Finland and Japan Team Up to Enhance Global Wellbeing

Embassy of Finland in Tokyo Event Showcases Forest Bioeconomy and Climate-Intelligent Digital Solutions for Green Transition

By Naomi Moriyama

On November 12, 2024, the BIOSYS North Karelia Inter­na­tional Growth Ecosystem held the “Finland-Japan Collab­or­ative Symposium, Advan­cing Forest Bioeconomy and Climate-Intelligent Digital Solutions for Green Trans­ition — Enhan­cing Wellbeing” with the BIOSYS Ecosystem partners and supporters at the Embassy of Finland in Tokyo.

It was a day of celeb­ra­tion and reaffirm­a­tion for Finland and Japan’s mutual commit­ment to increase engage­ment and collab­or­a­tion among clusters of players to advance the forest bioeconomy and promote climate-intelligent digital solutions for the green trans­ition in both countries. The objective is to enhance the wellbeing of people – and the earth.

The symposium brought together in one room Finnish and Japanese forestry/forest bioeconomy experts and decision makers from public, RDI, business and non-government sectors at both state and region levels. 

This symposium was signi­ficant for strength­ening the alliance of the actors in the two tiers — states (Finland and Japan) and regions (North Karelia, Nagano Prefec­ture, Ina City, and Hokkaido Prefec­ture) – with the objective of creating local solutions for global challenges.

Mr. Hidenori Okajima, Director General of Fisheries & Forestry Division, Hokkaido Govern­ment, and Mr. Erno Järvinen, Head of Forest and Bioeconomy Unit, Senior Minis­terial Adviser in Forestry Natural Resources Depart­ment, Ministry of Agricul­ture and Forestry, Finland
Mr. Hideki Momose, Nagano Prefec­ture, and Mr. Markus Hirvonen
Dr. Robert Prinz and Dr. Susanne Heiska, Senior Scient­ists, LUKE
From Left: Mr. Tetsuo Tanimoto, Director, Inter­na­tional Forestry Cooper­a­tion Office, Forest Agency, Mr. Keita Nagasakiya, Director-General of the Private Forest Depart­ment, the Ministry of Agricul­ture, Forestry and Fisheries Japan, Mr. Matti Karvanen, First Secretary, Trade & Economic Policy, Embassy of Finland Tokyo
From Left: Mr. Tanimoto, Ms. Akiko Tabata, Deputy Director, Inter­na­tional Forestry Cooper­a­tion Office, Forest Agency, MAFF Japan, and Ms. Naomi Moriyama

The symposium brought together in one room Finnish and Japanese forestry/forest bioeconomy experts and decision makers from public (Minis­tries, regional govern­ments’ forestry depart­ments), research-development-innovation (LUKE, Univer­sity of Eastern Finland, The Council of Industry-Academia-Government Collab­or­a­tion, Field for knowledge Integ­ra­tion and Innov­a­tion), business (Arbonaut, Ritaplus, KESLA’s importer, OJI Holdings Corpor­a­tion, Guest House Co.,Ltd., Marubeni) and non-government (Japan Woody Bioen­ergy Associ­ation, Finnish Chamber of Commerce in Japan) sectors at both state and region levels.  It was a well-balanced mix of profes­sionals from different segments in the two nations with the core attendees being active parti­cipants of the BIOSYS Ecosystem.

Ambas­sador Tanja Jääskeläinen, the Embassy of Finland in Tokyo, opened the symposium with her warm welcome remarks. 

 Ambas­sador Tanja Jääskeläinen

Mr. Erno Järvinen, Head of Forest and Bioeconomy Unit, Senior Minis­terial Adviser in Forestry Natural Resources Depart­ment, Ministry of Agricul­ture and Forestry, Finland welcomed the audience. Mr. Järvinen stated that “The region of North Karelia has special expertise and research clusters of forest bioeconomy throughout the whole value chain, from forestry and forest manage­ment to digital solutions, techno­lo­gies and forest-based indus­tries and wood construc­tion.”  He noted that “Finland has had a national bioeconomy strategy since 2014. The 2022 update of it has the vision of ‘Sustain­ably towards higher value-added’. It changed the focus from increasing the use of biomass to creating more value. In other words, creating more from less. Our vision is to double the value-added of the bioeconomy between 2019 and 2035.”

