Volume 4 Issue 6

President’s Message
Dear Friends,

November-December 2018

LONG LIVE EMPEROR AND
EMPRESS OF JAPANHappy New Year!
By the time this Newsletter
reaches you, 2019 would havebeen born! I am sure that theChristmas and New Yearcelebrations would have beenplentiful and bountiful !
The election results in theHindi main land has just beenout and though closelycontested, Congress Party has come out as a winner. This
only proves that democracy is alive and kicking in India andIndians should take pride that our election processes andconduct of elections are free and fair.
The Reserve Bank of India has also gone through a turmoil
and now Mr. Shaktikanta Das, IAS, a former Revenue
Secretary, has taken over as Governor of RBI. Thisappointment of a bureaucrat (from the Tamil Nadu cadre) is
not new as Mr. S. Venkitaramanan, an IAS Officer, was theGovernor of RBI during a difficult period in India and cameout with flying colours and I am sure that Shakti will
follow suit !
The Indian economy seems to be improving as the steps
taken by the Government have helped. Ease of doing
business in India has also improved. However, India still
remains a somewhat difficult business destinationaccording to press and investors - improvement can only
come by further reforms which, I believe are mostly at theState's level.
Tamil Nadu went through another cyclone “Gaja”. We
understand that extensive damage has happened in thehinterlands of Pudukkottai, Nagapattinam and Thiruvarur
districts. Due to lack of rains in Chennai, many of us areunaware of the extensive damage Gaja has caused. I am
happy that the Government and the private sector areworking seriously into helping the affected people to return
to normalcy.
I am sure 2019 will be a successful year and I take theopportunity of wishing every one of you the very best.

Regards,N. Kumar

Consul General Mr. Kojiro Uchiyama’s
emotional address at the Birthday Party on
November 29, 2018 in Chennai

Crown Princess Masako vows to serve the people after she becomes Empress next year
Crown Princess Masako, the Harvard and Oxfordeducated, vowed to make her best effort to serve thepeople as she is set to become Empress following May's
Imperial succession. The Crown Princess gave up acareer as a diplomat to become part of the Imperialfamily in 1993 after accepting a marriage proposal fromthe Crown Prince Naruhito.
In the statement released by the Imperial Household
Agency, the Crown Princess said she is “filled with deep
emotions and feels nostalgic” about her birthday thisyear being the last one in the current Heisei era. The era will end after Emperor Akihito, 84, abdicates on April 30,
the day before the enthronement of his eldest son, Crown Prince Naruhito, 58. The Emperor expressed his desirein August 2016 to step down due to his age and health.
The Crown Princess expressed her gratitude for the Emperor and Empress Michiko, noting that the ImperialCouple “warmly welcomed me and generously continued guiding and watching over us” since her marriage to theCrown Prince was decided about 26 years ago.
Referring to the Imperial Couple's new life after the succession, the Crown Princess said, “I wish from the bottom of
my heart (the Imperial Couple) will unwind from their busy life and spend peaceful days.” “I want to devote myself tothe happiness of the people so I will make an effort to that end while gaining more experience,” said the Princess.
Looking back over the past year, the Crown Princess said it felt “painful” that many people lost their lives innatural disasters such as torrential rains in western Japan in July and September's powerful earthquake in
Hokkaido. Touching on her visit in September to the city of Asakura, in Fukuoka Prefecture, which was hit hardby the deadly rains, she said: “I am sincerely hoping for steady reconstruction so that people affected by thedisaster can live with security as soon as possible.”
Language skills remain major concern for foreign nursing care workers coming to Japan
While a new visa system approved by the Diet, set to take effect in April 2019, has been welcomed by Japan'slabor-short nursing care businesses, questions remain about how to provide sufficient Japanese-language
education for foreign workers. Despite the government's steps taken in recent years to relax rules on foreign
workers in the sector, language skills have been a major barrier.
Foreign students who became certified caregivers were not eligible to remain in Japan for work until a legal
amendment in September last year. Still, the relaxed rule did little to address the labor shortage for nursing
facilities. As of June this year, only 177 foreigners were working in the country's nursing care industry after
earning caregiver certification.
There are currently two other ways for foreigners to work as caregivers in Japan. The first is to participate in a work
program provided under economic partnership agreements (EPA) and gain a certificate while working at a nursing
home. The other is using Japan's technical intern program.
However, a high Japanese-language competency requirement has been preventing either of the programs fromsignificantly increasing the number of certified caregivers. Those who passed a national exam to become acertified caregiver during their stay under the EPA program totalled 719 since between fiscal 2008 and 2017. Afternursing care was added to the list of occupations for the technical intern program in November last year, only 247
trainees came to Japan.
By providing the new status from April, the government has said that it expects to accept 5,000 foreign workers in
the nursing sector the first year and up to 60,000 over five years. Between the two new resident statuses createdunder the new visa system, the first type, valid for up to five years, is for people to engage in work that requires acertain level of knowledge including nursing care, and the second type for work that needs higher-level skills.
Applicants for the new working status will be required to pass Japanese-language and technical exams. Those whowish to work as caregivers will need skills equivalent to those of people who have received three years of training.
Nursing Home officials are worried about the inadequacy of the nursing care professionals in Japan currently.

