Business Seminar: Belgium-Japan Cross Cultural Business Communication

Cross-cultural communication is important for any company that has a diverse workforce or plans on conducting global business - it involves an understanding of how people from different cultures speak, communicate, and perceive the world around them. Language differences, high-context vs.low-context cultures, nonverbal differences, and power distance are major factors that can affect cross-cultural communication.

Come join us to discover and learn from the joyful/painful/wonderful insights and stories from the expert business community in how this cross-cultural understanding takes shape in business situations.

Take away from this seminar some practical insights of how to behave better or how better not to behave in a Belgian-Japanese business setting.

This business seminar is in support of the YES Program, Export Program to Japan under the auspices of HM King Philippe of Belgium.

 Program

• 14:00: Registration
• 14:25: Welcome by Mr Philippe Borremans, Business Development Manager, Group S
  Opening remarks by Mrs Ann Blondé, Managing Director zeal and BJA YES Committee Chair
  Japanese culture in business situations by Professor Willy Vande Walle, KUL and BJA Board Member
  Followed by a panel discussion with
  - Mr Oji Hitomi, President, Sumitomo Benelux and BJA Board Member
  - Mr Luc Gellens, Senior Vice-President Precious Metals Refining, Umicore and BJA Board Member
  - Mr Masahiro Sawada, Managing Director, Amano Europe
  - Mr Kazuya Oimatsu, Managing Director & Head of Belgium, MUFG Bank (Europe) N.V. and BJA Board Member
• Coffee break, kindly offered by Group S
• 16:10: Mrs Ann Blondé, Managing Director zeal and BJA YES Committee Chair about the YES Program, export program to Japan under the auspices of HM King Philippe of Belgium
  Cross-cultural business communication, by Mr Marc Popelier,
  Managing Director of MPF Consulting
  Followed by a panel discussion with
  - Mrs Sofie Pattijn, CTO, Immunxperts & YES X Participant
  - Mr Frederic Papeians, COO, Softkinetic
  - Mr Geert Benoit, Managing Director, Yamagata Europe
  - Mr Tim Van den Bosch, Executive General Manager, Nippon Express
  The moderator of the panel discussions: Mr Koichi Masaki, Head of Brussels Rep. Office of Japan,Management Association Group (JMAC) and BJA Cultural Committee Chair
• Networking Cocktails, kindly offered by Group S
• 18:00: Evening adjourns

The YES Program is supported by:

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