Love Letter from Brussels
“For the First Time” again (No.17)Since my previous talk about “for the first time” things, I experienced a “pleasant surprise”, so with this, I send you another letter about “for the first time”. All Nippon Airways Direct Flight Narita-Brussels
When you think about it, Belgium’s national airline SABENA which offered a direct flight service between Narita and Brussels stopped its activities in November 2001, so almost 15 years will have passed when the flight service will be established again in the autumn of this year. As a matter of fact, on the occasion of Prime Minister Michel’s first visit to Japan, which I talked about last time, the first appointment he went to after his arrival in Japan was a meeting with ANA’s chairman, president and some of its other members. It shows just how important the direct flight service was for the Belgian government. When I arrived in Belgium last September and met with a high ranking official of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the first time, this direct flight service was brought up as one of the few pending issues between the two countries. Currently, ANA connects five European cities directly with Narita and Haneda, namely Frankfurt, Munich, Dusseldorf, London and Paris; Brussels will be number six. It is easy to say: “It is strange that Brussels, being the capital of Europe, does not have a direct flight”, but it goes without saying that it is a huge decision which requires the mobilization of great labor and funds, and which cannot be realized without certain economic prospects. As ANA has pointed out in the press release, the number of passengers visiting Brussels using existing flights to other cities in the absence of a direct flight, or in other words, the expected number of travelers who will make use of the flight in the event of an establishment, is around 90.000 persons per year. From another perspective, direct flights to Brussels will also lead to maximum use of one of Brussels important strengths, namely its access to other cities. As a result, I think it might also stimulate people to visit Brussels more and more. After all, one of the main factors that make Brussels really the “Capital of Europe” is its access by train to Paris in less than one and a half hours and to London and Amsterdam in 2 hours. The details about the frequency of the direct flights and the type of aircrafts will be determined upon consultation with the competent authorities and have not yet been decided upon at this point in time, but one flight every day would be really wonderful. Furthermore, concerning the type of aircrafts, personally I think that the appearance of the Boeing 787, being a medium-sized aircraft with less than 200 seats and with a capacity to fly long distances, might have been a big factor in making direct flights to cities such as Brussels possible. Cosmopolitan Brussels
To save some space, I’ll give just one example. Since 2008, the international consulting firm A.T. Kearney publishes the Global City Index (GCI), in which they rate the competitiveness of 125 cities in the world based on 5 indicators: business activity, human resources, information exchange, cultural experience and political engagement. In addition, starting this year, the company also publishes the cities’ future prospects from the perspectives of personal well-being, economics, innovation and governance in their Global City Outlook (GCO)*. According to these reports, Brussels is ranked 12th in the GCI, 24th in the GCO, and has thus become one of the 16 ‘Global Elite’ cities, ranked in the top 25 in both the GCI and GCO. Incidentally, the 5 Global Elite cities in Europe are as follows: London (GCI -2nd place, GCO – 2nd place), Paris (GCI – 3rd place, GCO – 19th place), Brussels (GCI – 12th place, GCO – 24th place), Berlin (GCI – 17th place, GCO – 13th place), Amsterdam (GCI – 25th place, GCO – 9th place). Tokyo is ranked 4th and 18th respectively, holding the highest ranking in Asia together with Singapore, Seoul, Sydney and Melbourne. （*）Source: A.T. Kearney (Homepage): http://www.dreamnews.jp/?action_jump=1&dnpid=0000112769&dnurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.atkearney.com%2Fresearch-studies%2Fglobal-cities-index The New Building of the Embassy and the Mission to the European Union and Opening of the JICC
We have reopened the Japan Information and Cultural Center in our new building. This means that we have a place where we can continuously offer information about Japan and organize various activities. We would therefore like to hear your opinion and make the most out of this precious space. Everyone, be sure to come and visit us!!! |
