Order. Parliament is still in session. I ask guests who are leaving the gallery to do so quietly, please.
The next item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S4M-10003, in the name of Alex Johnstone, on Aberdeen’s engagement strategy with Japan.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament welcomes the decision by Aberdeen City Council to have a formal wide-ranging engagement strategy between Aberdeen and Japan, which will include trade, culture, education and sport; notes that historical links between the city and Japan stretch back to the 19th century; understands that there has been substantial investment by Japan into the development of renewable energy technology, which holds parallels with Aberdeen as the energy capital of Europe, and wishes Aberdeen every success in establishing the strategy which, it believes, will promote greater friendship and understanding between the people of Scotland and Japan.
12:36
It gives me great pleasure to bring this debate to the Scottish Parliament this afternoon. I welcome the consul general of Japan, Mr Hajime Kitaoka, who has come to observe proceedings from the Presiding Officer’s gallery. [Applause.]
Recently, Councillor Ross Thomson of Aberdeen City Council moved a motion to pursue a formal engagement strategy between the city of Aberdeen and Japan, which I am pleased to say was passed unanimously by the council. It comes at a time of huge interest in Scotland from Japan, as is demonstrated by the amount of contact that my office has from Japanese organisations, and by the substantial coverage of the referendum by Japanese media. Only last week, I and other MSPs were interviewed on our views on the referendum by the Hokkaido Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper that enjoys a circulation of some 2 million copies.
This welcome initiative by Aberdeen City Council is the latest step in a long and fascinating relationship between the city and Japan, which dates back to the 19th century, when Japan began to emerge from a period of strict foreign relations policies known as sakoku, to take her place as an industrialised nation on the world stage.
Thomas Blake Glover, who hailed from the north-east of Scotland, and whose name has been instantly recognised by every Japanese person I have met, played a pivotal role. Among his many achievements in Japan was his supplying the country with its first modern ships, which were built in Aberdeen. He imported into Japan its first dry dock, which was also constructed in Aberdeen and shipped to Nagasaki. Ultimately, that dry dock would play a crucial role in the development of Mitsubishi.
Thomas Blake Glover also assisted in a plan to smuggle five young samurai out of Japan to be educated in the west. Those young men, who are now famously known as the Choshu five, would all at some point stay in Aberdeen. On returning to their native country, they would play pivotal roles in the development of modern Japan.
More recently, Aberdeen signed a citizens friendship city affiliation with Nagasaki, and the city council has joined the cross-party group on Japan, which meets here in the Scottish Parliament. Other initiatives include Aberdeen Asset Management’s Thomas Blake Glover scholarship.
One Aberdeen resident, Mr Ronnie Watt, has been honoured by the Emperor and Government of Japan with the order of the rising sun. Each year, Mr Watt’s organisation presents recipients who have served or excelled in their relevant field with either a Scottish samurai award or a shogun award.
Against the backdrop of the extraordinary history between Aberdeen and Japan—especially the city of Nagasaki—the modern arguments for Aberdeen to pursue an ever-closer and mutually beneficial relationship with Japan are overwhelming. Across the United Kingdom, there are 921 Japanese companies, with 140,000 employees, and 65 of those companies operate in Scotland and employ some 5,000 people directly. Many members will be surprised to learn that within Asia, Japan has the highest number of business links with the UK. In 2012, Japanese companies invested £33.4 billion in the UK, placing us second only to the Netherlands in the European Union. Japan’s investment flow to the UK was up by about 15 per cent in 2013, which exceeded Japan’s investment flow to China.
However, this is not a one-way street. Many opportunities exist for Scottish and UK companies to export to Japan. To give just one example, just between January and June 2013, some £45 million-worth of food and non-alcoholic drinks were exported from the UK to Japan. I believe that the desire to deliver the strategy has come at just the right time.
The Japanese programme for growth, often called Abenomics, has shown results. In Japan, real gross domestic product is up, average earnings are up and unemployment is down, and an estimated 1.9 million high-net-worth individuals live in Japan.
