The Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Japan (SpCCJ) announced the winners of its fifth “Spain Japan Business Contribution Awards (SJBCA)”, on Friday, 13 November 2020 at the Prince Park Tower Tokyo, in the presence of the H.E. Ambassador of Spain to Japan, Jorge Toledo Albiñana.

Established in 2016 by the committee of the SpCCJ to recognise successful business relations between Spain and Japan, SJBCA has become one of the most important events among the Spain Japan business community in Japan.

In this fifth year, the SpCCJ presented for the first time “the joint award” to Japan Airlines (JAL) and Amadeus IT Group S.A. (Amadeus) for making outstanding contributions to Spain Japan commercial relationship through their partnership agreement signed last year in 2019. The award trophies were presented to Ms. Hoshiko Nakano, Deputy Vice President – Managing Division Passenger Sales, International Passenger Sales, Senior Vice President – Eastern Japan of JAL, and Mr. Kai Gerrit Jacobsen, Vice President of Amadeus Japan.

With the new agreement between JAL and Amadeus, JAL will benefit from enhanced technology as Amadeus becomes JAL’s recommended distribution partner in the Japanese market. Amadeus’ global network of travel sellers will have access to a broader range of JAL’s content, including the full range of international, as well as preferred and negotiated fares. All of this content will be available for travel sellers to shop, book and service through the Amadeus Travel Platform.  

In addition, as JAL uses Amadeus’ passenger service system, Amadeus-connected travel agents will enjoy real-time, accurate and efficient information sharing with complete visibility of the airline’s inventory; all designed to enable travel sellers to deliver even greater customer service.

“The SpCCJ believes this joint award to JAL and Amadeus will encourage and strengthen the business relations between Spain and Japan and initiate new business opportunities. 2020 has been a difficult year for all, especially for the travel industry. It is very encouraging to see that companies are planning and looking for opportunities beyond the pandemic”, commented Guillermo Gutierrez, the President of the SpCCJ.

The Award Ceremony and the Reception was held at the Prince Park Tower Tokyo, with 70 distinguished guests from Spain Japan business community. Guests enjoyed dinner inspired by flavour of Spain, which was specially prepared by the Executive Chef, Kenji Miura, and excellent Spanish cava and wine provided by five Spanish brands for pairing with each dish.

The SJBCA was supported by a wide range of SpCCJ member companies, with CVNE, Freixenet, Felix Solis, Garcia Carrion, Torres generously sponsored excellent Spanish cava and wine, Solan de Cabras provided iconic Spanish mineral water, new comer to Japanese market Vidal provided Spanish gummies for table surprise, the MotoGP’s Dorna invited each awardees to MotoGP VIP Village in Motegi Grand Prix next year, and long-time supporter Lladró sponsored beautiful trophies of Gallop for awardees with the wish for the Spain Japan business to continue growing as fast as gallop.

Comments from award recipients

JAL
Japan Airlines (JAL) reinforced partnership with Amadeus in 2019 on an extended distribution and IT agreement, and Amadeus became JAL’s recommended distribution partner in the Japanese market.

As JAL relies on Amadeus’ passenger service system, Amadeus-connected travel agents can enjoy real-time, accurate and efficient information sharing with complete visibility of the airline’s inventory; thanks to Amadeus to enable travel sellers to deliver even greater customer service.

AMADEUS

We are honored to receive this award, recognizing Amadeus’ contribution to the strong relations between Spain and Japan in business. Japan Airlines is a longstanding and valued customer, and we are proud to support JAL with our world-class technology to power the airline’s distribution and passenger processes. Together with customers such as Japan Airlines, we are working to implement innovative technology and collaborative partnerships to support the industry on its path to recovery.

