Blackbox press event and Regional Government Roundtable

From 2pm to 4pm on January 29th, Blackbox held its first in-house media event! We were aiming to start off small, so we were pleasantly surprised with the turnout — thank you to all the press and ecosystem representatives who made the time to come by.

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Blackbox

It being our first event, we began by explaining Blackbox’s mission statement and the social context that led to our launch. General Manager Taiki Iwasaki talked about the growing support for startups — especially foreign startups — in Japan over the last few years.

We are now roughly midway through previous PM Kishida’s 5-year Startup Development plan, and the landscape is indeed changing. Currently over 700 Startup Visas have been issued, with well over half of them maturing to full-time Business Management Visas.

And yet there remains the issue of Japan being a black box to outsiders, especially within the business sphere. Even information exclusively intended for non-Japanese — for example, the application process for a startup visa — is often only available in Japanese, and often fragmented and buried on various regional government websites.

This is what Blackbox seeks to address; via Directory pages for each featured city, users can find information about visas, government support programs, local organisations, news, and interviews with local entrepreneurs, all in English.

Startup City Project

We were also happy to welcome Toru Udagawa, representative of the Cabinet Office’s Secretariat Of Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy, who gave a presentation on the government's roadmap for further developing Japan’s startup ecosystem. The startup phase is of course very exciting, but how will a healthy startup ecosystem mature into an economic engine contributing to Japan’s future, and what support structures and tools need to be in place to help it do so?

Roundtable with Regional Delegates

The highlight of the afternoon was a roundtable discussion with representatives from Shibuya, Nagoya, Kobe, Kyoto, and Sapporo — all cities within Special Economic Zones which offer startup visas.

It was fascinating to hear how the different cultural and historical backgrounds of the different areas have affected the startup scenes there, as well as their designs for the future. Nagoya, with its long history of heavy industry and manufacturing, is keen to expand into global hubs such as the US, Europe, and Singapore, while the port town of Kobe emphasises collaboration within Japan and the immediate area, like Taiwan and Korea. Shibuya’s place as a premier world destination sees them making efforts towards attracting foreign capital and VCs, while Hokkaido’s rich quality of life acts as a strong force in attracting human resources. Overall, a brilliant insight into the strengths of the different regions.

Thank you

Blackbox recently celebrated its second year of operations, and we’re constantly growing and devising new ways to demystify the startup scene in Japan. If you’re interested in joining our enthusiastic community, don’t hesitate to check us out here!

Blackbox : https://www.blackboxjp.com/

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