Best Practices for Serving the Japanese Maritime Market and Beyond

Tokio Mitsuda, Country Manager of Veson Nautical Japan GK, brings more than 30 years of professional maritime experience to his role leading the Tokyo office. In this personal interview, Mitsuda shares how his cultural background and personal experiences have helped him expand the company's presence in the Japanese maritime market.

Q: Tell us a bit about you, how did you get into maritime and how long have you worked at Veson Nautical??

Since graduating University, my career has been deeply rooted in maritime shipping, spanning operations, sales, and marketing, with over ten years spent in Japanese and European companies. Joining Veson Nautical's Japanese subsidiary five years ago marked a pivotal moment, solidifying our commitment to understanding Japan's intricate shipping landscape. Leveraging our collective experience, we've cultivated a profound expertise in navigating Japan's maritime dynamics, positioning Veson as a leader in the market. Moving forward, I'm eager to continue driving innovation and excellence within Veson to deliver solutions that support our Japan-based clients.?

Q: Veson Nautical is an American business, and you work with our clients based in Japan. Can you tell me about some of the differences when doing business in Japan? Is it easy for companies outside of Japan to do business there??

At Veson Nautical Japan, our localized approach ensures effective support tailored to the unique needs of the Japanese market. Fluent in both language and culture, our team fosters deep client relationships, enabling us to provide comprehensive assistance across diverse maritime businesses and complex trades. For example, Japanese shipping companies might take a time for package and vendor selection, because they need to get a consensus from different organizational layers. However, Once they confirm that Veson products are right solution for their business needs, they have the tendency to look for long-term business relationship. From this point of view, we speak the right message to the right people with our passion in pre-sales process.?

With a dedicated team of consultants in Japan, we can deliver hands-on implementation support for the IMOS Platform and work with clients to customize their system to suit their unique complexities and needs. Knowing that Japanese IMOS clients have specific financial accounting requirements, we work with them directly to deliver a seamless financials integration between IMOS and their financial accounting system to secure the end-to-end workflow from Chartering to Financials. Our commitment to understanding and serving the Japanese maritime market underscores our dedication to client success in this dynamic industry landscape.?

Q: What are the biggest challenges for the Japanese markets??

As the maritime industry becomes more complex and new legislation continues to be released regarding decarbonization, it can be challenging for our Japanese-based clients to get a complete understanding of the new industry standards. They are eager to implement practical yet effective workflows across their organization in a way that is compatible with existing systems. The implementation of EU ETS for maritime has been particularly difficult, as many of our clients do a lot of business with Europe yet lack access to important information needed to understand responsibilities and maintain compliance.???

In some instances, a Japanese shipping company may be relying on in-house enterprise systems developed over a decade ago, which are not designed to address EU ETS. To address the challenge of EU ETS, digitalization of workflows and collaborative data sharing will be strong strategies to maintain compliance and keep pace with evolving industry requirements.??

Q: You recently attended the SeaJapan event in Tokyo, Japan. What are the key things you must do during SeaJapan??

Sea Japan 2024 offers a valuable opportunity for us to engage with the Japanese maritime community, offering insights from industry speakers and fostering meaningful connections. As one of the biggest maritime tradeshows in Japan, it is a very valuable event for those companies seeking to understand the intricacies of doing business in Japan. We welcomed attendees to visit our booth, No. 3D-12, and discover how our revolutionary solutions can support your business to achieve sustainable and efficient maritime operations. We also delivered an exclusive exhibitor's presentation on how to manage EU-ETS challenges with Veson Nautical. Our goal was to convey our commitment to being a trusted solution partner for Japanese maritime organizations as they navigate a complex and evolving industry landscape.??

Interested in learning more about Veson Nautical and our suite of solutions? Visit our Japanese Veson website: https://hubs.ly/Q02sq0-t0.

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