The Australian Industry Group has teamed up with the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry to offer an ‘immersion program’ for Australian executives in Japan.

Australian Industry Group Chief Executive, Innes Willox, says “Japan has a long trading history with Australia. Japanese SMEs are keen to internationalise beyond the traditional Japanese keiretsu and are interested in learning from Australia's experience in managing multicultural workforces. Australian companies can learn from Japan's commitment to innovation and customer-centric product development.”

The Australian Industry Group says while there is plenty of commerce going on between Japan and Australia, a large amount of our exports have been food and resources, they now want to engage Japan on many levels across industries. Ms Wilcox said, “While historically there has been much successful collaboration between Australian and Japanese companies, for the main, it has consisted of Australian companies supplying raw materials, food in particular. The objective of this program is to foster greater collaboration on innovation, particularly among Ai Group's manufacturing, engineering and technology members.”

The industry group believes there is a lot Japan can learn from businesses in Australia. AIG says Japan should take heed from our experience as exporters, developers of industry-based skills and managers of multicultural workplaces.