Startup Hubs in Tokyo
Tokyo isn’t one area you casually visit— just like Los Angeles and New York, it’s a sprawling landmass with dozens of districts (wards, as they are called), each with its own moods and culture unlike neighboring wards.
While Tokyo boasts a large number of startups scattered across its wide prefecture, startups have formed clusters in some of these areas, making certain wards known as a hotbed for a specific field, whether it be FinTech or AI, sometimes with the support of municipal governments.
This week, we’ll be taking a look at four such areas: Hongo and Shibuya for AI and Machine Learning; Tokyo Station for FinTech; and Gotanda for the smaller, seed stage category.
Hongo, Shibuya: AI / Machine Learning
Known as the location of University of Tokyo, Japan’s top university, Hongo has now become known as Japan’s premier AI startup spot. You’ll find University of Tokyo’s Entrepreneur Plaza, an incubator with several AI startups; Kernel Hongo, an AI-specific accelerator set up by SoftBank’s AI R&D arm DEEPCORE; and telecommunications and media firm Dwango, Toyota’s AI research facility all within close proximity of one another.
Shibuya is a well-known ward to any traveler to Japan with its world famous crossing and vibrant shopping scene. It’s also inserted itself as an AI cluster of about a dozen or so AI startups, as well as Google’s new office location. Shibuya is also simply a general startup hub flush with capital from now-mature companies from the Internet boom era.
Tokyo Station: FinTech
The general Tokyo Station area comprised of Marunouchi, Otemachi, and its surrounding areas, have long been associated with Japanese financial institutions. The largest, most historical companies like Mitsubishi and Mitsui still occupy the area across several pieces of real estate they’ve owned for decades.
It’s also the location of Finolab, an Otemachi-based FinTech accelerator with 45 startups under its wing, and the FinTech Association of Japan is located just east of Tokyo station. If you’re a FinTech entrepreneur looking for corporate partnerships with the most respected companies vying to get in on the latest trends in financial technology, this is the place.
Gotanda: Up-and-Comers
Gotanda is was known as a tiny red light district with its shadier alleyways filled with hole-in-the-wall eateries. If you’re familiar with the US casino geography, you might liken Gotanda to Reno, where Kabukicho mirrors the grandiosity of Las Vegas. That’s been changing since about three years ago when a handful of now-successful startups moved into the area; it’s now known as a spot for the T-shirt Zoku (“T-shirt clan”, from the startup branded t-shirts workers often wear). Being just a little ways away from the busiest districts of Tokyo also helps with cheaper rent, a more residential feel, and easy access to anywhere in Tokyo by train if needed.
A quick survey will get you to more than 50 startups in Gotanda. According to Nikkei’s list of 108 future unicorns, 9 are in Gotanda, and 7 have raised at least ¥100m. It doesn’t have a field of focus like Hongo or Otemachi, but it has attracted a fair share of new startups saving as much money as possible while brushing elbows with fellow entrepreneurs trying to hit it big. Owing to this recent trend, the initial startups that got Gotanda’s name back on the map as a startup hub created Gotanda Valley, an NPO connecting local startups, rebranding Gotanda as a cohesive community open to innovation and disruption.
