2019 BBA Nominees: UK-Japan Partnership

By the conclusion of the 2019 British Business Awards (BBA2019) nomination period, on Friday 18 October at noon, we had received 32 eligible nominations across 5 categories.

The following 6 partnerships are now in the running to lift the 2019 BBA UK-Japan Partnership trophy.

Nominees should be joint-ventures, alliances, or other partnerships that have made demonstrable contributions to the enhancement of the UK-Japan economic or commercial relationship.

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2019 BBA UK-Japan Partnership
(in alphabetical order):

 

ANA Holdings & Shadow Robot Company

Shadow Robot Company (UK) and ANA Holdings (Japan) demonstrate revolutionary growth in robotics, telepresence and teleoperation with the world’s first haptic robot hand designed for a more interconnected world. It also represents political will to bridge the gap between two leading nations by exporting innovation and expertise from abroad.

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Eisai Co., Ltd. & University of Dundee

We believe that this collaboration between University of Dundee and Eisai Co., Ltd. is a wonderful partnership model to take advantage of knowledge and expertise in both sides aiming at innovative drug discovery to solve unmet medical needs for cancer patients and their families.

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KOFU-FIELD Co.,Ltd. & Harrod UK Limited

British-made rugby posts created a strong partnership deal with Japanese business under distributorship between Harrod and Kofu Field in a remarkable year of the Rugby World Cup in Japan.

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Marubeni Corporation & Azuri Technologies Limited

In June 2019, UK off-grid solar innovator Azuri Technologies announced an investment of US$26 million, led by Fortune 500 company Marubeni Corporation. The strategic investment and partnership will help millions in Africa without electricity to access affordable, clean energy through Azuri’s innovative pay-as-you-go solar home systems.

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Matador Japan KK & SciBite Limited

In 2019 a close and productive partnership between Matador and SciBite delivered over 10% of SciBite’s global revenue from Japan – exceeding Japan’s proportion of global market size. Our small but passionate teams worked effectively with clients to help achieve groundbreaking therapy discoveries in the areas of fatty liver disease and gout.

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SBI Holdings & Elliptic Enterprise Limited

The partnership between Elliptic and SBI will accelerate the growth of Elliptic’s unique AI to trace/locate suspicious activities on blockchain in Asian markets. As SBI operates several crypto-asset businesses, this partnership is not only crucial for Elliptic’s global strategy, but also further facilitates liquidity and popularity of crypto assets in Asia.

 

 

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JUDGING

The decision on a winning BBA2019 entry is the result of the combined score of 6 separate judges, who independently score each submission using the same scoring matrix.

To ensure transparency, each judge independently returns his or her score sheet to the BCCJ office by 7 November 2018 and the results are tabulated confidentially by the BCCJ Executive Director. The scores from each judge are then totaled for each nominee, and the nomination with the highest accumulative score is declared the category winner.

In the event of two nominees receiving the same final score, all judges will be asked to review their scores for these companies / individuals, and the submission with the highest score from this second round of judging will be declared the winner.

The final results remain confidential until the BBA ceremony – held on the evening of November 8 2019 at the Hotel Gajoen Tokyo.

Eligibility

Nominees for BBA2019 awards must be one or more of the following:

– British Chamber of Commerce in Japan (BCCJ) Member
– UK-owned and Japan-based firm
– Japan-based firm or individual with significant UK links

Good luck to all BBA2019 nominees, and stay tuned for updates on other award categories!