Switzerland opens new consulate in Japan

The opening ceremony for the new Swiss consulate in Osaka “was a remarkable success”, according to a press release issued by Swissnex, the global Swiss network for education and innovation. A total of 100 Japanese and Swiss personalities from the worlds of government, academia, and industry took part in the ceremony. These included Martina Hirayama, who heads up the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI), and Ambassador Andreas Baum from the Swiss Embassy in Japan. “One of the aims of the new consulate will be to support more projects between universities, research institutes and start-ups in the two countries in order to meet the challenges of tomorrow”, as SERI explains in a press release of its own.

Swissnex was especially grateful for the “remarkable interventions” from Michael Hengartner, President of the ETH Board, as well as Dr. Tanja Zimmermann, Director of the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), Dr. Yuko Harayama, former Executive Member of the IT consulting firm (CSTI) based near Geneva, and Christoph Beuttler, Head of Climate Policy at the Zurich-based cleantech company Climeworks.

In addition to the carbon capture technology developed by Climework, eight further “pioneering” start-ups were placed in spotlight during the inauguration ceremony. These focus on areas such as solar fuels, environmentally friendly PET recycling, autonomous robots with legs and drone technologies. Finally, the key features of the Swiss Pavilion for the upcoming Expo 2025 in Osaka were also outlined. According to Swissnex, the three main Expo topics match up with its own priorities: Life, Planet and Augmented Human. ce/mm