Aberdeen is well placed to deliver a high-quality experience to Japanese visitors. In a survey by VisitBritain, three of the top sought-after activities in Britain were positioned here in Scotland, with a whisky tour of a Scottish distillery coming eighth in a list of 20. Members may be interested to know that a picture of a Scottish castle came second in a list of iconic images for Japanese people, easily beating other images such as the London Eye. I sincerely hope that the strategy results in a greater number of visitors arriving from Japan to share our rich culture and history. I know that they will certainly be warmly welcomed in Aberdeen.
A key strength of the proposed strategy is Aberdeen’s ability to capitalise on its role as the energy capital of Europe and to forge new and exciting partnerships that will build on our existing strong relationship. Aberdeen stands ready to bring its decades of experience in offshore energy to working closely with Japan in exploiting her own energy resources. Perhaps even more important is that both Scotland and Japan are working tirelessly to increase the amount of energy that is harnessed from renewable sources such as offshore wind and photovoltaics. Once again, Aberdeen has much to offer; there is huge potential for co-operation in research and development, trade, and, of course, in reducing the carbon emissions, which we all seek.
Vital though it is, Aberdeen City Council’s proposed strategy is about so much more than trade. It offers the opportunity for greater engagement, co-operation and understanding on many levels. It also seeks to deliver closer ties through education, and with two world-class universities Aberdeen is ideally placed for academic collaboration. I sincerely hope that local schools will also be able to play a role, perhaps by linking with their counterparts in Japan.
Turning to sport, I was delighted to play a part in encouraging the Japanese cricket team to visit Scotland last year. The tour was hugely successful, and I am assured that the team, having received such a warm welcome in Scotland, are very keen to return. I am also aware that the Scottish players thoroughly enjoyed meeting their Japanese counterparts socially, and I hope that that success can be replicated across other sports, which will set the example to promote friendship and understanding between Scots and Japanese.
Mr Johnstone, please conclude.
I and many people in Japan whole-heartedly welcome Aberdeen City Council’s proposal to formalise its engagement with the country. That engagement promises a host of exciting opportunities that can bring only great benefit to both sides, and I very much look forward to seeing that engagement developing and, ultimately, playing a hugely important role in promoting great friendship and understanding between not just Aberdeen and Japan but Scotland and Japan.
I will conclude by saying this: Gichou, arigato gozaimasu.
12:45
I congratulate Alex Johnstone on securing the debate. For those of us in the chamber who only ever hear about the times when the folk on Aberdeen City Council disagree with each other—and, occasionally, with us—it has been good to see this approach being taken unanimously by political parties.
As Alex Johnstone pointed out, there is a long relationship between Japan and Scotland—in particular, with the city of Aberdeen and the north-east—so it is only right that we seek modern links to build on those historical ties. Mr Johnstone mentioned Aberdeen Asset Management’s Thomas Blake Glover scholarship, which provides a £5,000 grant for an individual to travel to Japan for intensive study of the Japanese language at the International Christian University summer programme. The winning student studies all aspects of Japanese language and culture, from Japanese writing systems through to the traditional Japanese tea ceremony, and the scholarship itself builds on the fact that Aberdeen Asset Management has had business based in Japan since 2006.
We should also look at the cultural opportunities and links that exist. In September 2011, the Scottish samurai festival was held at the Bridge of Don, which is where Thomas Blake Glover lived before he moved to Nagasaki. If my colleague Stewart Stevenson had been here, he would have been reminding us all that Glover was, in fact, born in Fraserburgh in his constituency; however, as Mr Stevenson is not present, I will talk about my own constituency, if that is all right.