Exhibition of Japanese Dolls & Traditional Children Toys of Japan
Ms. Hiroko Taniguchi, Deputy Consul-General of the Consulate General of Japan in Chennai inaugurated a twoday Exhibition on Hina Dolls and Traditional Children Toys of Japan at IJCCI premises on 17th November.

International Film Festival
Palm d’Or award winning Japanese movie ‘Manbiki Kazoku’ (Shoplifters) was screened on 13th and 14thDecember 2018 in Chennai as part of the 16th International Film Festival organised by the Indo Cine Appreciation
Foundation. Consul-General of Japan, Chennai Hon’ble Mr. Kojiro Uchiyama appreciated Indo Cine Appreciation
Foundation, Japan Foundation and Indo-Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry for their efforts in showcasing
this movie.

G-20 in Osaka in June 2019
“The G20 is responsible for finding solutions to global issues. With the cooperation of the G20 leaders, we would like to lead
the Osaka G20 to success,” said Prime Minister Abe, expressing his enthusiasm for next year's summit prior to the conclusionof the G20 meeting in Buenos Aires.
The Osaka meeting is Japan's first opportunity to Chair a G20 Summit, will be held on June 28-29 at Intex Osaka, a large
exhibition hall in Suminoe Ward in the city's bay area. About 5,000 diplomatic personnel are expected to visit Osaka for theevent. Those expected to attend are U.S. President Donald Trump, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir
Putin and South Korean President Moon Jae In. Prime Minister Shinso Abe is scheduled to meet individually with the leaders.
Japan will host eight ministerial meetings, including the finance ministers and central bank governors' meeting in Fukuoka on
June 8-9 ahead of the leadership summit and the foreign ministers' meeting in Nagoya on Nov. 22-23.A meeting of sherpas, orpersonal representatives of nations' leaders, is set to convene in Japan in late January to prepare for the leadership summit.The
focus of next year's conference will likely be whether leaders can reach a common understanding on maintaining the freetrade system, a continuation of the agenda from the most recent meeting.

Kannur, Kerala International AirportKannur International Airport Limited (KIAL), thesecond green field airport in Kerala, being built on
Public-Private Partnership model in an area of about
2,000 acres is operational from 9th December 2018,
the fourth international airport in Kerala, the otherthree are at Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi andKozhikode. The airport is expected to have anapproximate annual traffic of 1.65 million
international and 0.16 million domestic passengers
in FY 2018-19. Also, The KIAL is slated to serve
more than 1.5 million international passengers
annually.

IJCCIMembershares
Kartik Mohta, DirectorI have been fortunate to do business with Japan, recently. Initially when I wanted to explore the Japanese market,I did receive advice from some of my friends to continue with my other foreign customers and not to waste my timewith the Japanese market, for, I was told that it is a closed market and not easy to penetrate and furthermore, it takes along time for the Japanese to decide. It's been a great pleasure for me in doing business with Japan, though I started mytrading activities with Japan recently. I have a long way to go in the journey, but I would like to share some of mythoughts.
Japan has a very strong history and culture. Their business is highly ethical and the Japanese businessmen aretransparent in their business dealings and they expect the same from their counterparts. My Japanese counterparts
know the company from which I source the material that I export to them and also of my other overseas and Japaneseclientele. Believe me, they respect and maintain the sales channel, truly reflecting their strong business values.
You need to gain their trust and this process may take some time, but once it is achieved, then be rest assured that yourbusiness with them is secured . My personal experience is that they attach a lot of importance to quality than price. Iwould also like to caution that they do not like to be reminded or pressurized, since they take some time to move to thenext step. The slow business methods are backed by very detailed and accurate business processes which they lay
down from time to time.
My company is currently carrying out trading business with Japan. Apart from this we also offer value added services
to our customers in Japan such as facilitating visits of the Japanese companies to the Indian manufacturers facility ,communicate to the Japanese company regarding the manufacturer's production capacity, factory cleanliness,environmental policies, quality control methods etc. I pay tremendous attention and share with them the informationand photos at every stage of my execution of their order. This will go a long way in assuring them that you are notdeviating from the quality of the product assured and also the time schedule agreed upon .
I also consider it utmost important to develop a good interpersonal relationship with them and share our cultural andfamily values etc. in further building the trust. I am aware that 80% of Japan's economy is constituted by the SMEs.
My vision is to support Japanese SME's to source high quality products from India and to establish a long lasting
relationship with companies in Japan.
Kiran Data Forms Pvt. Ltd. is a security printing and packaging company in Mumbai since 1983. The company is ISO
9001:2008 certified and also approved by the Indian Banks association for security printing. We manufacture highsecurity documents for governments, banks and educational institutions in India and overseas. It has state of the art
manufacturing infrastructure from Japan, Germany and Spain. The company also has a trading division which is into
food products, food packaging materials and food chemicals.

Editor : Suguna Ramamoorthy Secretary-General, IJCCI.; Publisher : IJCCI; Designing & Printing : J.G.S. Johnson - 93845 93262
For Private Circulation only.
Indo-Japan Chamber of Commerce & Industry (IJCCI), No. 21, Kavignar Barathidasan Road, Teynempet, Chennai - 600 018, Tamilnadu, India.
Phone : 044-2435 2010 / 2435 4779 / 4855 6150 Email : indo-Japan@ijcci.com Web :www. ijcci.com