I’ve just arrived back from a trade mission to Tokyo where I was joined by six firms from across the East Midlands. 

It was my first trip to Japan and was memorable for a variety of reasons: amusing moments and business success among them. One of my first experiences came when buying a ticket from the automatic machines at the airport into Tokyo: in a Monty Python-esque moment a slight technical fault resulted in a person popping their head out of the machine to ask what the problem was! The mission delegates and I fully expected to be personally handed the tickets from all machines after this!

On the Monday morning we all set off for a briefing at the British Embassy.  On the way there, we were all  struck by the sheer getting-to-know-you cosiness of the Tokyo subway system – a very efficient system that I later heard people set their watches by.  And during the course of the week, I noticed more and more helpful information for visitors – you just had to know where to look.

At the briefing the sheer size of the economy was put into context –  for example the region of Kanto, in which Tokyo is located, has a larger GDP now than Russia did in 2008, and the region of Kyushu, in the far South West, a larger GDP than Norway.  And although Japan, as the world’s third largest economy, falls behind China, GDP per capita is 10 times that of China.  And it was clear that there is some real potential for business.

The Japanese economy is still technically in recession following the March earthquake, tsunami and subsequent crippling of the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant but the signs that things are getting back to normal are everywhere: the Japanese automotive sector, hard-hit by a lack of spare parts, is back on the road to success, with both Nissan and Toyota reporting they are back to normal production.  

In the light of the impact of the earthquake and tsunami on the Fukushima plant, there has been a rethink of the energy mix in Japan. I was told that their previous hope for 70 per cent of power from nuclear by 2050 and 14 new-build nuclear reactors have been all but shelved leading to a potentially large gap in future energy production.

There is a specific and real opportunity in the area of building remediation: following the earthquake many buildings have been found to contain varying degrees of asbestos.  Any companies with a track record in remediating buildings and dealing with asbestos concentrations are invited to forward their literature for display on the UKTI stand at the measures of Asbestos and Environmental Risk Exhibition and Conference - ASREX - taking place in Tokyo from 19-21 October.  Interested companies should urgently contact: reiko.mitogawa@fco.gov.uk or matthew.matsumoto-prouten@fco.gov.uk

During last year’s mission to Japan we thought it was unusual that two companies had come away with first-time orders as the accepted wisdom was that to succeed in Japan would take persistence and perseverance.  Achieving a hat-trick of orders on this mission was Stamford-based company Race Glaze, which produces car care products, and which received not one, but three small orders, one each from three separate customers, achieving at the same time a 100 per cent hit rate for the companies introduced to them by UKTI.  If the customers are satisfied it could lead to more substantial business for them in Japan. 

Another local company, Concrete Preservation Technologies made some great contacts and we’re hoping to hear back on their successes shortly.

We also heard that a new, low-cost Japanese airline, Skymark, has broken with tradition and ordered six Airbus A380s, which will be powered by Rolls-Royce engines, scheduled to enter into service in 2014. It’s the first Japanese airline to order the aircraft and aims to offer an alternative to existing carriers for the routes to London, Frankfurt and New York. Another very positive sign that the Japanese economy is opening up.