This November, as part of the Strategic Cluster Week, an initiative organised by ACCIÓ through the Catalonia Clusters programme, 17 Catalan clusters, among them Leather Cluster Barcelona, travelled to Japan. The aim of the trip was to explore strategic opportunities and alliances within their sectors, to foster international networking and to learn how one of the most advanced and innovative business ecosystems, as the Asian country is, works.

Jordi Vidal, executive director of Leather Cluster Barcelona, took part in this mission to Japan, which was accompanied on behalf of ACCIÓ's Cluster Unit by Encarni Avilés and Anna Monjo, team leaders of Catalunya Clústers.

During the trip to Japan, the world's third largest economy, the Catalan clusters visited large Japanese companies and organisations such as Rakuten and Panasonic and were able to get to know Japanese research centres and stakeholders related both to research and development and to sustainability.

The 17 ACCIÓ clusters also learned about Japanese industry and tradition from Professor Parissa Haghirian of Sophia University in Tokyo and enjoyed a lesson in innovation through a masterclass by Jorge Calvo, PhD, professor and vice-dean at GLOBIS University – Graduate School of Management and professor at the ESADE business school, an expert on the Japanese market who shared his views on how to do business in the Asian country.

As regards Leather Cluster Barcelona's individual agenda, Jordi Vidal travelled to Osaka to visit Loewe ReCraft, the fashion firm's first shop in the world specialising in the repair and maintenance of its leather articles by master craftspeople. The cluster's director also had the opportunity to visit and greet the managers of the new Loewe shop in Tokyo.

These visits were a reunion with Loewe's managers in Japan, some of whom visited the cluster last March and October to immerse themselves in the world of leather through active learning that combined guided tours of a technical as well as a historical and cultural nature.

Leather Cluster Barcelona is an environment of competitive cooperation for promoting cross-cutting, transformative strategic projects with the aim of driving the ecosystem of the Catalan leather sector. The cluster is an entity accredited under the Catalonia Clusters programme and is supported by Acció.