JMEC 15 Press Release
JMEC Celebrates Fifteen Years of Strengthening Business in Japan
TOKYO . The Japan Market Expansion Competition (JMEC) celebrated its fifteenth
anniversary, and named the winners of this program year, at its annual awards ceremony June 5, 2009 at the on the Tokyo American Club. Winners of the first, second and third places respectively were project teams representing American-based Crafts Americana Group, the Commercial Department of the New Zealand Embassy in Tokyo and Irish company Ocuco Ltd.
72 participants from 15 countries took part in JMEC 15. These individuals formed 11 teams, which wrote business plans for organizations from Australia, Canada, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Switzerland and the US, as well as several Japan-based organizations. Each of these project clients received a comprehensive, ready-to-implement business plan addressing its specific objectives in the Japanese market, at a fraction of the cost of hiring outside
consultants.
A representative from Tokyo English Life Line, a JMEC 15 project client, said "the team's thorough review of our organization, well-written report and thoughtful recommendations represent an enormous amount of work. Given the team's unique vantage point, they have been able to provide us with a perspective and a set of recommendations that we could not have generated on our own."
JMEC 15 began in the fall of 2008, when the participants undertook a series of lectures about how to do business in Japan and how to write a business plan. In January 2009, they were placed onto teams of 6-7 and assigned to a project client. Over the next five months the teams worked, with the support of a mentor and financial consultant, to put together a complete plan for their project clients.
In May, the plans were delivered to the project clients and also evaluated by a panel of JMEC judges. At the awards ceremony on June 5th, the winning teams were awarded prizes donated by Hewlett-Packard Japan and the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan for first place, SAS Airlines for second place and Solare Hotels for third place.
JMEC would like to congratulate all participants who completed this year's program and would like to thank each of the organizations that took part. In the words of one of the JMEC judges, regardless of whether they took home a prize, each participant was a winner.
JMEC is a program sponsored by thirteen foreign chambers of commerce and the European Business Council in Japan. The goal of JMEC is to help expand foreign business in Japan while developing the skills of young executives. It is a program that gives companies the opportunity to receive a professional, in-depth business plan addressing their specific needs in the Japanese market at little cost, while at the same time giving participants hands-on
experience in doing business in Japan.
JMEC 16 will commence in the fall of 2009, with information sessions being held in September and October. The deadline to apply for participants is October 23, 2009 and for project clients is November 27, 2009. To find out more about the JMEC program, please visit www.jmec.gr.jp or contact program director Laura Loy at info@jmec.gr.jp.
