Ambassador Pereric Högberg
Ambassador Pereric Högberg
Japan House Scandinavia was established as a non-profit member based association on 22 April 2021 to enhance political, economic and cultural relations between Japan and Scandinavia. Key speaker at the event was the Swedish Ambassador to Japan Pereric Högberg who talked about the Swedish-Japanese relations and congratulated Japan House Scandinavia, welcomed the initiative and promised to support it. ”I like your ambition and your approach. I wish you all the best and let us stay in contact!”, he concluded. A board of directors was elected: Kerstin Tham, Malmö University, Cerold Andersson, Fanuc Nordic, Mikael Palmquist, IKEA, Lars Vargö, Institute for Security & Development Policy Japan Center, Micael Nord, Malmö City, Viktor Öwall, Lund University, Ofelia Madsen, PanLink, Anders Olshov, Intelligence Watch, and as deputy members Cecilia Christersson, Malmö University, and Richard Hultin, Skanska. Read about the board of directors here.
View ambassador Högberg’s speech here. (Video in Swedish)
Listen to ambassador Högberg (in Swedish):
On 10 November 2019 Intelligence Watch, a Swedish think tank, published a report showing that the cities Malmö and Lund in Southern Sweden have especially extensive business and research relations with Japan: Axis, a subsidiary of Canon, and Sony have 3 000 employees, 70 percent of the cars unshipped in the harbour are Japanese, J-Parc and ESS cooperate as two of the world’s high-power neutron spallation sources, Nippon Foundation is the largest financier of the World Maritime University, Honda, Subaru, Fanuc and Hoya have established Nordic headquarters and Japan is one of the most important markets for big companies like Alfa Laval, Axis, Höganäs, Tetra Pak and Trelleborg. The proposed Japan House interested Malmö city and in September 2020 a high level meeting was arranged. The participants agreed on establishing the association Japan House Scandinavia.