Clareto Monsorate 

Dubai

An Emirati entrepreneur’s lifelong interest in Japanese technology has blossomed into a flourishing global business venture.

From an early age, Fahad Al-Absi’s family home was filled with the latest products made by electronics giant Sony, and after reading the biography “Made in Japan” about the company’s co-founder Akio Morita, he became hooked on all things Japanese.

And it was his passion that later inspired him to establish the Emirates Japan Marketing Council (EJMC) in Abu Dhabi and Tokyo.

Now chairman and president of EJMC, Al-Absi said: “My fascination with Japanese technology started when I was very young. My uncle used to visit Japan in the 1970s and always said that Japan was a different world, fascinating and technologically very advanced.

“My father too was a big fan of the Sony brand. Everything we had at home was a Sony product,” he added.

“In 1993, during my college years in London, I bought a book, a biography on Akio Morita called ‘Made in Japan,’ and I fell in love with everything about Japan; the ideology, the culture and the whole strategy of Sony during the life of this great pioneer.

“The idea (for EJMC) was born when I first visited Japan in 2010. However, in 2014 I met up with Tosh Komamura, a famous international Japanese entrepreneur. He was fascinated with the UAE and I was fascinated with Japan.

“I pitched the idea of bridging business cultures through EJMC and he was in agreement and that’s how the ball was set rolling for EJMC,” said Al-Absi.

“Later I was introduced to Takeo Segawa who succeeded Komamura as our chairman in Japan.

“Together we presented a unique hi-tech investment opportunity with value to UAE customers. We then approached Abu Dhabi industry where we managed to raise $2 million in advance technology development between both companies. The project was completed and handed over successfully in 2017.”

And Al-Absi has more plans in the pipeline for the UAE. “Our core idea is to establish a business council that would provide added value to any business (B2B) collaborations between the two countries.

“In 10 years, we would like to see a larger B2B community from the Arab world and Japan. Our focus currently is hi-tech, and we are launching a non-profit platform that will be announced in Q4 (fourth quarter of the year).

“This new platform will help drive collaborations with Japan and other parts of the world and it will help in bridging the divide toward the evolution of the human society toward meaningful technologies and solutions that would improve our lives on Earth and sustain it for generations to come.

“It’s a whole new model that we hope would receive support and acceptance so that collectively we can achieve something better,” Al-Absi added.