I am occasionally asked what makes BCCJ ACUMEN special.
Well, apart from being the sole magazine delivered to all members of the British Chamber of Commerce in Japan, BCCJ ACUMEN features only exclusive text: you won’t read our content elsewhere — unlike articles in certain competing publications.
But critically, we never cover a key event by regurgitating a clichéd press release and firing off a perfunctory email or two. We actually paid The Guardian’s man in Tokyo to attend The Economist Group’s Business Roundtable (page12); and if you missed the BCCJ Bribery Bill luncheon in January, The Daily Telegraph’s correspondent was there to report it for you on page 18.
Were an issue so complex that we would consider it better explained by an insider, we would ask industry experts to write concisely and objectively — before applying our house style and editing the text to ensure we had an accurate and balanced report.
Concisely, not just for comfortable reading, but also because it makes financial and environmental sense. You won’t see full-page intros, meaningless stock images or tabloid-sized titles wasting space, paper and time in BCCJ ACUMEN. And, rather than flood the general population with surplus copies, we print only the number that our very select and segmented market requires.
For our advertisers and contributors, being delivered with the Financial Times — which sells more copies than any other English-language foreign daily newspaper in Japan — offers unparalleled access to many of Tokyo’s business and political elite. Indeed, BCCJ ACUMEN serves a burgeoning and multicultural circulation that stretches from downtown Tokyo to other British chambers of commerce throughout Asia, as well as to three Narita International Airport lounges.
Finally, something that has vastly impressed me since joining the BCCJ is the number of interesting and opportune events that are not just a privileged opportunity to meet and hear some very influential speakers, authors and VIPs, but also a chance to network with the friendly Anglo-Japanese community in Tokyo. You can read about some of the events held earlier this year in this issue, and I look forward to meeting more of you at these gatherings and hearing your ideas for content that you’d like to see in BCCJ ACUMEN.
