After the last week in Tokyo, I think that it is price sharing key to take -out and data on the Japanese startup ecosystem, which is significant, growing and observing increased government investments and international interests.
The opportunity to go to my visit was the first in history Skalatup Summit Japanorganized by Watch out for the bridge in cooperation with JetroJapan Government Agency dedicated to supporting internationalization.
Jetro has a large, well -structured team focused on startups, led by Noriya Tarutaniwith the presence of virtually every major market. We surprised our peak to coincide with Sushi Tech Tokyo, one of the most significant startup events in the Far East. We also added a technological mission for some international firms (similar to A2A), focuses on the study of the Japanese landscape of innovation and identification of startups and technology of interest in the field of potential acceptance or investment.
We are already planning a wider mission for next 12 months to further deepen their involvement in the local ecosystem.
Here’s what I took from the trip.
Japan has a solid startup ecosystem
The Japanese startup ecosystem is far from small. The country has almost 22,000 startups and 2,300 scale, in accordance with the data with Japan Scaleup Scaleup report (bridge produced by the mind combined with Crunchbase and download Here).
Of these, 86 raised over $ 100 million, and two raised over $ 1 billion, with a sum of six unicorns. This puts Japan on an equal footing with France and Germany – and significantly ahead of many other nations.
Huge growth
The shoot is real – and accelerating.
In 2022, Prime Minister Kishida began a five -year startup development plan with daring ambitions and significant investments. In the years 2023–2027 the Japanese government will invest 10 trillion yen in innovation, aimed at increasing the ecosystem to 100,000 startups (4x to five times greater than the current volume) and 100 unicorns (jump 10 times).
Are these goals too ambitious? Maybe. But Japan is extremely effective in implementing structured processes to make something occur. Signal: only in 2024 – while most ecosystems around the world slowed down after the financial boom 2021 – Japan added 238 recent scale and attracted $ 5 billion in investment.
It is also essential to think about the strong orientation of Japan towards deep and hard technology, which often requires more capital time and longer development. Role in this space Ned (Japanese progressive agency) is crucial.
The remainder of the world is already moving
The possibilities go to those that appear early – and many do it.
It is not surprising that the US leads the way, maintaining historically close relations with Japan. Of the 41 international progressive institutions, currently in Japan, 15 are Americans.
But France and Germany are also moving quickly. How Jean-Eric PackageEU ambassador in Japan, recorded during the opening of the Scale Summit, today’s global instability – and the growing unpredictability of US policy – can create recent strategic possibilities for other countries to get a group in Japan.
The role of Japanese corporations
This is where the game will win – or lose.
Japanese corporations are still strongly based on traditional, internal progressive models based on research and development, and only now they are beginning to take open innovations in a significant way. Among Fortune 500 firms in Japan are still receiving external innovation models (see Comparative evaluation on the adoption of open progressive tools by Fortune 500).
But if this alteration persists, the impact can be huge. These are massive conglomerates covering many sectors. To take MitsubishiThese are many large firms under one roof.
The trend consists in consolidating resources, which were once muted in individual business units – from corporate initiatives of increased risk capital to the newly created AI Solutions task group.
Unlike many European firms, Japanese corporations have a deeply rooted presence in the world’s best progressive ecosystems. In fact, Japan is the best foreign corporate investor investment investor each in the Silicon Valley and on the east coast of the USA. Their global exhibition gives them an eye on what’s going to occur next.
In short: Japan wakes up – and does it on a scale. Ignore it at your personal risk.