List of SJBCA winners

2016 LaLiga

2017 Rakuten, Inc.

2018 Gestamp Autotech Japan

2019 FAST RETAILING CO., LTD.

The Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Japan
The Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Japan (SpCCJ) was established in 2016 to provide a unified voice and strengthen business relations between Spain and Japan. The SpCCJ became an official entity in April 2017 with recognition by both the Japanese Ministry of Economy (METI), Trade and Industry and the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (MINECO). The SpCCJ is a part of CAMACOES, the network of Spanish Chamber of Commerce in overseas, and also a stakeholder of EBC (European Business Council).

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On 9 June the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Japan organised an online seminar inviting Gerard Salvador López, Senior Cloud Transformation Specialist at IBM to hear what is currently happening in the world of IT from a cyber-security perspective.

2020 will be remembered as the biggest remote working experiment in the history of mankind. With almost a third of the world’s population locked down, businesses and industries are trying to face this new reality asking their employees to work from home. Just as an example, Zoom is now worth more than the sum of the 5 biggest airlines in the US.

However, the larger the IT infrastructure is, the higher the likelihood of having vulnerabilities. Covid-19 has changed the security landscape enormously and, probably, forever. Just to give you an example, there has seen an increase of 14.000% in spam and phishing.

Passionate about the potential of technology and the risks of it, Gerard Salvador López has worked as a Cloud Strategist at Siemens in Belgium, lead the Engineers Without Borders NGO, hosted a TEDx event and wrote a book about the future of technology, “Too tech to fail”. He holds an Engineering Degree and a Master in Business Administration at Vlerick Business School in Belgium. For more information, you can take a look into his website: www.gerardsl.com.

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Amidst the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, our way of life has changed drastically. How can we tell places you visit or people you meet are COVID free? How will companies protect their employees and create a safe workplace?

Applying tests for every single person will be a must in the New Normal Society? Will we all have an easy access to these newly developed medical kits soon?

 On May 19, Andy Chang, APAC Regional Senior Director of our Corporate Member IGENOMIX offered us answers to these questions and many others in a webinar session specially organised for the SpCCJ Members.

Igenomix is a Spanish reproductive and fertility bio-tech company, which has been working on COVID-19 testing for private usage, by applying their know-how in genetics. Igenomix has recently launched the FDA-EUA approved COVID-19 RT-PCR Test and also introduced the Igenomix Biological Passport, a combination of new COVID-19 RT-PCR diagnostic test and a COVID-19 serological antibody test.

As the COVID-19 pandemic is globally expanding and having economic and financial impacts, the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Japan organized an online CEO round table Discussion to offer a suitable atmosphere where the CEOs & Managing Directors of our Corporate members could exchange information and ideas.

Atendants: Amadeus Japan, Chanel, CVNE, Dorna, Franchir, Freixenet Japan, Grupo Antolín, Hernandez-Echevarria, IE University, Igenomix Japan, J. García Carrion, Mormedi, Novajika, Orto Group, Solan de Cabras, Solarig, Videl Golosinas, Yoitabi Travel.

Event Details

Date: Wednesday, 13 May 2020
Place: Microsoft Teams
Time: 17:00 – 18:30 JST
Language: English
Corporate Members Only

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Thanks for coming to our casual networking event TTT- Third Thursday Tapas night! More than 30 people from different industries attended the event held at Mon Circulo in Marunouchi and enjoyed the conversation with other participants as well as delicious food and drinks!

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The SpCCJ invited one of the Spanish top chefs Eneko Atxa from Azurmendi on Friday 6, at the Embassy of Spain to share his ideas and works to create a sustainable world.

Eneko’s Azurmendi was awarded the world most sustainable restaurant twice in the past and has ranked at no. 14 in the world best 50 restaurants in 2019.

He was visiting Japan to celebrate the 2nd anniversary of his restaurant in Tokyo “ENEKO Tokyo”. We would like to thank Eneko for sharing his experiences with us and also Solan de Cabras for providing Spanish water for the event guests!

If you’re interested in his sustainable works please visit https://enekoatxa.com/

You can enjoy his fantastic plates in Tokyo at https://eneko.tokyo/sp/