Over a Thousand Startups and Investors Join in Celebration — Three Major Highlights of Japan-Taiwan Startup to Kickoff New Economy Collaboration Post-pandemic
Supported by the National Development Council (NDC) and hosted by Startup Island TAIWAN Management Office, Japan-Taiwan Startup Summit is the biggest Japan-Taiwan startup event in the past years. Especially at a time when Japan’s covid status has alleviated slightly, Startup Island TAIWAN immediately reactivated its overseas presence, grasping onto the first wave of post-pandemic opportunities.
Japan-Taiwan Startup Summit has three major highlights:
#1: Largest in scale in the past years: Led by Taiwan’s head of ministries and with a focus on Japan-Taiwan’s new economy and startup exchanges, the summit attracted over a thousand startups, Japanese corporates, and investors throughout the time span of a week. The summit invited multiple speakers from well-known Japanese corporates such as Taiyo Kasamatsu, Executive Officer of IR and Investment Strategies Office of BEENOS, Japan’s leader in cross-border e-commerce industry, Takafumi Endo, Founder and CEO of Route06, a software company that helps with digital transformation, Yutaka Sugimoto, Operating Officer of VARK, a VR game developer, and Tsutomu Yamada, COO of New Innovations, a digital transformation service platform with a capital of 2.8 billion yen. Akira Morikawa, key opinion leader in Japan’s startup circle, Kiichi Kubota, President of KSP that’s known for his fame as the startup mentor, Hirofumi Ono, Group Chief Executive Officer of NEXT BIG represent 17LIVE Inc., and female entrepreneur Rika Shiiki, all attended in support. Nojima Tsuyoshi, a senior journalist who’s been in Taiwan for more than 10 years and Joel Fukuzawa, a senior Taiwanese journalist with extensive experience in Japan also held discussions on Japan-Taiwan exchanges. Asides from the summit, Startup Island TAIWAN also arranged a dinner meeting for the well-known Japanese media NewsPicks and Japanese startups to communicate with Taiwan stakeholders.
#2: Corresponding of Japan’s policy: with a focus on “digital transformation issues” and “startup development”, the topics align with Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s policy objectives. The summit discussed in-depth the role of large enterprises and startups in this wave and how Taiwan and Japan can work together to advance into Southeast Asia. Waseda University Professor Akie Iriyama analyzed, “a city’s innovation ecosystem will not be created in one place, it must communicate with other countries. The entrepreneurial world is relatively small, so people should pay more attention to building trust. Startups and venture capitals in Taiwan and Japan should cooperate in pushing forward into the Southeast Asian market”. Naoto Oohitsu, Managing Executive Officer of Mizuho Bank said in his sharing, “large enterprises should lead their companies in making decisions within healthy states of crisis, and should be on equal stances with startup partners, working together to create win-win situations instead of just thinking of startups as contractors”.
#3: In-depth exchanges between Taiwan and Japan: JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization), Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, Cool Japan Fund, Deloitte Tohmatsu Financial Advisory, Wahl+Case, Shibuya Startup Support and other organizations all supported the event through different formats whether it’s keynote speeches, corporate visits, fundraising, talent recruitment and other opinions sharing, enriching the event with more content. At the same time, upholding the values of “Together, Go Big”, the week-long event linked Taiwanese talents in Japan and local Japanese talents for conversations. Startup Island TAIWAN also worked with Worklife in Japan (WIJ), the largest Taiwanese community in Tokyo, and invited more than 200 talents to gather, establishing the start of a communication portal for further collaborations between Taiwan and Japan in the future.
The NDC would like to thank all Japanese stakeholders across the various fields for their support and affirmation of the event and indicate that the event serves as a new milestone in the exchange of innovation and entrepreneurship between Taiwan and Japan. This will become the channel between Taiwanese startups and Japanese startups, corporates, and strategic investors to work together in transforming digitally and entering the international market. By strengthening the linkages between the said stakeholders, the goal of “Together, Go Big” can be achieved through the idea of “one plus one is greater than two”.
