On behalf of the European Business Council in Japan (EBC), I would like to express my gratitude to The Japan Times for this opportunity to address its readers on Europe Day.

The EBC has long been committed to Japan. This commitment has not wavered despite the numerous challenges that many of our member companies face doing business in the Japanese market. In many sectors, the European commitment to the Japanese economy has even strengthened, as firms pursue opportunities that have appeared as a result of deep-seated changes occurring throughout the Japanese economy.

The EBC is the trade policy arm of the European national chambers of commerce and business organizations in Japan, which combined, represent over 2,500 European firms doing business in Japan. While the EBC's mandate is to promote the interests of European firms by working to improve the Japanese business environment, we have increasingly found that the issues European firms face are little different from those of their Japanese counterparts — how to cope with low economic growth, how to improve operating efficiency in an increasingly competitive market environment and how to take advantage of the new opportunities that have surfaced as a result of changes to the structure of the Japanese economy.