Bavarian representatives Dec 07, 2015

Industry 4.0 in Tokyo – Expert seminar of the Bavarian representative office Japan and the Münchner Kreis

On 05th November the Bavarian representative office in Tokyo and the Münchner Kreis held a seminar on Industry 4.0. Renowned representatives from business, research and politics gathered to listen to specialist lectures and a panel discussion on “Industry 4.0 – Status Report from Germany and the Potential for Collaboration with Japan.” Over 100 directly addressed participants had the opportunity to exchange the latest information on this hot topic.

In his introductory speech, the Bavarian representative in Japan, Dr Christian Geltinger, presented the current Bavarian policy on digitalisation and Bavaria's outstanding role in Germany and Europe in regards to Industry 4.0.

As keynote speaker, Professor Michael Dowling from the University of Regensburg and chairman of the Münchner Kreis provided an overview of the current situation of Industry 4.0 in Germany and introduced technologies and locations used in Bavaria in reality, as an example. This was followed by the first Embassy Secretary for economic affairs of the German embassy in Tokyo, Marco Schuldt, who elaborated on the German policies' aim to the platform Industry 4.0. Dr Helmuth Wenisch, Head of Research at Siemens-Japan, introduced examples of the implementation of Industry 4.0 at Siemens as well as the new tasks the company is facing. As representative of a Japanese global player, Masayuki Yamamoto, Group Senior Vice President Factory Automation Systems of Mitsubishi Electric closer illuminated the Japanese development in the field of industrial production and the activities of the newly founded robot initiative with the so called e-F@ctory. In his speech, Dr Seiki Sato, the president of KMC, an IoT consultancy for Japanese medium-sized businesses, presented the special challenges the topic of Industry 4.0 or IoT brings with it for these businesses.

During the following panel discussion, moderated by Waichi Sekiguchi, editor at Nikkei Shinbun and Prof Dowling, the five speakers lead an extremely open and intensive dialogue along with Prof Shuichi Inada, professor extraordinary of the Tokyo University and Koichi Iwamoto, industry-politics analyst of the Ministry of Economy.

The speakers and participants were invited to a reception with Bavarian beer and specialty buffet for further networking. The introductory speech of the reception was held by the former chairman of the Münchner Kreis and professor of the Ludwig-Maximilians University, Prof Dr Arnold Picot. He spoke about the possible changes in society through Industry 4.0 in regards to specific work and employment systems.

Find photos of the event in our media library.

In addition, all seminar papers, presentations and recordings of the individual speeches and the panel discussion can be found here.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/67jeapn80h7v1ak/AADG88PUy_sF6pfohcOBw7qIa?dl=0