Elections 2025

Greetings Fellow CCCJ members,

Hopefully third time’s a charm!

I am Sujit Bedi, and I am honoured to be asked by leadership to run to be a Governor for a third time, especially to be thought of a peer among this year’s amazing pool of candidates.

I am a U.K.-born Canadian, having spent most of my pre-Japan years in various parts of Canada, but I consider Vancouver home. I did my undergrad at UBC and my MBA at McGill’s MBA Japan Programme in Tokyo in 98. I first came to Japan in the summer of 84, when my Japanophilia started, been back many times since then, and the current stint, I have been here since 91. I call Yokohama home.  My post-MBA career has mainly been in the medical device area, having APAC-wide roles in marketing, product management and business development. I am currently Safeguard Medical’s Director of Business Development APAC. We focus on the pre-hospital/trauma segment, and with current geopolitical issues, especially related to the East and South China, and growing cross-border humanitarian disaster support, I am proud of how our products go beyond just EMS.

I have been a member of the CCCJ since March 2022, so not that long given my activities related to Canada in Japan, especially though alumni groups. I make my best effort to join actives and even played golf for the first a few weeks back at the CCCJ Golf Scramble. I think without my handicap I don’t think I could have receive the lovely bottle of wine. Early last year I joined the Hackathon and became highly motivated to become even more active wanting join several committees. As a result, I currently am part of the emerging technologies committee and after having our first event last week, looking forward to more information sharing and activities related to this. Especially as the current global dynamics makes organizations to think and act more globally to not only mitigate risk but expand. Also, one area I hope to help is wellness, as this is something I am personally passionate about. While I am more than satisfied being a member on committees, attending events, etc. I strongly believe being a governor will allow me to make a greater impact on the chamber’s mission and goals. Also I. Hope to enhance h transparency to members to give more an opportunity to be involved. My global business mindset is beyond just Canada and Japan, so this will enhance what I can offer.

I want to close by sharing some feedback I got at the last meet the candidates, which honestly threw me off and stuck with me. One of the attendees made efforts to talk to everyone. They were very frank when they approached me, and they stated they want to vote for someone ‘fresh’ to bring in new blood and they felt I was just a carbon copy of Canadians who came around the end of the bubble and not able to bring new life to the chamber. Hopefully I convinced them I am not, and I want to assure all those reading this, that while this is a volunteer role, that if elected I will be highly active and ready to positively shake things up as necessary. Getting back to wellness, I try to be positive, and my lighthearted manner – often deemed the mood maker - does not equate to not being serious.

Thank you for reading this and I look to meeting people at the meet the candidates.