From the interview to Scott Smoler, CEO of weConnect.

1. Could you give us an overview of your company?

We make it easy for companies to expand into Japan by taking care of all local compliance, including incorporating an entity, hiring staff, and paying taxes, so they can focus on growing their business. We make all accounting, expense reporting, and payroll processes paperless to maximize efficiencies. All our clients’ financial, payroll, tax and compliance data can be accessed online in English, anywhere in the world.

2. How did your company first become involved in the IJCC?

We were recommended to join IJCC by one of its members (Pay Ryan).

3. What is your connection to Ireland?

We have helped many Irish companies expand into Japan over the years.

4. How has COVID-19 pandemic changed your business in a year?

Financially we are fortunate to not have been impacted by COVID-19. Foreign inbound investment has remained stable and since back-office compliance is a critical service we had minimal customer turnover. The biggest change is that we went from working in the office everyday to working largely remotely, which I would say has generally been a positive change.

5. What areas of growth do you see for your company (or sector) in the next 12 to 24 months?

In addition to continuing to support more and more companies expanding into Japan, we will also increase our support to Japan headquartered companies expanding throughout the Americas, Asia, Europe, Oceania, and Africa with a similar, one-stop-shop expansion, operations and compliance solution.