It was the second lecture by Mr. Ota. The explanation about approx. 30 approved projects was interesting. Currently 28 projects have been selected out of 3000. Because the finalist is just 1%, it must be a tough hurdle. The selected projects widely range from animation, food, food processing, restaurants, inbound and so on.
“The way of branding and how to make it” is impressive for me.
For example, how to sell the apple of Hirosaki that is proud of the world, the way of co-purchasing Matsusaka beef and rice by the food town in Singapore, “Dassai” which is a sales for the high-income Chinese people at Malaysia Japan Mall (operator: Isetan), and the ramen dining, which is one of Japanese soul foods, that are spreading in Europe, the United States and Australia.
The exciting lecture was closed with the message by the leader who always aims for height. “If it is truly cool Japan, naturally speaking, it should be cool since it is expensive and it may be expensive because it is tasty”. And he added, “I do not want you to easily compromise with discount requests from overseas". The word of the leader that “If Japanese companies are not able to make many, it must be not cool” is definitely not compromised.

By Lika Nakanishi