanMoof introduced their first Electrified (electric powered bicycle) to the Japanese market and since have grown as successfully in Japan. In 2018, vanMoof opened the first brand store in Japan to offer service to the Japan customer and test ride the new released bikes.

Well established award for Elsevier, Entrepreneurship award for Ultra Super New

Elsevier is a Netherlands-based a global information analytics business, that provides solutions that helps make data analysis easier for professionals working in science and medicine. Japan is a key market for Elsevier. Their journals and database solutions for research strategy and discovery are used by many leading universities, major corporations, and at clinical point of care in Japan.

UltraSuperNew is a creative agency with offices & art galleries in Tokyo, Singapore and as of end of 2019 also in Taipei. They received a special award for their proven long-term entrepreneurship in Japan. The agency started in 2007 and they have been bringing a new style of advertising ever since. After being successful in Japan, they have even expended to other countries in the regions such as Singapore and Taiwan.

Deshima Business Awards

The Deshima Business Awards have been awarded since 2000 by the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce in Japan (NCCJ) to companies, projects and initiatives with a connection to the Netherlands in order to recognize their achievements in the Japanese market. For the 2020 Awards, the jury was chaired by Shinji Fukukawa, Senior Adviser of Global Industrial and Social Progress Research Institute (GISPRI). Other jury members were Paul Zwetsloot, Minister-Counsellor of Economic Affairs at the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Tokyo, Takeo Nishitani, Chair Japan at Weber Shandwick, Willem Kortekaas, Representative Director, EUROACT K.K., and Noa Aziz, CEO, Zentern Internships.