About us

Our mission at JCO is to improve business relationships among Japanese and Europeans, through increased knowledge and communications.

We aim to provide complete customer satisfaction by tailoring our services to meet the specific needs of our clients.

JCO offers a unique combination of:

Expertise in coaching, training and facilitation skills;
Substantial experience inside Japanese companies (both in Japan and in Europe);
Consulting practice with industry leaders; and
Language proficiency (English, French, German, Dutch and Japanese)

Belgium and Luxembourg Office

Enriched by his experiences in Japan and Japanese companies, Olivier van Beneden founded JCO to enhance mutual understanding between Europe and Japan. Active in the Japanese community in Brussels (chairman and member of the Friendship and Business committees of the Belgium-Japan Association & Chamber of Commerce), Olivier is familiar with the challenges that Japanese and Europeans face in working together.

He is a graduate of Katholieke University of Leuven, Belgium, and the University of Kansai (MA) in Osaka, Japan. He lived in Japan for more than six years, working primarily in the consulting industry (PricewaterhouseCoopers). Upon returning to Belgium, he worked in a management position in the European headquarters of Bridgestone before starting Japanese Consulting Office. Olivier is fluent in French, Dutch, English and Japanese.

UK Office

Bill Reed is an intercultural consultant, researcher, writer and management trainer, specializing in helping Western and East Asian managers work together more effectively. He holds an M.A. from the University of Cambridge and Diploma in Intercultural Management, Cambridge. He joined a UK-based international training company focusing on management communication across cultures, where he worked, among other assignments, as program director at INSEAD and general manager of the company's Italian subsidiary.

He went on to set up the company's Asian subsidiary based in Japan and served as president for five years. In 2001, Bill resigned to found East Asia Business and joined Japan Consulting Office in 2006.

Germany Office

Nikolaus has been studying Japanese and working with Japanese for more than 20 years, as a translator as well as in the tourism and communications sector. He has been successfully running a language school that he established in Munich since 2001. There, he developed a German language training method for Japanese expatriates which has been used to teach hundreds of students. Nikolaus has most recently developed a multimedia cross cultural training about Germany and specifically business relationships between Germany and Japan. Nikolaus holds a masters degree in communications and is fluent in German, English and Japanese.

Netherlands Office

Yumi Hasegawa is a communications specialist with a background in law and international relations. Yumi has lived and worked between Europe and Japan. She studied at the International School of Geneva, Switzerland and then earned her degree in Japan from the Kyoto University Faculty of Law. She was one of the first women hired by a Japanese company to rise to management level. She later worked for seven years as a journalist for The Japan Times. While living in the Netherlands, she has worked for major Japanese firms in the advertising and healthcare sectors and continues her journalistic work as a freelance columnist. She took over as head of JCO's Netherlands office in 2011.

Partner in Japan: Intec Japan

One of the leaders in cross-cultural communication, Intec Japan entered into an exclusive partnership with JCO in 2009. For more information: www.intecjapan.com