Japan to be featured as Partner Country for HANNOVER MESSE 2008

Next HANNOVER MESSE to showcase Japan’s role as provider of cutting-edge industrial technologies

Japan has elected to become the official Partner Country for HANNOVER MESSE 2008 (the Hannover Fair). This is the response on the part of Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the invitation extended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a joint summit in Berlin in early January this year — a summit which highlighted the crucial importance of innovation in maintaining each country’s technology leadership role. As a result, bilateral investment promotion and enhanced information-sharing between Japan and Germany on energy issues are likely to be among the keynote themes of Japan’s Partner Country presentation at HANNOVER MESSE 2008.

Japan and Germany are both internationally renowned for their pioneering role in the development of industrial technologies.  They also face similar macroeconomic challenges, including demographic shifts. For each country, a major challenge will be to attract greater business investment and, perhaps even more importantly, to increase its competitiveness on global industrial markets by developing cutting-edge technologies, producing high-quality, value-added products and cultivating leading industrial expertise.  Naturally, this commonalty of interests and objectives opens up a number of avenues for cooperation between Japan and Germany — be it in the form of joint ventures, business-to-business cooperation, or joint R&D projects.

Japan is one of the world’s foremost industrial nations and one of the frontrunners in many areas of technological innovation. Whether it involves humanoid robots, medical technology or navigation systems, Japan is often a step ahead of the rest of the world.

The Partner Country presentation at HANNOVER MESSE 2008 is an opportunity for Japanese companies to showcase their  world-leading expertise and innovative potential at the world’s leading industrial technology trade fair.  The partnership between Japan and the HANNOVER MESSE show will run under the slogan of “Cooperation through Innovation” and will highlight the latest innovations from and for a diverse range of technology sectors and industries.  Key display areas will include the highly innovative fields of robotics, microtechnology, nanotechnology, environmental and energy technology, biotechnology and the life sciences.