On 6 November 2023, the German company 4strat and the Japan Research Institute signed a memorandum of understanding that consolidates the previous cooperation between the two organisations and sets out agreements for future joint projects. The aim is to strengthen and advance international cooperation in the field of strategic foresight and futurology.
In the signed document, the partner companies commit to strategically aligning their activities within the framework of the partnership with the promotion of technological innovation and sustainable transformation in both Japan and Europe. The cooperation is part of a pan-European and politically driven development towards stronger cooperation in the field of foresight between Europe and Japan.
"We are very pleased to continue and deepen the trusting and productive cooperation with our Japanese partners," said Thomas Kolonko, Managing Director of 4strat, at the signing ceremony. "With the cooperation between the JRI and 4strat, we want to make a contribution to further professionalising foresight in Japan and Europe and strengthening international research and development in this field."
As part of the partnership to date, 4strat has provided the JRI subsidiary Mirai Innovation Research Institute with the Foresight Strategy Cockpit (FSC) for managing foresight processes, while the Japanese institute's research results have been integrated into the FSC database and thus made available to all users of the platform. In this way, findings and methods from futures research could be shared and reused on an internationally used collaborative online platform. During this process, the FSC was continuously adapted to the needs of the Japanese market.
In the future, these processes will be continued and the collaboration will be expanded by establishing a joint network. The exchange of knowledge and expertise will also be supported by reciprocal visits by employees from both companies.
The new cooperation agreements will be announced by the JRI at a press conference on 6 November 2023. The international Foresight Symposium 'Implementing the ability to anticipate the future in your organisation' will also take place on 28 November 2023 in Akasaka (Japan), where the new "Future Intelligence with FSC (FIF)" service will also be launched.