The Scottish samurai festival was sponsored by Mitsubishi and a range of local and national organisations and companies, including Aberdeen City Council, the Mains of Scotstown Inn at the Bridge of Don and Scottish Development International. The event, which celebrated the links between the Bridge of Don community, the city of Aberdeen and Japan, included a fantastic parade on which the social enterprise Theatre Modo worked with classes from Oldmachar academy, Bridge of Don academy and youth and community groups and gave them lessons in stilt walking, samurai swordsmanship and fire breathing. There are some fantastic pictures on the Oldmachar academy website of pupils testing out fire-breathing equipment—with, of course, the proviso that this is not to be tried at home.
As Alex Johnstone made clear, those cultural and sporting links continue. On Sunday 8 June—this Sunday coming—Aberdeen will host Japan day 2014 and the 10th anniversary of the kendo thistle cup, and a free admission event at the International School of Aberdeen will offer visitors the chance to practise calligraphy, play traditional Japanese games, learn about bonsai, try on a kimono, learn about the art of Japanese flower arranging, watch traditional Japanese food being made and sample it, and participate in the aforementioned tea ceremony. If folk can make it along to Sunday’s event, they will find it worth their while.
Alex Johnstone also mentioned trade and energy links, which are very important. A lot of work has been going on in that regard; for example, John Swinney visited Japan in 2012 and returned a year later to meet renewables, life sciences, textiles and food and drink businesses in Kyoto and Tokyo. Moreover, I note that Mitsubishi invested more than £100 million in Scottish renewables in 2010, and Fergus Ewing helped to open the company’s research and development facility in Livingston.
A range of links already exists, and any formalisation of such links is to be welcomed. I am sure that the minister will be paying close attention to the strategy and will be looking at how some of its themes might be replicated at national level in links between the Scottish Government and Japan.
I am pleased to have contributed to the debate and to have shed a little light on some of these links. I sometimes think that we do not make enough of the links that exist between not only Scotland and Japan but Aberdeen and Japan. More power to the arm of those who are seeking to do so now.
12:49
I, too, congratulate Aberdeen City Council and its partners in Japan on their ever-closer engagement, and I congratulate Alex Johnstone on bringing the issue for debate today. As he said, Thomas Blake Glover symbolises the enterprising spirit of north-east Scotland, in Glover’s time and in ours. The Nagasaki shipyard, which Glover founded, and Mitsubishi, with which he worked for its first 40 years, symbolise Japan’s success in adopting and taking forward modern technologies, then and now.
It is to the credit of Aberdeen City Council and Mitsubishi that Glover’s home in Aberdeen is to be upgraded and promoted for visitors from Scotland and Japan, so that everyone who has an interest in the story of the Scottish samurai can see for themselves the place where he grew up. That will certainly be money well spent. Visitors from Scotland will no doubt also enjoy visiting Glover’s mansion in Tokyo, which is said to be the inspiration for “Madama Butterfly”, and many will also enjoy the product of the Kirin Brewery Company, which he also helped to found.
History, culture and tourism all offer common ground. However, as has been said, there are also links between our industrial economies, which are of great importance to Aberdeen and Japan. Offshore oil and gas have made Aberdeen home to people from across the globe, and one of the two major centres of the global oil and gas industry. The European offshore wind deployment centre in Aberdeen bay offers the prospect of putting the city at the centre of offshore renewables, too. I am delighted that Aberdeen is planning to stage its own renewable energy exhibition and conference in future years.
Japan, with its traditions of industrial innovation going back to the time of Thomas Glover, is one of the leading lights in developing new technologies for the oil and gas industry and for the renewable energy industry, making it a natural fit for trade and co-operation with the energy capital of Europe. Aberdeen City Council leaders have already visited Japan this year to showcase the best that the city has to offer, and to meet potential partners to discuss, among other things, the opportunities for co-operation in development of hydrogen technology.
Councillor Barney Crockett, the convener of enterprise, planning and infrastructure, and the then leader of the Aberdeen City Council, met with Mr Akio Fukui, who has been a key leader in the Mitsubishi corporation and has had an absolutely pivotal role in building up the relationship between Aberdeen and Japan in recent years. Mr Fukui is a global Scot and works closely with UK Trade and Investment in promoting links between our countries. I pay tribute to his engagement with Aberdeen and to the role that has been played by Barney Crockett in promoting Aberdeen as a city that is keen to do business in Japan and elsewhere around the world.
