Japanese mission a success

Our mission to Japan is over, and I am very pleased that we have managed to achieve what we set out to do.

The activities we started last year in connection with EXPO 2025 are gradually beginning to bear fruit in the form of concrete interest. Dozens of representatives from more than 60 companies and important municipalities attended our two conferences in Osaka and Tokyo. I was also personally very pleased with the participation of representatives from the five largest construction companies in Japan.

Japanese companies are really very interested in 3D concrete printing technology. At the same time, however, we know that the Japanese environment has its own specifics – nothing can be rushed. Everything depends on patience, building trust, and long-term work. That makes me all the more pleased that we have taken an important step in the right direction. We will therefore continue our activities systematically, and I believe that we will gradually succeed in entering the Japanese market with 3D concrete printing technology.

Cooperation with the Czech representation in Japan is key

A big thank you also goes to the Czech institutions and their representatives in Japan, who have been extremely helpful throughout. I would like to thank EXPO 2025 Commissioner General Ondřej Soška, Czech Ambassador to Tokyo Martin Klučar, and his colleague Ondřej Kopečný. Likewise, Jakub Hájek from CzechInvest Japan and, above all, Richard Schneider and Martin Jirkala from CzechTrade Japan, with whom we spent more than six months preparing for this trip.

Thanks also go to our team and colleagues from Coral – Tomáš Vránek, Kristýna Uhrová, and Radim Svoboda – as well as Adam Soustružník and Jan Fric, who were involved in the preparation and implementation of the entire mission.

Japan – a country of skyscrapers

In Tokyo in particular, I realized once again how incredibly progressive and bold the construction industry in Japan is. Although Japan is one of the most tectonically active areas in the world, hundreds of high-rise buildings are being constructed there. This highlights the sophistication of Japanese engineering and the flexibility of legislation, which allows skyscrapers to be built in extremely densely populated areas. Every time I travel to Japan, I see how their cities are dynamically changing and constantly growing. Perhaps we too will soon see a time when it will be possible to build without delays and lengthy legislative processes.

It was a very inspiring, intense, and promising experience. At the same time, it is also a new chapter that we are beginning to write outside of Europe.