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INVESTOR VISA ITALY
POINTS OF VIEW
Tetsuro Akanegakubo:
What Japanese investors and donors
look for in Italy
by Flavia Bazzano
4
It was in the 1960s when Tetsuro Akanegakubo, little more than twenty
years old, arrived in Italy for the first time during a promotional world tour
campaign. Since then, the journalist has actively promoted relations bet-
ween Italy and Japan, as well as working in the art field with Fondazione
Crocetti (of which he is president). He has collaborated with some of the top
Japanese newspapers such as The Nikkei, the most important financial
paper in the world. Akanegakubo is presently a correspondent for the Shakai
Shimpo.
cooked in a simple and genuine way. Just like a mother would cook for her
child. And I feel right at home in the Roman ‘trattorie’ of today.
It seems that a passion for Italian cooking has captured Japan as well,
where Italian cuisine is second only to Chinese in terms of the number
of restaurants. Do you think this is an attractive business sector for a
Japanese investor who would like to invest in Italy?
INVESTORVISA – Your interest for Italy came about almost by chance:
you arrived from Calcutta on a motorcycle, when you were forced to
stop in Rome for repairs. This unforeseen event gave you the opportu-
nity to cover the 1960 Rome Olympic games as a reporter for Mainichi
Shimbun. You were twenty-one. What made you stay? The agricultural sector is certainly one of the strongest in Italy. Many Japa-
nese investors are attracted to our cooking, as evidenced by the high num-
ber of Italian restaurants that open in Japan. Mediterranean cooking is very
close to the Japanese way of eating, especially for seafood. So it is easy for
the Japanese to accept Italian cooking. However, I don’t think investors are
interested in this sector in Italy because they prefer to buy products directly
from Italians.
AKANEGAKUBO – It was all by chance that I discovered the beauty of Italy,
and found true love. It all happened so quickly, and today I still consider my-
self very fortunate for the way things turned out. Italy is a splendid country
and as time went by I learned so many of the nuances that a tourist or forei-
gner rarely discover. And those nuances still fascinate me. A mountain road,
the waves of the sea, a wine cellar, the laughter of people. Time seems to go
slower, the imperfections that make Italians perfect and envied by the whole
world. These are just some of the reasons why I decided to stay. As you know, the Italian Government has adopted a series of measures
to encourage foreign investment in Italian companies or donations
towards public projects. Among these, one can obtain a visa and a
residency permit (both valid for the Schengen area and extendible to
immediate family members) with a tax break on personal income.
Do you think these terms are attractive to a potential investor?
You are one of the foreign correspondents interviewed by Dutch
journalist Maarten van Aalderen, Vice President of the Foreign Press
Association in Italy, who collected the experiences of some of his
colleagues living in Italy in the book The Beauty of Italy. The Belpaese
seen by foreign press correspondents published in 2015 by Albeggi
Edizioni. In your article, you affectionately focused on what you like so
much about the Roman ‘trattorie’ which are simple restaurants and
their capacity to recreate a home-cooking like ‘mamma’ made. Do you
think this is the secret to the success of Italian cooking all over the
world?
The real flavours of Italian cooking are found in people’s homes. This is pro-
bably the secret to Italian cooking. An enormous variety of good ingredients,
These are certainly very important measures. What holds investors back is
the bureaucracy and fear of corruption, but also high taxation. Whichever of
these three aspects the new policies can solve is surely an advantage for
foreign investors. Transparency is the most important since investors are
often discouraged because they don’t know what amount of taxation they
will have to face, where/how to expedite the official procedures, basically
what an investor needs to know and do.
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