Aberdeen’s global vision is broad indeed. In the past two years, city councillors have agreed a trade link with South Korea, based on renewable energy technology and marine engineering, and key business people from China have also been welcomed to the city in recent months. The growing role of oil companies from those countries in the North Sea is well known.
It is right that Scotland’s city regions should develop their own strategies in that way, and should work to their individual strengths rather than simply follow a one-size-fits-all national strategy.
Aberdeen has led the way on a cross-party basis, and I am delighted that representatives of all the groups that are involved in the current administration of the city are in the gallery today. I congratulate them and all who are involved with the efforts to increase Aberdeen’s global reach, and I commend the city’s innovative engagement with Japan as an example for the rest of Scotland to follow.
12:53
I add my congratulations to Aberdeen City Council on its formal engagement strategy, and I congratulate Kitaoka-san on coming here today.
My experience is not particularly with the north-east or Aberdeen, but I have led two trade missions to Japan in my former roles with the Scottish Council for Development and Industry and the UK Fashion and Textile Corporation. The first trade mission that I led involved a lot of people from Aberdeen, including representatives of the textile company, Crombie, which is, sadly, not there any longer.
I have known Japan very well for a long time and have visited it about 15 times. I have always been impressed by the way that the Japanese do business, the safety of their country and their great humour. I can give the chamber a particular illustration of their great humour.
I led a trade mission that was staying at the Hilton hotel in Osaka. Next door to me were people from a company selling golf clubs. They had a special golf club that made a noise when it was swung correctly—if it was not swung correctly, it made no noise at all.
The fellow next to me, who was actually Anglo-Japanese, ratcheted the thing up to number 4. I could not get the blooming thing to work at all, and I gave it an almighty swing. It left my hands and went up and hit the chandelier, smashing it, before coming down again. The Japanese then walked around carrying umbrellas and, when I was presented with a bill for the chandelier, they said, “Mr Buchanan, for your hole in one.” The Japanese have a lot of humour.
They talk about Scottish castles and many have had their wedding in Eilean Donan castle. They have a traditional Japanese wedding in Japan and then they come over to Scotland—they love dressing up in kilts—and have another wedding; I have been to one of them.
I also feel that their education is superb. When I was in the textile industry, I tried to get a number of exchanges going, with Japanese people coming to work here. They would come over to our warehouse—I could not really call it a factory. Their way of working is very different. They never leave until the boss has left.
Mr Buchanan, the motion is very tightly written—it is all about Aberdeen’s engagement with Japan. I would be grateful if you could make some mention of Aberdeen’s engagement with Japan.
Well, I said that I took people from the north-east on one of the trade missions that I went on. However, I will now cease my wanderings and close.
12:56
I, too, congratulate Alex Johnstone on securing today’s debate, and I also acknowledge his commitment to the wider links between Japan and Scotland through his convenership of the cross-party group on Japan. I will focus my remarks on Aberdeen’s link with Japan, although we all enjoyed Mr Buchanan’s speech.
Mr Johnstone is quite right to bring to our attention the importance of the historic link between Aberdeen and Japan that Thomas Blake Glover contributed to through the development of Japanese industry, as part of which he played a role in the development of the important firm of Mitsubishi. Of course, Thomas Blake Glover’s contribution to commerce in Japan went far broader than that. As Lewis Macdonald said, he helped to found the Japan Brewery Company, which became the major Kirin Brewery Company, which distributes its products around the world, including to Aberdeen. He also promoted the mining and rail industries in Japan. He engaged in enterprise in a range of fields.