Mr. Erno Järvinen

Mr. Markus Hirvonen, Region Mayor of the Regional Council of North Karelia, presented an overview of the region with the forestry in focus.

Mr. Markus Hirvonen

Mr. Keita Nagasakiya, Director-General of the Private Forest Depart­ment, the Ministry of Agricul­ture, Forestry and Fisheries Japan, discussed Japan’s goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 with smart cyclic use of forest resources through the Ministry’s “Harvesting, Utilizing, and Replanting” forestry initi­ative, and expan­sion of wood use initiative.

Mr. Keita Nagasakiya
 Ms. Naomi Moriyama, BIOSYS Commu­nic­a­tions Specialist, Regional Council of North Karelia
Mr. Mitsuo Takahashi, Previ­ously Parlia­mentary Vice-Minister for MAFF and Member of the House of Councillors
Mr. Kaneshige Wakamatsu, Member of the House of Councillors
Mr. Hideki Momose, Assistant Director, General Forestry Depart­ment, Nagano Prefec­tural Government 
Mr. Takashi Shiro­tori, Mayor of Ina City, Nagano Prefecture
Mr. Hidenori Okajima, Director General of Fisheries & Forestry Division, Hokkaido Government

Dr. Jutta Kauppi, BIOSYS Japan Ecosystem project lead and Inter­na­tional Relations Manager, LUKE, Professor Erkki Verkasalo, LUKE, Professor Jouni Pykäläinen, Univer­sity of Eastern Finland, and Professor Tuula Jyske, Univer­sity of Helsinki and Senior Scientist, LUKE, gave thematic present­a­tions of the BIOSYS North Karelia – Japan project.

Dr. Jutta Kauppi
Professor Erkki Verkasalo
Professor Jouni Pykäläinen
Professor Tuula Jyske

Finnish and Japanese businesses presented their activ­ities in the forest bioeconomy.

Mr. Tuomo Puumalainen, Chief Operating Officer, Software Division, Arbonaut Oy
Mr. Yasuji Fujikawa, Repres­ent­ative Director, Ritaplus, KESLA Importer
Mr. Motos­aburo Saito, General Manager, Oji Forest Value-Creation & Promo­tion Depart­ment, Oji Manage­ment Office Inc. and OJI Holdings Corporation

Dr. Daishi Sakaguchi, Associate Professor, Nihon Fukushi Univer­sity, gave a compre­hensive present­a­tion entitled, “The forest bioeconomy, Focusing on Poten­tial and Advant­ages of Wood and Wooden Archi­tec­ture,” repres­enting the Ministry of Agricul­ture, Forestry and Fisheries Japan.

Dr. Daishi Sakaguchi
Mr. Timo Leinonen, Regional Council of North Karelia

The BIOSYS Finland-Japan Collab­or­ative Symposium’s organ­izers, supporters and guests networked and exchanged ideas over authentic Finnish canapés and refreshments.

Mr. Erik Ullner, President, FCCJ, Mr. Atsushi Ueda, CEO & Archi­tect, Guest House, and Mr. Antti Antti Kunnas, Executive Director, FCCJ
Ms. Kei Shigaki, Senior Advisor, Invest­ment to Finland, Business Finland Tokyo, and Mr. Kaneshige Wakamatsu

Photos All Rights Reserved: Regional Council of North Karelia | Reiko Masutani 写真 升谷玲子

The BIOSYS North Karelia Inter­na­tional Growth Ecosystem is run by Natural Resources Insti­tute Finland / Luonnon­varakeskus as a project lead, the Regional Council of North Karelia Pohjois-Karjalan maakun­t­aliitto, Univer­sity of Eastern Finland and MKN Itä-Suomi | Rural Women´s Advisory Centre (RWAC) of Eastern Finland. The project is funded by Renewing and Competent Finland 2021–2027, EU Regional and Struc­tural Policy Programme’s Just Trans­ition Fund – JTF, and Regional Council of North Karelia.

For more inform­a­tion: Naomi Moriyama [email protected]