The wine is just one reason among many to choose this unique country for your MICE event. There’s nowhere quite like Japan, and the MICE options reflect that. Tokyo, in particular, boasts a well-developed MICE infrastructure, including experiences tailored for small or large groups.

Business Events Tokyo offers team-building sessions involving sushi making, robot building or taiko drumming. All require teamwork. Other cultural experiences available include karate lessons, flower arranging and learning the art of the tea ceremony.

As you’d expect of a sophisticated metropolis of 9 million people, you’ll find no shortage of world-class venues. The flagship is arguably the Tokyo International Forum, with 1.5 million square feet of floor space in four buildings and the flexibility to accommodate everything from a small business meeting to a major exhibition. The Forum will host weightlifting competitions for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, rescheduled for this summer.

Tokyo invested nearly $4 billion in infrastructure and facilities ahead of the Olympics, including upgraded expressways and expanded rail stations. Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the International Olympic Committee pledges a safe event, with infection prevention measures in place for the delayed games.

Another heavyweight venue is the Tokyo Conference Center Shinagawa, located in Shinagawa District. The Venue boasts two halls and a range of boardrooms on three floors, all just a short walk from Shinagawa Station, with convenient connections to Haneda and Narita International airports and to the country’s bullet train network.

Tokyo Big Sight (also known as the Tokyo International Exhibition Center), is the most distinctive venue in Tokyo and the biggest exhibition space in Japan. Resembling four upside-down pyramids balanced on four stocky support columns, the building originally opened in 1996, instantly becoming an unmistakable fixture of the skyline in the Waterfront Area. The venue features five exhibition spaces, three conference halls, a ballroom and numerous smaller meeting rooms.

In addition to dedicated venues, most of Tokyo’s international hotels (of which there are many) offer MICE facilities. Park Hyatt Tokyo, the unforgettable setting of the movie Lost in Translation, occupies the top 14 floors of a 52-floor tower with stunning views of the cityscape and Mount Fuji on a rare clear day. The hotel has three versatile function rooms as well as boardroom facilities and private dining options.

The Mandarin Oriental, Tokyo, in Nihonbashi District (styled “Fusion City” in tourism literature because of its blend of old and new), has 14 event spaces, the largest of which can seat up to 260 people. Every event includes an assigned dedicated manager and can fold in cultural experiences as part of the program, including its new Mindful Meetings approach which incorporates wellness in every meeting to inspire and energize participants.

Japanese cuisine should feature in any visit to Tokyo, and where better to experience it than in a restaurant that recreates the atmosphere of the Edo Period? Tofuro, in the swank Ginza District, comes complete with an indoor street, a running stream and several traditional wooden buildings. The seasonal menu includes, of course, sushi and sashimi. MICE groups can rent out an entire floor for up to 100 people or private rooms for two to 100 people.

UNIQUE VENUES
Alongside all of the standard international- class venues, Tokyo offers a variety of unusual options.

The Maxell Aqua Park within the Shinagawa Prince Hotel belongs to the breathtaking category. The exhibits combine aquarium displays with interactive technology as well as a central pool for spectacular dolphin shows. The Aqua Park can be hired exclusively after it closes to the public at 10 p.m., either for stand-alone events or to supplement events in the more formal surroundings of the hotel’s ballroom.
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Tokyo is so unrelentingly urban it is hard to imagine rural Japan lies within easy reach. Around 90 minutes inland from downtown, close to the city of Ashikaga, is Coco Farm & Winery. The winery produces Japanese variants of European wines (Chardonnay, Merlot) as well as genuinely Japanese wine derived from the local Koshu grape. Sample some of the wines in a tasting room suitable for small groups, and enjoy vineyard views from the terrace of a small café.
cocowine.com