The Japanese Government is establishing a center for entrepreneurs in Palo Alto called Japan Innovation Campus. Its arm METI, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, held a reception party to celebrate the launch of it on Sunday, inviting Yasutoshi Nishimura, the Japanese Economic Minister. Other guests included Palo Alto Mayor Lydia Kou, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan and the head of Geodesic Capital John Ruus as well as local Japanese investors and entrepreneurs. The venue is conveniently located just three blocks from University Avenue, a major thoroughfare in the city, and close to Stanford University, which is known for producing many startups. It is managed by Mori Building and Accenture under contract from METI. About five companies will be selected as office members that can use private offices, and 50 companies will be selected as co-working members that can use shared space (up to three people per company) while applications have been already closed. The venue was established as part of the Japanese government’s “Five-Year Startup Development Plan,” and has been designated as one of the venues for J-StarX, a program promoted by the Ministry to send Japanese entrepreneurs to startup hubs in the overseas. By linking Japanese entrepreneurs,…
Japan Innovation Campus Image credit: METI
The Japanese Government is establishing a center for entrepreneurs in Palo Alto called Japan Innovation Campus. Its arm METI, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, held a reception party to celebrate the launch of it on Sunday, inviting Yasutoshi Nishimura, the Japanese Economic Minister. Other guests included Palo Alto Mayor Lydia Kou, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan and the head of Geodesic Capital John Ruus as well as local Japanese investors and entrepreneurs.
The venue is conveniently located just three blocks from University Avenue, a major thoroughfare in the city, and close to Stanford University, which is known for producing many startups. It is managed by Mori Building and Accenture under contract from METI. About five companies will be selected as office members that can use private offices, and 50 companies will be selected as co-working members that can use shared space (up to three people per company) while applications have been already closed.
The venue was established as part of the Japanese government’s “Five-Year Startup Development Plan,” and has been designated as one of the venues for J-StarX, a program promoted by the Ministry to send Japanese entrepreneurs to startup hubs in the overseas.
By linking Japanese entrepreneurs, students, and others with local accelerators, VCs, universities, JETRO and other government agencies, the program aims to support the global expansion of Japanese startups and the development of the ecosystem. Through organizing events, it also aims to encourage open innovation between the two sides of the Pacific.
See the original story in Japanese. The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced last week that it has launched the startup support program named J-Startup, aiming to promote overseas development of Japanese startups and creation of unicorns. In the same day, a launch ceremony was held in Tokyo, inviting dignitaries including Hiroshige Seko (Japanese Minister of METI), Makoto Takahashi (CEO of KDDI), Laurent Pic (French Ambassador to Japan) and Sujan R. Chinoy (Indian Ambassador to Japan). J-Startup is a general name for startup support programs managed by METI jointly with Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) or New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). Aiming to produce 20 unicorns / listed companies by 2023, this program chooses about 100 startups from among 10,000 startups throughout Japan based on experts’ evaluation (consisting of 66 members including investors) and gives them certification of J-Startup Company (92 teams were chosen in the first batch). The certified startups are allowed to use the J-Startup logo as well as various beneficial supports. Invitation to visit / exhibition tours to global events such as GITEX FUTURE STARS, WebSummit, SLUSH, Consumer Electronics Show or SXSW, free use of Global Acceleration Hub at JETRO’s overseas…
Hiroshige Seko, the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan, announces the J-Startup program. Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced last week that it has launched the startup support program named J-Startup, aiming to promote overseas development of Japanese startups and creation of unicorns. In the same day, a launch ceremony was held in Tokyo, inviting dignitaries including Hiroshige Seko (Japanese Minister of METI), Makoto Takahashi (CEO of KDDI), Laurent Pic (French Ambassador to Japan) and Sujan R. Chinoy (Indian Ambassador to Japan).
J-Startup is a general name for startup support programs managed by METI jointly with Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) or New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). Aiming to produce 20 unicorns / listed companies by 2023, this program chooses about 100 startups from among 10,000 startups throughout Japan based on experts’ evaluation (consisting of 66 members including investors) and gives them certification of J-Startup Company (92 teams were chosen in the first batch).
The certified startups are allowed to use the J-Startup logo as well as various beneficial supports. Invitation to visit / exhibition tours to global events such as GITEX FUTURE STARS, WebSummit, SLUSH, Consumer Electronics Show or SXSW, free use of Global Acceleration Hub at JETRO’s overseas branches, business matching opportunities with major enterprises and the authorities is sent, in addition to arranging preferential treatment including financial support or simplification of procedures, preferential application of the regulatory sandbox or participation opportunities to governmental missions overseas.
Scheme of J-Startup Image credit: METI
It holds the interview event named J-Startup Hour inviting major supporters or famous entrepreneurs at Toranomon Hills Café from 18 to 19 p.m. every Thursday (held as a part of Venture Café Tokyo’s Thursday Gathering). In addition, 105 support companies as J-Startup Supporters will provide preferential treatments in terms of mentoring or lending equipment / facilities.
METI had managed various startup support programs such as Shido Next Innovator Program for global entrepreneur development or Hiyaku Next Enterprise for next-gen company development. JETRO, the organization under METI, had also independently developed programs to send promised entrepreneurs to foreign startup conferences. All of these programs are integrated / arranged into the unified brand of J-Startup and will be managed in a more effective manner.
Logo of J-Startup Image credit: METI
J-Startup does not only support Japanese startups to advance overseas but also focuses on invitation of inbound startups / entrepreneurs. It utilizes the previously mentioned JETRO’s Global Acceleration Hub, as well as positively examines the issuance of the Startup visa relaxing the requirements for obtaining statuses of residence within certified municipalities in cooperation with the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
This J-Startup announcement suggests similar attempts being made outside of Japan, for example, K-Startup by the Korean Ministry of SMEs and Startups or La French Tech under Business France. The chicken logo of La French Tech is often seen in startup conference all over the world in recent years. We will continue to check out the future trend of J-Startup and how much their presence will grow in name and in reality.
J-Startup Companies and J-Startup Supporters at J-Startup launch ceremony Image credit: Masaru Ikeda
Translated by Taijiro Takeda Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy
As we head into a long weekend here in Tokyo, here’s a fun new website to give you some ideas about what to do on the weekend. 100tokyo.jp is billed as a “curated cultural guide to the most charming and unique facets of Japan’s capital city.” I suggest you start with the map where you can explore interesting creative venue around the city. The site was created by design studio Cinra, and organized by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Overall it’s a one of the more promising efforts at city promotion I’ve seen on the web [1]. And hopefully over the next few years leading up to the Tokyo Olympics we might we more attempts like this. Perhaps METI could get behind some civic hackathons? Not packing Japanese and English text side by side in the same content blocks might have been wiser though, in my view. It just annoys readers of both languages. ↩
As we head into a long weekend here in Tokyo, here’s a fun new website to give you some ideas about what to do on the weekend. 100tokyo.jp is billed as a “curated cultural guide to the most charming and unique facets of Japan’s capital city.” I suggest you start with the map where you can explore interesting creative venue around the city.
The site was created by design studio Cinra, and organized by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Overall it’s a one of the more promising efforts at city promotion I’ve seen on the web [1]. And hopefully over the next few years leading up to the Tokyo Olympics we might we more attempts like this.
Perhaps METI could get behind some civic hackathons?
Not packing Japanese and English text side by side in the same content blocks might have been wiser though, in my view. It just annoys readers of both languages. ↩
METI 
Masaru Ikeda
Rick Martin
