Too much to say with little time to say it right now.  The past two days have been filled with group and individual activities enjoying the culture and history of Japan as we toured and experienced the wonders of Kyoto.  Tomorrow we begin our journey back to Orono.

On Thursday morning we concluded our stay in Tokyo and boarded the famed Japanese Shinkansen “bullet train” as we headed to Kyoto, the “soul of Japan,” with an intermediate stop in Toyota City to tour the Toyota Motor Company factory.

On our final day in Tokyo two company meetings were held.  The morning session was a visit with State Street, a global leader in providing financial services to institutional investors.  Joining Japan’s Managing Director, Sakuaki Yasuda, and Vice President Matthew Thomas, via a teleconference from Boston was State Street’s senior executive Dan Bouchard, a UMaine alumni and MBS Advisory Board member.

One highlight of the trip was an opportunity to meet with a group of UMaine alumni from Japan. Five graduates of UMaine joined faculty and students for an evening of sharing memories and personal conversations that greatly expanded the opportunity to learn more about Japanese culture and business practices.  

Following the return from the Tsukiji, the students were joined by four senior executives of Dentsu, the largest advertising and marketing communications agency in Japan.  The firm represents many significant Japanese companies (such as Toyota and Sony) on a global basis as well as the interests of firms such as McDonald’s and Coca-Cola in the Japanese market.  Koichi Fukumoto presented a detailed view of Dentsu’s business, including a strategic assessment of its strengths and weaknesses.  Fukumoto-san also shared three significant client case studies concerning US firms in Japan (Coke) and a Japanese firm in the US (Canon), presenting and analyzing examples of Dentsu’s awarding winning creative work.