A Club of Personal Contacts

The Hungarian-Japanese Economic Club (MJGK) was founded in 1971 to provide information, events and networking opportunities for companies and individuals interested in improving economic cooperation between the two countries. The current President of the Club, Dr. László Urbán, who assumed this position at the beginning of last year, summarizes to Diplomacy&Trade the current activities of this non-political organization where the members “all love Japan.”

“It's a bit of a strange club, because nowadays, in the world of the internet, in the world of online connections, the club-like operation seems a bit atavistic, a bit old-fashioned, but I think that in the world of social media, which is basically just an internet connection between people, we need to discuss things with personal presence. In the Club, we talk about the situations, cases, examples and the economic background of Hungarian-Japanese relations that people prefer to discuss with their friends. So, we are trying to preserve and develop this way of personal contact, which, I think is irreplaceable,” the President stresses.

He adds that they try to get to know as much as possible about the background of the economic relations between the two countries. “Perhaps the most important part of this is business culture, and we can learn a lot from the Japanese in this area. Of course, despite globalization, business culture is very different in Japan and Hungary, but if we had to assess it, the yardstick of success would be more in favor of Japanese business people.” 

“We all love Japan”

Events organized by the Hungarian-Japanese Economic Club are very casual, taking place in a relaxed atmosphere. According to Dr. László Urbán, who has been a member of the club for twelve years, they pride themselves on trying to do a bit of amateur diplomacy around the white table, “which, I think, has been successful over the last ten-to-twelve years. “We do not, for example, reap economic benefits from the information we hear from ambassadors (that of Japan in Hungary or that of Hungary in Japan), which is obviously mainly of a confidential nature, but it enriches our knowledge and we are more successful as business people on the basis of this information and we are also richer in terms of the knowledge or the experience we have gained in many cultural and other areas, which is important not only from a business point of view. In the club, we all love Japan. So, for us, any information that comes from Japan is a plus, and in this club, we learn a lot in the sessions from whoever we have as guests.”

The Hungarian-Japanese Economic Club supports the Hungarian-Japanese Friendship Association, which is at the forefront of promoting Japanese culture, and “we have a very good relationship with them. We are always present at cultural events, often helping to organize them and these events are supported many times financially by our partner organizations,” he adds.

Keeping the Club exclusive

Dr. Urbán’s predecessor, Sándor Kiss, was at the helm of the organization for two decades.
“I talked to him many times and he was of similar view about the white table discussions,” the current President notes. Talking about the leadership legacy of Sándor Kiss and of what he possibly inherited from him, Dr. Urbán remarks with a smile that “one thing I know for sure I have not inherited is his command of the Japanese language. Sándor had the unheard-of advantage of running the club because of his excellent Japanese. After stepping down as President, he has remained a member of the club, he is our Honorary President and continues to work very hard to strengthen the club's Japanese links. What I have inherited from him is definitely that this is not a club of hundreds of people, we want to keep the exclusivity of the club. Sándor dealt with each club member individually, so to speak, but also contacted us between two club events. Sándor is a master of personal contact, which I try to do myself.”

A ‘love affair’ with Japan 

The Hungarian-Japanese Economic Club currently has 20 members. As to how these members can help the club and each other, the President highlights that “basically, we are trying to strengthen the Japanese ‘foot’ of the organization. This doesn't mean that we have more Japanese club members, but we are trying to attract the leading companies with Japanese interests in Hungary to join the club because they basically determine the movement of Japanese capital in Hungary.” 

As far as László Urbán's ‘Japanese background’ is concerned, he used to travel to Japan quite a lot in the first half of the 1990s on behalf of the National Bank of Hungary, as he was involved in the rather intensive samurai bond issuance that was then being done by the national bank. "So, it's been a love affair with Japan for more than thirty years, but in terms of specific club membership, I first learned about the existence of this organization probably in 2007, and I joined the club in early 2008. I think I had been in Japan five times by that time.” He used to be the Deputy CEO of Magyar Suzuki Corp. Ltd. and is currently an advisor of the Board of Directors of that car manufacturing company.

Partners to work with

Regarding the nature and content of cooperation between the Hungarian-Japanese Economic Club and the Japanese Embassy in Budapest, Dr. László Urbán underlines that “basically, we invite the incoming and outgoing ambassador at least once. If he or she has time, it is possible that we can enjoy the ambassador’s company more than once. If that is not the case, we try to get the economic secretary of the embassy to participate in the club's events. All in all, I would like to build a little more regular relationship with the embassy. The other line is the institutional relationship. I have already contacted the Budapest office of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) and we are in the process of contacting Shokokai, the Japanese Business Association of Hungary.”

He recalls that the Club has been very much affected by the recent pandemic, and earlier by the financial crisis of 2009-10, before which the club had over 30 members. “I have the list of those earlier members and I am trying to contact them. During the times of the new coronavirus epidemic, the level of personal contact was reduced. That did not help the running of the Club and is one of the reasons why our numbers have been reduced to an extremely low level.”

World Expo in Osaka 

When talking about plans for the coming years, the primary issue the MJGK President mentions is the World Expo to be held in the Japanese city of Osaka next year because it requires the most immediate and very intensive work in the preparation for the participation in that event. “We are trying to move all the stones that are not part of the official state tasks. We are trying to encourage our club members, the Hungarian or mainly Hungarian-owned enterprises, to bring their products, whether intellectual or physical, to the Osaka World Expo. If they have products that we consider worthy of the world exposition, we can provide contacts and perhaps other support for the Hungarian entrepreneurs who would like to exhibit there.”