Unboxing Japan’s Startup Ecosystem

Fun fact: the Japanese startup scene is on the rise.

Over the past several years, the startup scene in Japan has grown exponentially. In spite of the pandemic, startups in Japan have attracted a strong flow of investment capital from both federal and local government bodies.

This is part of Japan’s five-year startup policy package which focuses on upgrading stock options systems, developing tax break programs, providing more public capital to domestic and foreign VCs, and strengthening R&D support programs.

Locally, there’s been more dialogue on startups than ever. What we’ve noticed when we go abroad, though, is that very few people outside Japan know anything about it. The ecosystem has been growing hand over fist but the word of Japanese startups is limited.

The startup ecosystem in Japan is — to the outside observer — a black box.

This is where Blackbox came from — the need for a platform to showcase stories about startups in Japan. News from the Japanese startup scene, stories of founders and role models thriving in Japan, and honest reports of ventures and practices which have both succeeded and failed for us to learn from.

Unboxing Japan

At Blackbox, we want to build an open and fair online platform where readers can learn about the Japanese startup ecosystem. There are numerous success stories from both native and foreign founders in Japan, as yet untold. There are trends and insights to tech scenes which originate in Japan, as yet unknown.

Our media consists of three types of stories: news, insights, and interviews. In our news sections, we want to bring and showcase the latest stories of what’s happening in Japanese startup scenes. For insights, we want to bring different perspectives: market analysis of the industry or a complete guidebook on how to start your venture in Japan. The interview section is the place where we showcase the honest voices of founders. We want to make sure that those stories are covered in a founders-first manner so that future founders can begin their Japanese startup journey with eyes wide open.

How do we do this? We want to make sure that we adhere to our core values:

Open: The Japanese startup ecosystem needs a neutral, open community to thrive.

Fair: Our priority is reporting the startup scene fairly over increasing our own profit. We aim to befair and open to anyone who wants to contribute to the Japanese startup ecosystem.

Doers First: The best communities are the ones that put doers first. We are by people who take action, for people who take action.

Some would say that it’s a teensy bit wild to start a media platform in 2022. We think so too. But we also believe in the Japanese startup scene (we’re part of it, too, after all), and that somebody needs to fill this information gap.

If you want to keep track of our stories, make sure to follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn. Ideas and requests? We’re always happy to hear your thoughts - don’t hesitate to shoot us an email at contact@blackboxjp.com

Blackbox Team

‍

‍