Invest Japan Seminar in Shanghai, China

December 2019

In the Company Presentation session, under the theme "Overview of Japanese Ecosystems," Ms. Liu of SPEEDA, Uzabase China, publicized the remarkable growth of Japan’s ecosystems by introducing the recent increase in the loan volume for startups by the Japanese government and universities, as well as cases of collaboration between financial institutes, large companies and active startups in the fields of fintech and healthcare. Giving the perspective of a foreign company expanding business in a new market of Japan, Mr. An of Ximalaya Japan, a Chinese company active in the country, spoke under the theme "Business Opportunities in the Japanese IT Service Market from the Perspective of the Audio Market.” He talked about the attractiveness and issues of the Japanese audio content market where his company is taking up challenges and recommended companies in attendance to do adequate market research before entering the country as well as to make use of JETRO's support programs.

Under the theme "Open Innovation by Japanese Companies and Possibility of Collaboration with Chinese Companies," presentations were delivered by Mr. Wada of EduLab and Mr. Iwasaki of Mirai Business Division at Hakuhodo. Mr. Wada presented on the recent trend of large companies showing interest in investing in new projects in the Japanese education market, an area where digitalization is falling behind other countries. He also mentioned that it is well worth it for overseas companies to work with Japanese companies possessing excellent user interfaces. Mr. Iwasaki introduced his company's efforts to develop new business in collaboration with other companies in seven fields outside of advertisement, such as next generation commerce and smart cities. He expressed his hope to work with innovative Chinese companies in these fields.

Three panel sessions were held by local authorities.
In the session titled "Support by Startup Ecosystems," representatives from Kyoto Prefecture and the cities of Osaka and Fukuoka took the podium and presented on the distinguishing characteristics of ecosystems in each region. In the session "The Industry-Academia-Government Collaboration and Utilization of Corporate Collaboration," representatives from Kanagawa Prefecture and the cities of Kobe and Karatsu, which are working to draw life-science companies, individually introduced cases of joint development between overseas and local companies. In the session "Solving Local Issues and Creating Innovation," presentations were delivered by representatives from Yokohama, the Aichi-Nagoya International Business Access Center (I-BAC) and Okinawa Prefecture. They separately explained issues each region has in the fields of transportation, manufacturing and tourism and made a joint call for collaboration with Chinese tech companies which are capable of contributing to solving these issues.

Peiye Zhang of JETRO Shanghai presented JETRO's promotion programs for FDI into Japan under the theme of investment promotion in local regions and the creation of innovation.

At a networking reception after the seminar, numerous Chinese business people visited PR tables for the presenting companies, local authorities, as well as JETRO, and engaged in lively discussions.

With the aim of creating innovation, JETRO will continue supporting collaboration between Chinese and Japanese companies as well as assist Chinese companies in entering the Japanese market.

* This seminar was held under the consigned budget of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.