Category: EU
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Coffee with the Foreign Minister of Austria in Tokyo
Was invited to coffee with the Foreign Minister of Austria, Mr Michael Spindelegger, at the Embassy in Tokyo. Minister Spindelegger is in Tokyo for celebrating 140 years of Austria-Japan diplomatic relations, and he gave a short presentation. Another reason for the Minister’s visit to Japan is that both Japan and Austria are non-permanent members of…
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50 years EU celebration in Tokyo
50 Years European Union 50 years European Union – 50 Years Treaty of Rome Today was the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome which was at the beginning of the European Union. The Treaty of Rome (Wikipedia) (“Treaty establishing the European Economic Community”) was signed on 25 March 1957 by Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg,…
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Green Tokyo Tower on St. Patrick’s Day
Tokyo Tower was illuminated in green color on St Patrick’s Day – (when I took these photographs a Japanese policeman guarding the Russian Embassy nearby asked me if Tokyo Tower from now on will always be green – so I explained St. Patrick’s Day to the Japanese policeman): I took these photographs standing close to…
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European Central Bank (ECB) uses QR-codes
QR codes were developed in the 1990s to manage car parts – today they are by far the best way to link mobile phones to almost anything. In many applications QR codes are cheaper, easier, more flexible and more secure than RFID and NFC. The European Central Bank (based in Frankfurt) manages the EURO, is…
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Briefing EU Technology Attaches to Japan about Japan’s telecom sector – unspoken question: Why did Vodafone fail in Japan?
by Gerhard Fasol Following Vodafone’s decision to end business in Japan and the announcement of the sale of Vodafone-Japan to SoftBank, this author has been asked to brief the Technology Attaches of the 25 EU Embassies in Tokyo on Japan’s mobile phone and telecom sector. The EU Technology Attaches were particularly interested in the impact…
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EU Government contract awarded: benchmarking broadband/FTTH in EU vs Japan
As a consequence of our CEO’s briefing entitled “Why Japan is several years ahead of Europe in telecommunications and what Europe can do to catch up” on March 23, 2006 for the Technology Attaches of the Embassies of the 25 European Union countries here in Tokyo our company has been awarded a project contract by…