The Chamber celebrated its 50th anniversary in the company of esteemed guests of the Ireland-Japan business community at the 2023 Ireland Japan Business Awards in the Conrad Tokyo on Wednesday 22nd November.

Each year the Ireland Japan Chamber of Commerce have the honour of celebrating key companies and individuals for their outstanding contributions to Ireland-Japan business relations. 

Historically, the IJCC has presented award certificates to each awardee in their category. In honour of our 50th anniversary, the IJCC were delighted to present engraved trophies to each awardee for this year's business awards. Many thanks to imageMILL for their generous sponsorship and for the brilliant trophy design.

The Entrepreneur of the Year award was one of 5 award categories presented this year.

Entrepreneurship is when a company has an idea, and acts on that idea, to disrupt the current market with a new product or service. This award is given to an individual or a company that has demonstrated entrepreneurial spirit that invigorates the Ireland-Japan business relationship.

On behalf of the Chamber, we are delighted to announce that the Ireland Japan Business Awards 2023 Entrepreneur of the Year was awarded to Whisk-e.

Whisk-e was first established in 2000 and has providing premium drink products to the Japan market ever since. Whisk-e is responsible for importing and distributing The Busker Irish Whiskey, which has performed phenomenally in the local market in the past year, raising the profile of Ireland in Japan through the promotion of Busker.

Entrepreneur of the Year Award

Whisk-e (https://whisk-e.co.jp/)

 Mr. Kimitaka Toyama, CEO of Whisk-e, received the award on behalf of Whisk-e and shared a winner's speech on receiving the Entrepreneur of the Year award.

The Whisk-e team pictured with the Entrepreneur of the Year award alongside IJCC President Yoshihiro Tsuchiya, Embassy of Ireland Economic Counsellor Rory Conaty, Deputy Head of Mission Catherine O'Donovan and Agriculture Attaché Eoghan Murphy at the 2023 Ireland Japan Business Awards.

Comment by Mr. Kimitaka Toyama, President of Whisk-e Ltd (whisk-e.co.jp):

"We are extremely honored to be chosen by the IJCC as Entrepreneur of the Year in 2023. It has been about two years since we started distributing The Busker Irish Whiskey, and this year saw a massive increase in distribution throughout Japan; at retailers, supermarkets, bars and restaurants. There has been huge brand momentum online organically as well as we were the official sponsor of Summer Sonic in both Tokyo and Osaka and this helped us recruit new brand advocates. As the importer and distributor of The Busker Irish Whiskey, we hope we were able to contribute to the growth of the Irish Whiskey category by recruiting new, young drinkers to try Irish Whiskey, and we hope this has also helped to raise the awareness of Ireland across Japan. This wonderful award would not have been possible without the help of everyone who has supported us."

https://www.instagram.com/whiske_jp/
https://whisk-e.co.jp/

Go raibh míle maith agat to all the awardees from the 2023 Ireland Japan Business Awards. We were privileged to honour such incredible achievements from the Ireland-Japan community on our stage and we know both Ireland and Japan will only go from strength to strength in 2024 and beyond.