Therefore, it is right that Thomas Blake Glover’s achievements should be properly recognised in this country, including through Glover house in Aberdeen, as they undoubtedly are in Japan, where I understand that Glover garden house in Nagasaki attracts 2 million visitors every year. People in Aberdeen should be aware and proud of his achievements, which should inspire more of our people to achieve great things around the world. I hope that Glover would be proud that, in his native city, that pioneering, achieving spirit is alive and well. Aberdeen is a truly globally connected city and the energy hub of Europe. That means that people from around the world come to Aberdeen, while skilled workers from the city travel the globe, particularly in the energy industry.
I am very pleased that the contribution of Thomas Blake Glover and the importance of Aberdeen’s links with Japan have been recognised by Aberdeen City Council in its development of the Japan engagement strategy. Our city is the energy hub of Europe and our local authority has ensured that we capitalise on that strong position by encouraging more international companies—including companies from Japan—to bring their business to Aberdeen. Lewis Macdonald rightly mentioned the contribution that Barney Crockett has made to that important work. It is good that we are joined for today’s debate by Councillor Ross Thomson, John Reynolds, who is the deputy provost, and Councillor Willie Young. That shows the council’s commitment to the important issues that we are debating.
The council’s delegation to Japan has been important in renewing and strengthening the links between Aberdeen and Japan. As Alex Johnstone pointed out, those links are not simply about marking the significance of the historical relationship; they are about building stronger links in the future, too. Fittingly, given Glover’s multifaceted approach to his life in industry, there are a range of activities in which it is natural for institutions and businesses in Aberdeen to work more closely with their Japanese counterparts. I am referring to renewables, food and drink—which includes our successful whisky industry—golf tourism and, of course, the work of our universities. I know that the University of Aberdeen and academic institutions in Japan have already collaborated on research.
I hope that the new engagement strategy between Aberdeen and Japan will succeed, will be beneficial to both parties and will stimulate investment, research and jobs in Aberdeen and Japan. That will be a fitting legacy for the immense contribution of Thomas Blake Glover and will be supported not only across the chamber and across the council chamber but in Japan and in our great city of Aberdeen.
13:00
I am delighted to welcome the debate and I thank Alex Johnstone for securing it. I welcome his excellency, the consul general, to whom I say yokoso. It would be remiss of me not to mention the fantastic work by and the interaction that I had with his predecessor, Consul General Tarahara, who was a great asset to Japan and Scotland. Many of us who interacted with him were serenaded by him. He was equally good at creating links between Scotland and Japan.
Members from across the chamber have made great speeches. I was looking forward to the debate, because I knew that I would hear interesting facts about the links between Aberdeen and Japan. Mark McDonald, Alex Johnstone and others spoke about things that I did not know about. Those show the depth and strength of the connection over the years, which we sometimes take for granted. Perhaps the Government, as well as Aberdeen City Council, should be doing a lot more.
I am delighted to welcome the wider engagement strategy that the council is to pursue. It is important that it does that. My advice to the council, if it is worth anything, is that it is worth targeting geographies and sectors, just as the Scottish Government does. Aberdeen could connect with many sectors in Japan; members have mentioned the energy sector, which is a great place to start.
In 2011, we celebrated the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Japanese consulate in Scotland—it is one of the oldest consulates here. It is an important commitment by the Japanese Government that reflects the importance that successive Japanese Governments have given to the links between Scotland and Japan. We welcome that and we are committed to working with the consulate and its staff.
As we have heard, Japan is the world’s third-largest economy and we have long recognised its importance as an investor. Scottish Development International, which is our public agency that deals with trade and investment, has had an office in Tokyo since the mid-1980s. SDI continues not only to actively encourage Scottish companies to explore the opportunities in the Japanese market but to promote investment in the other direction.
On that note, there are 65 Japanese companies in Scotland, which employ almost 5,000 people. Many of those companies are in the north-east and in Aberdeen. The benefits of those north-east companies are felt in Aberdeen.
