Zero carbon

UAE and Japanese companies – diversity and decarbonization

A TV series called “Inside Dubai: Playground of the Rich” is currently showing on the BBC in the UK which features British people who have made Dubai their home, who are “soaking up the sun, glamour and tax-free benefits” of Dubai, “but must also follow the rules” of their host country and cope with “the frenetic pace of change.”

“Tax free luxury and oil” is the image most British people have of Dubai – particularly since the pandemic, when many British celebrities went to Dubai on holiday when allowed. They posted photographs of themselves enjoying the sunshine on Instagram with a backdrop of extravagant architecture behind them. But at the same time, there is discomfort that the British in Dubai are behaving in old fashioned colonialist ways, while many people of other ethnicities in Dubai are having a much tougher life. There is also a nervousness about human rights violations, and the strict rules on alcohol, adultery and homosexuality.

This image rather contrasts with the conclusions of a recent report from JETRO saying that Japanese companies were attracted to the Middle East as a place to develop business in renewable energy and decarbonization, with the UAE ranking second behind Saudi Arabia as the country of most interest.

I was already aware that the UAE was the biggest host of Japanese companies in the Middle East. I had visited there a couple of times a few years’ ago to provide cross cultural training to a Japanese bank there and spent some time trying to understand the cultural complexity of a society which has the highest proportion of immigrants in the world.

This knowledge came in useful recently, when I was asked by a Japanese energy company to support them in a diversity and inclusion training in the UAE. This was part of a wider initiative to be more inclusive, to listen to the ideas of all employees, regardless of age, gender or ethnicity, in order to encourage innovation, particularly with regard to decarbonization.

Dubai is currently hosting an Expo which is strongly emphasising ESG in its themes. There is a Programme for People and Planet, which is aimed at the “open exchange of new ideas and innovations,” placing equality, universal respect and human dignity at the centre of human progress.”

In preparation for being an expo host, and to encourage more foreign direct investment, the rulers in the UAE had already identified that a robust legal framework, which was more tolerant of diversity, was going to be necessary. There are now new laws on anti-harassment and anti-discrimination, particularly in the special economic zones, as well as a relaxation of alcohol laws and Islamic personal laws.

So I can now see why Japanese companies are feeling more positive towards the UAE again, both as a place to develop business, but also as country where the legal framework is coming more into line with the acceptance of the diversity that is needed for companies to change and evolve.

This article by Pernille Rudlin was first published in Japanese in the Teikoku News, 9th February 2022

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The path Japan should take to zero carbon – former Hitachi president Kawamura Takashi

Kawamura Takashi is famous in Japan for being instrumental in turning Hitachi round after its largest ever loss in 2009. He has just finished 3 years as chairman of TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power). Nikkei Business asked for his view on the Japanese government goal of achieving zero carbon by 2050. While more diplomatic than Mr Kobayashi of Mitsubishi Chemical, he points out that country level goals need to be translated into industry based goals, and this cannot be left up to individual companies. Government, electric power companies, manufacturers and citizens will have to unite to do this, he says.

This could apply to Japanese companies in Europe as well in our opinion. There is more scope for Europeans working in Japanese companies to network with each other to collaborate to achieve sustainable development goals, and not just leave it up to the Japanese exaptriates.

Kawamura points out that it’s tough for each company to go it alone. Equipment around the world for companies such as steel manufacturers will become obsolete if they were to switch away from current product methods. Chemical companies could no longer make plastic from petroleum but artificial photosynthesis has been worked on for decades and is still unsuccessful.

“But if it cannot be done, the earth will be destroyed first”. It may seem that the solution is for Japan to “choose the path of returning to the lifestyle of the Edo period (1603-1868) living quietly with a small population” but Kawamura thinks this is not a responsible thing to do when Japan has the third largest GDP in the world.

Hydrogen can be one solution but the problem is making it. It can be made from water with nuclear power but of course this is controversial. There are few regions in Japan where the efficiency of generation of renewable power is high enough to make hydrogen however. So it might be necessary to find methods of producing hydrogen from overseas renewable energy power generation and transporting it to Japan for distribution as energy.

Kawamura says Japanese business leaders are too emotional. They cannot cut business lines which have been developed in their companies over the years, so end up having to bring in foreign executives to do it. “It’s a lie that Japanese can’t do it. Japanese companies don’t want to make calm decisions based on economic rationality, but Japanese really should do this for themselves.”

Asked if he will stay on another 3 years at TEPCO to help with zero carbon he says that at 81 he is too old and he is wanting to do things that give him ikigai (a reason for living outside of work – see our Japan Intercultural Consulting video on this) such as taking his time to read books, which he said he could not do when he was an executive.

Category: Zero carbon

UAE and Japanese companies – diversity and decarbonization

The path Japan should take to zero carbon – former Hitachi president Kawamura Takashi

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