Japan woos French startups with new business opportunities

Kei Shimada, Director of Innovation, Leader of Digital Makers Lab, IBM Japan talking to members of the Paris start-up community at a business roundtable held in Paris on 22 November 2018, hosted by the Government of Japan and supported by Tech In France (next to him: Keiko Yamamoto, Counselor, Prime Minister’s Office of Japan and Bastien Nowicki, Development and Operating Manager, TECH In France.

 

The Government of Japan has conducted a business roundtable in Paris to attract more French startups to Japan’s dynamic startup ecosystem. French and Japanese business leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators participated in the roundtable, along with startup stakeholders.

The roundtable was titled “Open for Business: Taking Advantage of Japan’s Growth Opportunities” and was supported by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Paris and held in collaboration with Tech In France.

Joanna Kirk, Co-founder of Startup Sesame, Managing Director of StartHer and Chapter lead at Techfugees France, says: “The French start-up ecosystem is incredibly exciting. Paris has put itself on the map when it comes to startups and innovation, which is partly due to a change of mindset from French entrepreneurs and the business community and the many initiatives put in place by public organisations and the tech community. There is a real opportunity for increased business partnerships between French and Japanese startups, especially by building communities to coordinate key strengths and better understand new audiences and markets.”

There were a number of engaging talkers during the event, such as Ren Ito, Chief Executive Officer of Mercari Europe; Kei Shimada, Director of Innovation and Leader of Digital Makers Lab, IBM Japan; and Joanna Kirk, co-founder of Startup Sesame, one of the largest alliances of Tech events in Europe. Journalist Christine Colmont moderated the discussion.

More than a dozen French startup entrepreneurs joined the discussion. The main focus of discussion is on how startups in Japan are evolving and corporations are striving to strengthen their ecosystem for increasingly global collaboration, as well as how French startups can take advantage of the changing business climate in Japan.

Some success stories from Japanese startup scene, such as that of Mercari, a J-Startup company, are also discussed.

Ren Ito, Chief executive Officer, Mercari Europe, said: “When Mercari was founded there was no large consumer to consumer market, so our approach was to create this new market and identify our core users. Working in partnership with these new markets and being part of an ecosystem where businesses could easily collaborate supercharged our growth. Our customers now spend as much time on our app as they do on social media, so we’ve become not just being a transaction site but also a social network where we add unique value to the consumer journey.”

Kei Shimada, Director of Innovation, Leader of Digital Makers Lab, IBM Japan, said: “In addition to our highly successful accelerator IBM BlueHub, which is a partner in the J-Startup initiative, IBM Japan’s newest innovation arm called Digital Makers Lab is now igniting a startup collaboration programme, eyeing a holistic partnership with accelerators, venture capital firms and universities from around the globe to co-create new solutions for our clients. As France has a head start in nurturing startups that have global competitiveness, we look forwards to exploring opportunities that will mutually benefit clients in both countries as well as its startups.”

Events such as this could lead to a win-win situation for whole humanity: offering a platform for the French creativity to join hands with the Japanese efficiency.

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