How Japan's Top Brands Inspire Through Passion

Interbrand Global CEO Jez Frampton this week announced Japan’s Best Global Brands 2012 in a keynote speech in Tokyo.

“It’s a testament to the excellence of this country’s leading companies and the wealth of talent their brands represent,” Frampton commented. "It's not just 'business as usual' we are witnessing. It's business driven by passion and a will to overcome adversity."

The remarkable success stories highlighted in the new ranking includes such top Japanese brands as Toyota, Honda, Canon, Sony, Nintendo, Panasonic, Nissan, Lexus, Toshiba and Komatsu.

Frampton praised Japan's top brands for not only overcoming adversity, but also for elements that he should be a part of their narrative to the world:

• Your unique manufacturing ethos and corporate culture. Your commitment to green consciousness and sustainability.

• The diligence of your science, the rigor of your quality control, and the breathtaking scope of your innovation.

• How traditions, principles, and values can be retained and put to the service of our modern world, without cutting corners. And, upholding your businesses like badges of honor.

• The beauty of “Kaizen”, the constant quest to do things better.

• Your ability not just to survive, but to thrive in a low-growth environment, with a belief in steady, long-term prosperity, that may well set the model for all the world’s economies.

Collectively, stories like these form the larger narrative of ‘Brand Japan’ — an epic of great achievement that is still being written.

These are your stories. You should be telling them with every breath.

Click here to read his full remarks and here to download the new report.