Tokyo keynote speeches

He delivered a keynote speech at the ‘International Symposium on Current Worldwide Trends in National Branding and its Necessity for Japan, in particular for Tourism looking forward to the Olympic legacy in the post-2020 Era’.

JTTRI, an organisation linked with Japan’s Ministry of Tourism, hosted the symposium at the Marunouchi Building Hall and Conference Square with an audience of around 300 people from government and business.

Following honourable guest remarks by Mr Hiroshi Tabata (Commissioner, Japan Tourism Agency) and Mr Manabu Miyagawa (Assistant Minister, Director-General for Cultural Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan), Keith gave the symposium’s opening keynote speech. The focus of the speech was on Japan’s nation branding as seen through the lens of the ICON model of nation branding, a model created by Keith and first published in the second edition if his book Nation Branding: Concepts, Issues, Practice (Routledge, 2016). He then participated in a panel discussion along with Mr Masahito Namiki (President and CEO, Interbrand Japan), Ms Makiko Matsuda Healy (Managing Director, Tourism Market Development, NYC & Company), and Mr Naoya Sano (former Marketing Manager, British Embassy Tokyo). The panel discussion was moderated by Ms Kyoko Kanehira (former Manager, Japan and Korea, VisitBritain).  

During this March 2019 visit to Tokyo, Keith also delivered a keynote speech at the ‘Place Branding Symposium 2019’ hosted by Sophia University Tokyo, as well as giving guest lectures at Temple University Japan’s International Centre for Asian Studies (ICAS) and at the Tokyo headquarters of the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR).

 “With the Rugby World Cup 2019 being held in Japan later this year, and the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to follow next year, there is a heightened level of interest in city, region and nation branding within Japan right now”, said Keith. “The keynote speeches and guest lectures that I delivered during this visit to Tokyo were well received and provided an excellent opportunity to raise the University of Dundee’s profile amongst government, business and academic circles in Japan. It also became apparent that there is considerable potential for the city of Dundee to build awareness in Japan by highlighting the fact that the V&A Dundee building was designed by renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma.”