Japanese companies need to act as insiders -- not outsiders -- in Europe as they try to cope with the increasingly tough environmental, safety and other laws of the European Union, whose regulatory power extends beyond the region, experts told a recent symposium in Tokyo.
They should utilize various lobbying options available and forge alliances with European firms to influence the EU lawmaking processes, and, on the home front, the companies' top management must be fully committed to these efforts, said Franz Waldenberger, professor at the Japan Center and the Faculty of Business at Munich University.
Waldenberger and other panelists spoke at the Sept. 15 symposium, organized by Keizai Koho Center at Keidanren Kaikan under the theme, "How to cope with new and changing EU regulations?" They discussed how Japanese companies can overcome their distance from Brussels and effectively take part in the processes that lead to the passage of EU laws, in order to have their interests represented.