Scotland’s first Japanese investor, Terasaki Electric, established operations more than 40 years ago, and the headquarters of its European and African operations are now in Clydebank. Others celebrated their 40th anniversary in June last year. More recently, new investment activity from Japan has created 21 new jobs and safeguarded 74.
Scottish Government ministers continue to engage with Japan. Ministers’ presence in a country can often help to show Scotland’s commitment to it. In 2012, the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment, Richard Lochhead, visited Japan with a delegation of some 20 Scottish food and drink companies for an in-market workshop. They included companies from north-east Scotland.
In the first nine months of 2013, food exports from Scotland to Japan were worth £15.1 million, which is up 2 per cent on the first nine months of the previous year. As well as energy, which has been focused on, Aberdeen and the north-east have other assets. The food and drink sector, which Alex Johnstone was right to mention, is certainly one of them.
Richard Lochhead’s visit was followed up in May last year by a visit from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth, John Swinney, to build on previous engagement.
The number of Scottish companies that have a presence in Japan is increasing. They include the Royal Bank of Scotland, Aberdeen Asset Management, Wood Mackenzie and Johnstons of Elgin. The north-east and Aberdeen are well represented.
The Scottish Government values our connections with Japan above and beyond our trade and investment connections. Many members have mentioned important educational links, particularly with Aberdeen. The University of Aberdeen and Robert Gordon University have a number of links with Japanese institutions. Richard Baker quite rightly mentioned direct exchange and research programmes. The University of Aberdeen and the rotary club of Aberdeen Balgownie sponsor the annual Thomas Blake Glover scholarship, which gives students an excellent opportunity to undertake a three-week study visit in Nagasaki.
We have 205 Japanese students in higher education institutions in Scotland, and it is fair to say that they make a fantastic contribution. I studied with one of those international students when I was at the University of Glasgow. Those students were certainly the last to leave the library, and they certainly did not mess around in it as much as students such as myself did. Alex Johnstone, Lewis Macdonald and other members mentioned the hard-work ethic in factories and other places. That is replicated by Japanese students.
One of the first engagements that I had as the minister was to mark the 30th anniversary of the Scotland Japanese school in Livingston. As a child, I went to an Urdu school, which was not too different from that school. People learn a bit of the culture and a bit of the language, and they get to socialise. What is even more impressive about the Scotland Japanese school is that it provides a lot of confidence to the Japanese investor community in Scotland. I met a number of individuals from a variety of Japanese companies who said that one of the main reasons for their moving to Scotland was that a whole ecosystem had been built. There was a school for their children that was specifically for their language and culture. They saw that as extraordinarily important.
Cultural links are also very important to us. Many of us will know about the Victoria and Albert museum that is being built in Dundee, which was, of course, designed by the Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. There are tours, cultural links and performance exchanges, which we are delighted to continue to support.
Many members have mentioned the sporting links, including the cricket match. I do not think that many people would have known about Japan’s liking for the sport of cricket. Equally, perhaps not many people know about Scotland’s liking for the game. I remember the debate that took place. The tour that Alex Johnstone mentioned supported Cricket for Smiles Aid, which was set up after the Japanese earthquake in 2011 to help children in the affected areas. Those sporting links also have a great outcome.
I will skip over the football, because the last time Japan played Scotland, the score was 2-0 to the Japanese. I was quite happy, because Nakamura—from my home club, Celtic—put in a good performance. However, we will gloss over that.
In conclusion, the Scottish Government absolutely continues to support and build on the links with Japan. We are equally delighted that our councils are taking the initiative. I congratulate Aberdeen and all those who are involved in the strategy, and wish the wider engagement strategy every success.
Before I suspend Parliament, I remind members for the record that, under rule 7.2.3 of the standing orders, contributions must be relevant to the motion. That includes responses by ministers. Members’ business debate motions are quite often very specific, as today’s motion is. In the circumstances, I am entitled under the rules to stop members, but as members may realise, I always prefer to remind them simply to come back to the topic.
13:09 Meeting suspended.Previous
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