\"Kansai illustrates the creative genius and courage of Japanese entrepreneurs. You yourselves are the successors to the creators of so many great companies whose names have travelled the world.\" Admittedly, our former President of the Republic sometimes had a way with compliments, but by choosing the epic to flatter the economy of Kansai - the region of Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto - in front of all the mayors, governors, heads of chambers of commerce and representatives of employers' unions, Jacques Chirac was only emphasising, on 26 March 2005, the importance and dynamism of a geography where the modernity of the archipelago is still being built today.<\/p>\n
Kansai is no mean feat: in 2004, its gross regional product of almost 700 billion dollars earned it the dubious title of \"10th largest economy in the world\", just behind Canada, but ahead of Korea and Australia. Clearly, this status was not achieved overnight, or even in a century. A final nod to our former President: \"As early as the 16th century, Kansai was at the heart of Japan's economic development. At the time, Osaka was known as 'the kitchen of the Empire', so flourishing was it thanks to a merchant capitalism whose dynamism irrigated the entire archipelago?\"<\/p>\n
To illustrate this praise, all you have to do is visit Osaka's modest but highly instructive \"entrepreneurial museum of challenge and innovation\". Watch the introductory mini-film, where the spirit of initiative of the locals is celebrated against a backdrop of Neo-Wagnerian music, and the major stages in the emergence of a region that has never tired of setting the pace since it decided to dominate the rice trade. It's about understanding that Kansai's dynamism stems from both a spirit of initiative and a proven, protean ability to 'adapt' innovations from the West, from ball bearings to whisky.<\/p>\n
Despite the severe crisis of the 1990s, Kansai's momentum continues unabated. And for good reason: with biotechnologies, nanotechnologies and robotics, the region has found new and particularly promising growth drivers. Another choice is that of initiating the flat-screen revolution, whose main initiators and developers - be they Sharp, Matsushita or Sanyo - are companies based in Osaka prefecture. This is far from anecdotal: according to Meti, Japan's leading ministry for the economy and trade, the flat-screen market is set to double between now and 2010, reaching 10,000 billion yen (61 billion euros), with the Osaka region set to be the main beneficiary.<\/p>\n
But the Kansai revolution is also being driven by a groundswell of trade: the reorientation of trade to and from Asia. \"Before, most of our turnover was generated by trade with Europe. Today, in Japan's major ports, particularly Osaka, traffic has shifted towards Asia\", notes Simon Mandai, head of the Osaka office of Clasquin, a specialist in air and sea transport engineering. All the statistics inevitably lead to the same conclusion. Asia, which accounted for just 39 % of Kansai's imports in 1989, now accounts for almost 63 %, well above the Japanese average (44.4 %).<\/p>\n
Similarly, Asia now accounts for 59 % of Kansai's overseas investment. Moreover, according to the Meti, the number of subsidiaries opened in Asia by Osaka-based companies rose from 1,138 in 1994 to 1,951 in 2002, an increase of more than 75 % in eight years. And all the institutions in Kansai are pushing in the same direction: the regional government, which is offering preferential conditions to Asian companies, the employers' union (kankeiren), which is stepping up its missions to China, the Osaka Stock Exchange, which is concluding listing exchange agreements with its Shanghai and Shenzen counterparts, and also the universities, which are welcoming Asian students on a massive scale, especially Chinese, who now account for 70 % of foreign students in Kansai. And it is this same logic that has led Osaka to give priority to Asian capitals in the development of official partnerships, whether these be \"twin cities\" (Shanghai), \"twin ports\" (Shanghai again, and Busan) and above all \"business partners cities\" where a dozen major Asian cities are grouped together. Here's hoping that old grudges against the \"Japanese invader\" don't disrupt the good trade between neighbours...<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"