Fujita Kanko Opens Singapore Office

Fujita Kanko intends to use its four overseas offices, including the new Singapore office, to promote its 50+ properties in Japan and build recognition for its established businesses among travelers and other stakeholders overseas, especially in Asia.

Japanese hospitality company Fujita Kanko Inc., headquartered in Tokyo, will open an office in Singapore on February 23^rd to accelerate the globalization of its business. Fujita Kanko intends to use its four overseas offices, including the new Singapore office, to promote its 50+ properties in Japan and build recognition for its established businesses among travelers and other stakeholders overseas, especially in Asia. The company opened its first overseas office in Shanghai in 2010 and added offices in Seoul and Taipei in 2012.

“Opening an office in Singapore, one of the most important global hubs, helps us reach out to all Southeast Asian markets, including Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, where new opportunities are increasing for us”

“Opening an office in Singapore, one of the most important global hubs, helps us reach out to all Southeast Asian markets, including Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, where new opportunities are increasing for us,” said Kazumasa Suezawa, Fujita Kanko’s President and CEO. “We have built a broad range of hospitality expertise, including leisure travel, meetings, weddings and banquets, over our 58-year history. We offer some of Japan’s most upscale, exquisite properties and we are eager to increase global awareness of them to welcome more international travelers, and also to start building local business in other Asian markets. It is time to globalize our uniquely Japanese expertise.”

Southeast Asia is a growing inbound market for Japan. According to the Japan National Tourism Organization, Japan received a record number of Southeast Asian visitors in 2012. The strongest growth came from Thailand, with more than 260,000 visitors, passing Australia to become the sixth largest inbound market.

Fujita Kanko plans to incorporate the Singapore office to strengthen the Asian base to further maximize marketing and sales as well as business development opportunities around the region.

Fujita Kanko Inc., established in 1955, is a publicly-traded tourism industry corporation headquartered in Tokyo. In addition to its core hospitality business, the company’s businesses include wedding and banquet facilities, high-end resorts, leisure facilities and related services. The company has over 50 properties/facilities including 30 mid-priced hotels throughout Japan in two chains: Gracery Hotels and Washington Hotels. Fujita Kanko just rebranded its iconic flagship property as Hotel Chinzanso Tokyo on January 1, 2013.

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Fujita Kanko Opens Singapore Office

Italian Police Arrest Suspect in International Soccer Fixing

Admir Suljic, 31, was apprehended at Milan’s Malpensa airport on arrival from Singapore, investigators said. He was taken to the northern city of Cremona, where he will be questioned by the prosecutors investigating more than 150 people in an international match-fixing case. The main charge against Mr. Suljic is criminal association targeted to international sports fraud, the officials said.

Mr. Suljic is thought to be an associate of Tan Seet Eng, a Singaporean also known as Dan Tan, who has been implicated in suspected match-fixing cases dating back more than a decade.

The Italian authorities believe that Mr. Suljic, a Slovenian, and one of his fellow countrymen, Dino Lalic, have served as the syndicate’s main operators in Italy since at least 2008. According to prosecutors, Mr. Suljic and Mr. Lalic dealt directly with soccer players to manipulate the matches and enable illicit gambling. Mr. Suljic and Mr. Lalic stayed at the same hotel as the alleged boss of the syndicate, Mr. Tan, on several occasions; they also traveled with him in a car from Slovenia to Italy in 2009, the authorities said.

The announcement of Mr. Suljic’s arrest coincided with an Interpol conference on match-fixing Thursday in Kuala Lumpur. Ronald K. Noble, the American who leads Interpol, said in a statement that that law enforcement officials “must be given the legal framework to share information with a global impact in the midst of active investigations,” and that “the days of thinking only about the secrecy of the investigation within each individual jurisdiction are over.”

Mr. Noble did not mention Mr. Tan by name, but European law enforcement officials said earlier this month at a conference in The Hague that Interpol had issued an international arrest warrant for him, but have been thus far frustrated by Singapore’s refusal to extradite him.

Mr. Noble said at the conference that the arrest of Mr. Suljic was “important because the world believes that law enforcement can’t do anything to take down this criminal organization,” The Associated Press reported.

But the Singapore police appeared Thursday to be signaling a willingness to act, saying in a statement they were sending four senior officers to the Interpol headquarters in Lyon, France. The officers will seek access to evidence, witnesses and suspects involved in match-fixing cases, and will explore “avenues to offer our assistance and share available information we have with these affected countries.”

Officials from Europol and other European law enforcement bodies said on Feb. 4 that they had identified 680 matches worldwide that appeared to have been fixed in the last few years, including World Cup qualifiers and Champions League contests.

Gaia Pianigiani reported from Rome, and David Jolly from Paris.

Italian Police Arrest Suspect in International Soccer Fixing

New Era lands its biggest catch in Singapore

New Era’s deal is to supply a range of diets for the 100,000 marine animals, across more than 800 species, inhabiting 60 million litres of water in the Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) Marine Life Park in Singapore.

This final element of the US$5bn integrated hotel, gaming and attractions complex on Singapore’s Sentosa Island opened in December last year. RWS is part of the Malaysia-based Genting Group.

Over the last year, New Era’s technical staff consulted with Marine Life Park’s curatorial team advising on quarantine techniques and feeding strategies, resulting in RWS placing its first order with the company.

New Era, which is based in Thorne, near Doncaster, is staffed by 20 people and recorded a turnover of £1.5m in its latest financial year, up 50 per cent on the previous year.

Craig Sowden, director and chief curator of SEA Aquarium, said: “We are pleased to be able to work with New Era to support the world’s largest aquarium, the SEA Aquarium.

“Its experience in providing nutrition to aquariums around the world proved to be a natural choice when choosing a reputable organisation to feed our 100,000 marine animal residents.”

Peter Kersh, New Era’s managing director, said: “We are extremely excited to have secured this landmark order.

“We are totally confident that our products will deliver major benefits for RWS because they are not only easy to manage and sustain fish health and water quality but, with no preparation required, they are also economical. The RWS order helps to augment our reputation in the growing public aquariums market – the world is our oyster!”

New Era declined to disclose the value of the RWS order. It said its export business represents more than 40 per cent of turnover. Four new members of staff were recruited last year.

New Era supplies more than 100 major aquariums across the globe, primarily in Europe and North America and recently exhibited at the International Aquariums Conference in Cape Town.

The company, founded in 2005, is working with existing and other new build aquariums in China, Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Pacific and Latin America.

New Era lands its biggest catch in Singapore