On 11th October, the Ireland Japan Chamber of Commerce hosted a business seminar ‘Preparing for the next world EXPO in Osaka, Japan’ alongside its partners, the Ireland Japan Association.

We were honoured to have illustrious speakers including H.E. Norio Maruyama, Ambassador of Japan to Ireland, Yushi Tanaka, Executive Advisor to the Japan Association for the 2025 World Expo, John Concannon, Director General, Global Ireland, Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland, and Brian O’Brien, Commissioner General for EXPO Osaka, Department of Foreign Affairs, Ireland.

We heard about the ‘Global Ireland’ strategy, recapped learnings from the last Expo in Dubai, and introduced Expo Osaka 2025, which will feature battery run ‘air taxis’ and hydrogen-powered boats. This is a fantastic opportunity to showcase Ireland’s creativity and innovation and should not be missed.

We were delighted to have tremendous support from diverse organisations, including Hitachi, Mitsubishi Corporation, ORIX Group, SMBC Aviation Capital, PwC, NTT Ltd. (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation), Takeda, Dillon Eustace LLP, Mazars, Accenture, Deloitte as well as representatives from the IDA Ireland, our corporate partners, and visiting from Japan, Emerald Ball Committee Chair for 2024, Trevor Allen. Past IJCC Directors in attendance also included Gerard Mulligan, Breifne Ryan and John Blakeney.

A very special thanks to Mary Honohan, IJCC Corporate member, for graciously hosting us in the beautiful PwC Ireland headquarters and to Dominic Keogh, IJCC Director for all his work in leading this event.

This exclusive event for members was the first in a series, so please reach out and let us know if you’d like to be invited to future events.