On October 9th, the Ireland Japan Chamber of Commerce hosted a business seminar ‘Ireland at Expo 2025, Osaka Kansai’ in collaboration with the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Japan in Ireland. The focus of the event was helping companies based in Ireland prepare for Expo and to make sure they get the best return from the investment in Expo.

We were honoured to have illustrious speakers including H.E. Norio Maruyama, Ambassador of Japan to Ireland, Mr. Colm Hayes, Director General Global Ireland of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ms. Hilary Larkin, Parter at Forvis Mazars In Ireland and Mr. Yuichi Asada, Executive Advisor to the Expo 2025 Organising Committee.

Ireland has a prime location inside the main entrance to the Expo 2025 site, so will be uniquely positioned to maximise the footfall as people enter Expo. At the same time, Expo presents a unique opportunity for businesses in Ireland, both Japanese and Irish, to welcome customers, partners and prospects to exchange ideas on the theme ‘Designing Future Society for Our Lives.’

In addition to our speakers, we were delighted to have tremendous support from diverse organisations including our government partners, Enterprise Ireland, the Department of Foreign Affairs and the European Commission, as well as representatives from Mitsui, Sumitrust, NTT DATA Services, Nikkei, Amazon, ARUP, the University of Limerick as well as former IJCC President Gerard Mulligan, and Board Director & Treasurer Paul Nugent, visiting from Tokyo.

A very special thanks to Tom O'Brien, Hilary Larkin, Lorcan Colclough, David Cairnduff of IJCC Corporate member Forvis Mazars for graciously hosting us at their offices and to Dominic Keogh, IJCC Director for all his tireless work in leading this event.

This exclusive event for members was the third in our Business Seminar series. If you’d like to be invited to future events like this, we welcome you to join our community.

For more on membership, please visit https://ijcc.jp/membership or get in touch directly at secretariat [at] ijcc.jp