SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION JAPAN 3The majority of FFEC’s proits still
comes from Japan. However, it is
increasing investments and gaining
more market share in ASEAN countries
such as Thailand and Vietnam, where
it has had a long-standing presence.
Mr. Momii also wants to help more
Japanese companies enter Myanmar
and Cambodia, through the establish-
ment of business-driven partnerships
with local companies, which otherwise
would be direct competitors. “This
represents a facilitating approach to-
wards the establishment of enduring
relationships,” he says.
Civil engineering irm Raito Ko-
gyo, whose main business is in slope
protection and stabilization, ground
improvement and soil-cement walls,
is another Japanese irm looking to ex-
pand its footprint in Asia as investment
in the region’s infrastructure increases
dramatically. It believes the technolo-
gies it has cultivated in Japan could
help to stabilize the infrastructure
built in Asian countries that are often
subjected to natural disasters, such as
earthquakes or ooding.
“We would like to contribute to
infrastructure development in Asia by
using our expertise in geotechnical en-
gineering that we have built up over
the years,” says company president,
Mr. Kazuo Suzuki.
“Natural disasters, especially cli-
mate-related disasters, are becoming
more severe these days. Under these
conditions, we need to maintain vari-
ous infrastructures such as roads, rail-
roads, airports and ports, and keep
them safe. We have continued to
develop technologies in this ield for
more than 70 years, and now we have
technologies that can respond to vari-
ous ground problems and disasters.
These are the technologies we believe
in the near future we can export to
Asian countries as they start to need
more of these things.”
Indeed, all structures need heavy-
duty paint to stand the test of time.
And Japan’s paint manufacturers are
also expanding in Asia, offering high-
quality products to support the dura-
bility of infrastructure projects.
Nippon Paint manufactures long-
lasting and heavy-duty coatings for
roads, steel works and bridges, ma-
rine vessels, oil and gas pipelines, in-
dustrial plants and automobiles. With
60 percent of its sales coming from
Asia, Nippon is poised to beneit from
the region’s construction and infra-
structure spending bonanza over the
coming years.
“At Nippon Paint, we place qual-
ity and technology as key factors to
our success,” says President and CEO,
Tetsushi Tado. “To ensure the quality
of our products, we apply the require-
ments of the automotive industry to
all our market segments, contributing
to the creation of a trusted and reli-
able brand.
“China and the Asian countries
are the most important regions for us
because 45 percent of the demand
for paint and coatings comes from
the Asian region. We have four main
business segments: automotive, in-
dustrial, decorative, and marine coat-
ings. We want to achieve growth in
every segment. So, if you ask which
one is most important, my answer
would be all of them.”
A developer of industrial, auto-
motive, construction and decorative
coatings, Kansai Paint is another paint
company looking to strengthen its
presence in Asia, both in the B2B and
B2C segments.
“Asia is such a massive market that
it is impossible to treat all nations with
the same strategy. Since every coun-
try is at a different stage of develop-
ment, we have learnt to cater for all
segments and stages,” says Kansai’s
president, Mr. Hiroshi Ishino.
“The success of our strategy resides
in creating strong local partnershipswhile adapting to the customer’s de-
mands. In India, we adopt a B2B and
a B2C approach. For the automotive
industry, in which we have been highly
successful, we have been able to rely
on our excellent partners.
“We are excellent suppliers, show-
casing good products, good quality
and an amazing supply chain. Further-
more, we have the ability to customize
certain products to best it the needs
of our partners.”
Engineering irm Neuron is also
competing directly with Chinese com-
petitors for contracts across South East
Asia. The company has two subsidiar-
ies in the region: Neutex Advance En-
gineering in Malaysia and Rainbow
NEUTEX Engineering in Indonesia.
Neutex Advance Engineering manu-
factures piping components (such
as metal expansion joints), as well as
compressors and pumps for oil and
gas facilities. Its clients include Malay-
sia’s national oil company Petronas.
Neuron is one of the growing number
of Japanese SMEs looking abroad for
new opportunities.
“It is very rare for Japanese SMEs to
go out of the country. At the moment
in Malaysia and Indonesia we only
have outlets for sales. Nevertheless,soon we would like to expand by hav-
ing production lines in those countries
as well. We would like to set up sat-
ellite operations in these countries,”
says Shinichi Iwamoto, President of
Neuron Japan.
“With Neutex in Malaysia and Indo-
nesia, right now we are dealing with
the gaskets, valves and related parts. In
these markets the competition is very
high. One strategy is to directly com-
pete with the Chinese products. Of
course, we are the winners if we are
talking about high-quality products.
“However, that is not enough, we
want to include everything. For ex-
ample, with the expansion joints, the
average product lifespan for Chinese
products is two years, whereas a Japa-
nese product is 20 years. Furthermore,
we highly value the craftsmanship of
each of our employees in our R&D; this
is what separates us from our competi-
tors in China.”
Across the world, the ‘Made in
Japan’ tag has signiied high quality,
durability and craftsmanship. Now
Japan hopes to come out on top in
the competition with China for con-
struction contracts across Asia, by lev-
eraging on the sterling reputation for
quality it has built over the decades.Q“We are witnessing a shift
towards developing high-
quality infrastructure and that
is leveraging the potential for
Japanese companies to do well
overseas within the region”Joichiro Momii,
Director and Senior Advisor,
Fuji Furukawa Engineering
and Construction