Niko in Japan – The Blue Cluster (part 1/4)

Huge business opportunities in Japan for Belgian and Flemish companies within the Blue Economy.

Blue Island

Japan is truly the ultimate island ecosystem. The available water surface for blue developments like offshore renewable energy, aquaculture, coastal protection and blue tourism is vast: 4,65 million sq.km. The ratio EEZ+territorial waters surface to land area is 12,2 , whereas in Belgium this is only 0,11! This makes Japan a very interesting region to export the expertise of the De Blauwe Cluster (Blue Cluster) vzw members to. And that was the intention of my participation to the royal Belgian economic mission to Tokyo in December. I am happy to share with you, in a four articles, my findings and experiences while exploring the blue opportunities in Tokyo. As it’s a long flight back home, there is plenty of time to write them down anyway…

Royals and excellencies

The mission was hosted by Her Royal Highness Princess Astrid and several excellencies were present: Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs Ms. Hadja Lahbib , Flemish Minister President Mr. Jan Jambon and Brussels Secretary of State Mr. Pascal Smet . Royalty and government officials still open doors for business and surely the same goes for Japan. The ties between the Belgian Royal family and the Japanese Imperial family are clearly tight. It also helped that already quite some important Belgian industry players have a good relation with the Japanese Industry, like the Port of Antwerp-Bruges , North Sea Port , the Port of Oostende, Compagnie Maritime Belge (CMB) , John Cockerill , DEME Group , Jan De Nul Group . And a record-breaking delegation of Belgian Academic institutes was also attending, including Universiteit Gent , Universiteit Antwerpen , Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven , Thomas More-hogeschool and VIVES University of Applied Sciences . So it turned out to be a very busy week with lots of meetings, presentations and events. Also the Belgian press was attending resulting in quite some visibility to one of the largest economic missions ever organized by Belgium.

Doing business in Japan

Before crashing into meetings and contacts with the Japanese industry we were extensively briefed on do’s and dont’s in Japan. Knowing and respecting the hierarchy, certainly in the often huge Japanese industrial concerns (zaibatsu’s & keiretsu’s) is crucial. Meetings usually are populated by large Japanese teams, and the highest person in the hierarchy is seated in the middle. Business cards are handed over with two hands while bowing intensively. It takes time and confidence to get a ‘Yes’ and you will never get a ‘No’, but there is a vast landscape of in-between responses. Japanese like to ask questions and the more and the deeper the questions go, the larger their interest is, so that’s usually a good sign. Japanese like to give and receive presents as a matter of respect, but know that the wrap around the present is at least as important as the content. And presents are never opened in public. Japanese are extremely respectful and polite. Everybody, men and women, are called san, usually family name followed by ‘san’. One should never wear a black tie (that’s for funerals), neither a white tie (for weddings). And always wear socks without holes in them. During business diners often you are seated without shoes, so it’s always good to avoid embarrassing situations. There are plenty other tips, but the most important one is: respect and harmony (Wa-h). Japanese always pursue harmony and dislike risks. If you keep that in mind, you’re already halfway to go ‘big in Japan’…

Rankings

Comparing Japan to Belgium gives quite some surprising results. The population in Japan is 11 times the population of Belgium, ranking them at the 11th position worldwide, with Belgium at position 81. Their exploitable water area (EEZ + territorial waters) is more than 1000 times larger than our Belgian North Sea, putting them at position 8. Looking at energy they surprisingly have a national energy consumption that is only 4 times ours, ranking them 5th while Belgium is 36th worldwide. This confirms that Belgium truly has a very intense and important industrial activity. And finally their annual investment in R&D per capita is almost equal to Belgium, whereas this is the only ranking Belgium beats Japan: 10th respectively 11th position worldwide. And when looking only at Flanders, our position is even significantly higher. Concluding that on innovation and long term vision we are very complimentary nations.

Decarbonization conference

On Tuesday I had the honor to briefly present the De Blauwe Cluster (Blue Cluster) vzw ecosystem to a selected industrial Japanese public. That’s actually a very grateful subject as, surely on offshore renewables, Flanders is definitely a pioneer and worldwide leader. Only Denmark is ahead of Belgium and Flanders when it comes to the total installed offshore wind power per capita (based on 2021 figures).

Over 30% of all offshore wind turbine foundations (TP’s) worldwide have been manufactured by Flemish companies, and over 50% of all offshore substations. Furthermore over 50% of all turbines have been installed offshore by Belgian companies. And in the slipstream of both our own installed offshore wind capacity in the North Sea, and the production and installation worldwide of wind farms, an impressive value chain of over 60 Flemish companies, members to the De Blauwe Cluster (Blue Cluster) vzw , are involved during the installation and operation worldwide of offshore wind farms. These enterprises are active throughout Europe, the UK, the USA, Taiwan and even already in Japan. There are plenty opportunities to develop significant business by Flemish companies in Japan.

During the same decarbonization conference I did participate in a panel discussion on hydrogen. A separate article on this topic will be published shortly.

Gaps & opportunities in blue technologies

After quite some interesting one-to-one and group meetings and discussions with Japanese business leaders, some current gaps within the Japanese value chain of blue technologies can be identified. This finding opens doors for Flemish technology and service providers to expand their business to Japan. Japanese marine contractors currently lack sufficient assets and tools to make the forecasted domestic offshore wind development happen. Japan has no experience at all in offshore wind. The winner of the last three tenders has reported to have neither the technology, neither the methodology to actually build the OW farms within time and budget.

Japan has very large industrial corporations including big shipbuilding and steel construction industries. But their expertise is limited to ships and oil & gas platforms respectively shore steel structures. They lack experience in the research, design, construction, maintenance and monitoring of massive standardized steel or concrete structures, like OWT monopiles.

With regards to the energy transition, Japan has an ambitious plan to expand the use of sustainable energy resources. Hydrogen and related energy carriers like ammonia, e-methanol and methylcyclohexane will play an important role in this process. Collaboration on the research and development of these novel technologies can be very interesting for both academic and industrial parties.

So there are ample opportunities for Flemish companies to reach out. One advise though: Japanese tend to prefer doings things their way, so collaboration and partnership with mutual respect should be the way to make this happen. And it will require time and patience. But once you’re in, you will have a solid relationship ensuring business for many years.

Flanders Investment & Trade

Close to 600 Belgians did participate in this mission. The organization and support by the team of FIT - Flanders Investment & Trade was truly impressive. I can imagine it have been extremely busy weeks of preparation, but the quality of service was excellent. Whatever business any Flemish company would ever like to explore or develop abroad, I am convinced that FIT can be an extremely valuable partner. So thank you very much: Joy Donné , Dirk De Ruyver , Els Verhulst , Kim Demeyer , Kristof Cuvelier , Vincent Goossens , Michèle Surinx , Conny De Keukeleire !

Contact

If you are triggered by this article and if you want to learn more what this could mean for your company, please do not hesitate to contact me ([email protected]) or the De Blauwe Cluster (Blue Cluster) vzw (ann.[email protected]). Or if you would like to receive a copy of my presentation during the decarbonization conference, please contact me.

Next episode: Niko in Japan – Floating typhoons (part 2/4)