In late 2002, I travelled to Tokyo to take up the post of Director of the Finnish
Institute in Japan. I knew from the start that the main task of my three-year term
would be to organize a campaign called Feel Finland. I had been told by my predecessor and others that the campaign was inspired by Swedish Style, an annual
project organized since 1999 by project leader Ewa Kumlin (who at the time was
the spouse of the Ambassador of Sweden). Swedish Style was organized during
and in cooperation with Tokyo Design Week. The event had been a huge
success, and Finnish representatives in Japan felt it called for something similar
on the part of Finland. It was decided that the Finnish Institute in Japan, supported as it was by a private foundation, would be the right organization to take
the lead in mobilizing public and private funding, and bringing together different
sectors of society in order to build a campaign. Based at the Embassy of Finland,
the Institute would work closely with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.