Date/Time
Date(s) - December 1 2025 - December 3 2025
All Day
On behalf of the Department for Transport (DfT), UK rail businesses based both within the UK and Japan are invited to apply to join a DfT Rail Trade Mission to Japan taking place between 1 to 3 December in Tokyo, linked to the longstanding UK-Japan Rail Working Group (RWG).
The exact programmes and networking opportunities will be shared with those preselected companies, but the initial draft programme involving mission members is as follows.
- Monday 1 December 2025 – DfT & Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) Presentations on UK & Japan ‘Rail Hot Topics’ and mutual issues (e.g. climate resilience, construction best practice, upcoming projects, smart ticketing, and transit-oriented development). Travelling businesses are welcome to join these talks and participate in discussions, giving you an insight into the latest rail policy developments in Japan.
- Tuesday 2 December 2025 – Business networking day (including tailored 1:1 matchmaking between UK and Japanese rail businesses). Japanese businesses confirmed to be in attendance so far include JR East, JR Central, Tokyo Metro, Hitachi, Nippon Koei, Mitsubishi Electric Co., Hankyu Railway, Kyosan, Daido Signal, and Pacific Consultant. Others are expected to confirm.
- Wednesday 3 December 2025 – Site visits key Tokyo rail sites, e.g. Takanawa Garden City and a guided ride on the shinkansen and depot tour
Apply
If interested, please complete this application form to request to participate in this year’s RWG in Japan and return it to [email protected] by 18:00 on Thursday 30 October 2025. DfT in turn will then let businesses know if they have been selected, or not, to join the mission.
If you would like further details, please contact the DfT International Rail Team at [email protected]
*Businesses will be expected to fund their own travel, accommodation, and subsistence on the mission.
Background
Over 23 years ago, the DfT agreed a Memorandum of Understanding with Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT). This has turned into a strong Government-to-Government relationship on rail, which culminates every year in the UK-Japan RWG. The RWG brings an opportunity for knowledge sharing between UK and Japanese experts, and to discuss opportunities to work together, e.g. third country collaboration.
At this year’s RWG in Tokyo, we will be giving UK businesses the opportunity to directly meet Japanese businesses and Japanese Government officials to discuss closer collaboration and business opportunities. Previous RWG’s have resulted in UK business wins in Japan.
Japanese businesses attending this year’s RWG have expressed an interest in hearing from UK businesses across a broad range of specialities, including those offering innovative technologies, products and services offering decarbonisation solutions, automatic and/or labour-saving solutions, maintenance solutions, consulting and advisory services.
Japanese businesses at the last RWG held in Tokyo were from the following fields: consultancy, design, rail operators, law firms, rolling stock manufacturers, signalling manufacturers, system manufacturers, trading companies, financial institutions, public entities, public authorities, freight operators, general contractors, construction companies and telecommunications.