Kitakyushu is the second most populous city in the Kyushu region. Formerly known as the Kitakyushu Industrial Zone, one of four major industrial zones in Japan, Kitakyushu was famous for its steel industry thanks to the Imperial Steel Works, the second steel mill built in Japan and the largest in the country for some time after its construction in 1896. Japan’s steel mills would prove vital to its economy, leading to the growth of not only the steel industry but also the ceramics, shipbuilding, robotics, machinery, and automobile industries.

Overcoming pollution

Kitakyushu’s rapid industrial development during the 20th century brought with it the problem of pollution. Factory emissions polluted the skies, causing health problems for many people, and wastewater runoff caused water pollution, destroying much of the surrounding ecosystem. Happily, these kinds of pollution have now been completely eliminated in the city thanks to the combined efforts of citizens, companies, and the government.

Kitakyushu City's environmental conservation policy and industrial restoration efforts are among the most advanced in Japan, and in 1997, the Kitakyushu Eco-Town Project was launched to develop and demonstrate technologies for use in recycling and upcycling. Companies involved are working on technologies to recycle a variety of items, including PET bottles, automobiles, electrical appliances, fluorescent tubes, mixed construction waste, nonferrous metals, and rechargeable batteries. The Eco-Town project, which is centered on corporate activities, has already achieved reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and by 2021, the city claimed to have successfully reduced its annual greenhouse gas emissions by 503,000 tons through recycling.

Kitakyushu is also actively communicating the results of the Eco-Town project. The Kitakyushu Eco-Town Center was established in 2001 for the purposes of disseminating knowledge gained from the Eco-Town project and supporting the Eco-Town project itself. The center also serves as a tour center for recycling factories in the area

Proactive certification and support

Kitakyushu is unique in that it has established a certification system for companies and products that are making advances in environmental efforts. The Eco Action 21 certifies and registers companies based on guidelines established by the Ministry of the Environment, and mainly targets small and medium-sized enterprises. Kitakyushu has been rewarding companies for their environmental management efforts and encouraging other companies to do the same by granting Certificates of Appreciation to some of the businesses certified under this system and promoting them to citizens and other businesses. So far, 36 businesses have received a Certificate of Appreciation.

Kitakyushu City also established the Kitakyushu Eco Premium Certification System, which recognized products, technologies, and industrial activities with a low environmental impact. This system rewarded companies with diverse support, including publication on the system’s website and catalog, inviting them to participate in one of Kyushu's largest environmental events, and space at an exhibition at the aforementioned Eco-Town Center. Companies were also granted permission to display the Kitakyushu Eco Premium certification logo. It should be noted that new applications for certification under this system were closed in 2023.

Support for Startups

Drawing on its environmental success, Kitakyushu is now offering support for startups, with a vision of becoming the most entrepreneur-friendly city in Japan. The city has a mission to form a tech ecosystem based on industry-academia-government collaboration, focusing on the environment, robotics, and DX fields, which are the city's main strengths. The city has set a target to create 100 startup companies, including one unicorn, and provide 20 startup visas between April 2024 and March 2025. To this end, the Kitakyushu SDGs Startup Ecosystem Consortium, established in 2020, was selected by the Cabinet Office to promote the formation of a world-class startup ecosystem in Kitakyushu. The city also offers a private-sector-led Global Acceleration Program (GAP-K), with a special advisor from Yaskawa Electric Corporation at the helm.

COMPASS Kokura, easily accessible from JR Kokura station, is the center of the startup ecosystem in Kitakyushu. This facility offers various forms of support for entrepreneurs, such as the startup community COMPASS Hub and the Acceleration Program. COMPASS Hub is a Slack community where entrepreneurs and experts gather to exchange information, advice, and event invitations, thereby enhancing the startup ecosystem. The Acceleration Program is a short-term, intensive program that provides mentor support to selected entrepreneurs. COMPASS Kokura also plans to develop Growth Support, which will provide entrepreneurs with a place to gather and grow regardless of what phase of development their businesses are in. Importantly, COMPASS Kokura also provides one-stop support for foreign entrepreneurs considering starting a business in Japan. The facility offers a full range of facilities, including a coworking space that can be used throughout the day, small offices exclusively for use by companies that have been in business for less than five years, and large offices, meeting rooms, and event space that are ideal for companies with more than a dozen employees.

Kitakyushu also provides crucial financial support for startups. One representative program is the Startup SDGs Innovation Trial. Centered on demonstration and commercialization support, this program involves players from industry, academia, government, and finance in Kitakyushu who cooperate to provide support for seed- to early-mid-stage startups. The program is unique in that it is not limited to entrepreneurs and startups in Kitakyushu, but targets startups from all over Japan. The program offers two courses: the Demonstration Support Program, which aims for social implementation of products through verification of business models and improvement of prototypes through demonstration experiments, and the Commercialization Support Program, which aims to achieve market fit through acquisition of customers and expansion of sales channels for products. The program provides company-specific support of up to 2.5 million yen in funding for the Demonstration Support Program and up to 20 million yen for the Commercialization Support Program. In addition to encouraging community building through monthly exchange meetings with local students and companies and matching them with companies in Kitakyushu, the program also supports the acquisition of business collaboration and funding opportunities outside of the program by recommending them to pitch events held in Kyushu, Kansai, Tokyo, and elsewhere in Japan.

This program is designed to help startups drive the local economy and raise funds. It aims to drive the local economy through startups, solve administrative issues, and create innovation through superior technologies and ideas. In Kitakyushu itself, the program aims to contribute to the realization of DX in child abuse response operations, solutions other than visual inspections for pier inspections, DX in the maintenance and preservation of sewage treatment facilities, improvement of area value around major stations by utilizing vacant houses and advanced technology, community building for young people in an aging society, and the creation of a new community in the urban area. The following are specific needs: reducing damage caused by birds that harm the living environment, such as crows and starlings in urban areas; visualizing the habitat of harmful birds and animals using digital technology; and improving the efficiency of fee collection at municipal housing facilities. This program hopes to be very attractive to entrepreneurs and startups with solutions and ideas that meet these needs.

Kitakyushu: connecting Japan to the world

In the past, Kitakyushu imported raw materials from around the world to develop its steel industry. Now that the steel industry is no longer booming as it once was, Kitakyushu is trying to communicate its current strengths in environmental technology to the rest of the world. The Kitakyushu International Technical Cooperation Association (KITA) is playing a major role in this effort by bringing Kitakyshu’s expertise in sustainable development to Asia. KITA has already developed initiatives involving more than 300 organizations, and it has been involved in international technical cooperation aimed at harmonizing industrial development and environmental conservation.

The aforementioned GAP-K is helping startups expand internationally. It is a private-sector program in which experts provide investment, financing, and collaborative support to startups that are expected to expand the scale of their business. The program, which selects four companies per year, provides a variety of support, such as promoting collaboration with Kitakyushu companies, utilizing the National Strategic Special Zone system, and providing a field for demonstration experiments. In addition to utilizing the domestic network of global companies in Kitakyushu, the program will also provide support for global expansion based on the network in Asia that has been cultivated through the environment and water sectors, centered on the aforementioned KITA initiatives.

So far, we have focused on the history of Kitakyushu and its support for startups. As the Cabinet Office notes, Kitakyushu's startup ecosystem is ideal for overseas entrepreneurs and startups looking to start a business or expand into Japan. Kitakyushu's strengths in environmental technology, forged in its struggle against pollution, make it an ideal environment for startups, especially those in environment-related fields. If you are thinking of starting a business in Japan, Kitakyushu is worthy of consideration.

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