Today had a great meeting with our Government representatives here in Japan. It seems that the level of assistance that they can offer to Canadian companies that are planning to move out of Canada is greater than the assistance they offer our companies back home. The officials told me that under their new mandate they are basically in a position to offer any kind of assistance that we ask for. In addition it seems the turn around time of our bureaucrats has gone down significantly, I will have all sorts of info that we request in our hands next week. So I was told today that anything we need just ask and they will try their best to assist. Using the embassy and the consulates as a networking medium is a great free tool as they has been dropping our name at major meetings all across Japan, and apparently the Ambassador loves our services and ideas that he himself mentioned us as an example of Canadian innovativeness to an association of the largest companies in the Kansai Economic Region.
Our new Conservative government back home has made Globalization of Canadian firms a priority, however at the same time to keep their constituents happy they are cutting costs everywhere they can. Our Consulate here in Osaka was shut down in a round of cost cutting measures and the nearest one is now in Nagoya. The major reason for this move was the fact that Toyota is based in Nagoya. Toyota makes up a large chunk of the bi lateral trade that is done between Canada and Japan. As a result our Trade Consuls are deep with the top people at Toyota. One of the Consuls told me today they are going to take our message and brochures to Toyota and setup a meeting with us and them. Its good to see our government is actually helping us out now, albeit that I have to leave Canada to see a concrete substantive example of this. Now if they could somehow offer the Universal Health care that we pay taxes for be applicable here I would be set.
Well its the weekend finally, social calendar is filling up quickly, got multiple events that me and Holly have been invited to. Looks like this weekend will be another fun fueled romp around the Kansai area, this time its off to parties in Osaka and Kyoto. I'm off to our kitchen now to grab some coffee to keep me awake and sharp as I finish off my weekly reports for the guys back in Canada. I put up a pic of our kitchen, its also done with the panoramic feature on the phone.
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