Forbes Japan highlights the New Economy Summit (NEST) 2016 in an article published on April 25. SV-NJ participated in NEST with Kenji Kushida as part of the planning committee. He moderated a panel on medical innovation with the aim of going beyond innovations in medical fields themselves to make connections to harnessing Silicon Valley and new ways of Japanese engaging with the world.
The article (in Japanese) can be found here: http://forbesjapan.com/articles/detail/11856
On April 7 and April 8, 2016, the Japan Association of New Economy (JANE) held its annual New Economy Summit (NEST) at the Hotel New Otani in Tokyo.
The event opened with a startup pitch contest with esteemed VCs from Silicon Valley as judges. Panels included topics such as Fintech, Japan's Startup scene, innovation in India, medical innovation, drones, the sharing economy, philanthropy, and others. Keynotes included the Prime Minister of Estonia, which has a remarkably advanced implementation of Information Technology (IT) in government, and a talk by Andy Rubin, who invented the Android operating system which was bought by Google, focusing on his new robotics project.
Videos of the sessions will be uploaded to the NEST website when available.
and the program and list of speakers can be found here: http://nest.jane.or.jp/en/program/
SV-NJ participated in NEST with Kenji Kushida as part of the planning committee. He moderated the panel on medical innovation with the aim of going beyond the incredible innovations in medical fields themselves to make links to Silicon Valley, Japan's new regulatory framework for regenerative medicine, and extend the discussion to Japan's brain circulation. He invited: Keita Mori, founder of San Bio, which began in Silicon Valley but moved to Japan when the regulatory framework for regenerative medicine in Japan allowed for the shortest time to market in a 2015 revision of the Pharmaceutical Law; Tadahisa Kagimoto, founder of Healios; and Hiroshi Mikitani invited Hisataka Kobayashi, a scientist at the US National Institute of Health, who is undertaking breakthrough research and commercializing it through a startup supported by Mr. Mikitani.
More pictures of NEST available on the JANE Facebook page as well.
On March 10, 2016, NEDO Silicon Valley, in collaboration with the Silicon Valley Forum, presented Japanese Pitch Night, hosted by GSVLabs, which included 1) a pitch contest for startups from Japan, 2) a keynote speech, and 3) a panel discussion about Silicon Valley and Japan.
1) Startup Pitch startups included Drivemode, Eyes Japan, Brand Pit, APSAM, DyNARNA, Cognitee, eNFC, QDLaser. Judges included prominent Silicon Valley venture capitalists Steve goldberg, Partner at Venrock, Toshiya Otani, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Translink Capital, and Bill Reichert, Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures. The winner was DyNARNA, founded by Nagoya University scientists who developed a new way to rapidly synthesizes proteins.
2) The keynote speech was by Ramona Pierson, CEO of Declara, who shared her inspirational story of being in a coma for 18 months and rebuilding much of her body after getting hit by a car, and her belief in radical collaboration in learning.
3) The panel discussion was moderated by Kenji Kushida, with panelists Steve Goldberg, Partner at Venrock, Gen Isayama, Co-Founder and CEO of WiL, and Zafer Younis, Venture Partner at 500 Startups. Some themes for Japanese entrepreneurs that emerged included: 1) Marketing, rather than a "build it and they will come" mentality 2) Go to Silicon Valley, 3) Communication -- the importance of learning the Silicon Valley communication style with good ideas up front, and 4) Don't intimidate yourself
"The Algorithmic Revolution that is Transforming Human Activities" (Japanese Only): http://business.nikkeibp.co.jp/atcl/NBD/15/093000009/021900025/?ST=pc
In the piece, Kushida talks about the waves of disruption that are hitting Japan and the Algorithmic Revolution and Silicon Valley startup ecosystem where they are created.
"The Algorithmic Revolution behind the "Sharing Economy": a Silicon Valley vantage." (Japanese only)
On Jan 26, the Stanford SV-NJ project held a public symposium as part of its IT Policy Study Group in collaboration with the Keio Media Design School, at the Keio University Mita campus. Kenji Kushida and Taizo Son, founder and CEO of Mistletoe, each gave presentations about Silicon Valley and Japan from an academic and business perspective, respectively. They then formed a panel, moderated by Professor Ichiya Nakamura of Keio University, and had a lively discussion about the topics including mechanisms for regulatory change in Japan, the role of artificial intelligence, and how Japan can better utilize the Silicon Valley ecosystem.
Event Link (Japanese only): https://www.facebook.com/events/120063065034289/
On Jan 25, Kenji Kushida gave a talk at the Canon institute of Global Studies to an audience of about 180 people from various large Japanese companies, government, and others, entitled (in Japanese) "The Essence of Silicon Valley and Japan's Strengths and Challenges: An Algorithmic Revolution Perspective of Fintech, IoT, Cloud Computing, and Biotech." Slides abstract available below, with written version of the talk coming soon in link below (all Japanese).
Presentation Slides (Japanese)
On December 2, 2015, Kenji Kushida and Kanetaka Maki, Research Associates at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center Japan Program, gave a joint seminar at Stanford University to over 50 participants, entitled “Understanding Silicon Valley and Startup Ecosystems: New research and academic classics you should know.” Kushida provided an overview of canonical works of Silicon Valley, including the work of Martin Kenney and his classic co-edited volume “Understanding Silicon Valley” and other more recent work drawn from the Stanford Silicon Valley - New Japan Project’s “Essential Reading List of Silicon Valley.”
Maki presented his new research from a paper entitled “Milestones to University-Based Startup Success: What Is the Impact of Academic Inventor Involvement?” Based on the data analysis of 533 University of California startups, Maki addressed the impact of inventor involvement in the growth and success of university-based startups.
A full video of the seminar is available for viewing here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEueiInUkaE&feature=youtu.be
Mr. Yoshiaki Ishii, the METI official behind the US-Japan Venture Capital Conference "Moment2015," held at Stanford on 10/30 and 10/31, sponsored by METI and organized by WiL, who gave the opening remarks for both days, wrote up his observations and summaries of some of the main points of key presentations in Toyo Keizai Online.
The full article (Japanese only) can be found here: http://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/92834
Full article available here: http://www.mercurynews.com/peninsula/ci_29106481/japans-entrepreneurs-start-something-new-silicon-valley-help
On October 13, 2015, nineteen Stanford students participated in the ANA Ideathon, a hackathon for branding concepts to benefit the major international airline, ANA. The ideathon was the first of its kind at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, lead by the Japan Program under the rubric of the Stanford Silicon Valley-New Japan Project (SVNJ).
Looking to double in size in the next three years, ANA faces challenges including international brand visibility. Over a delicious Japanese dinner, millennials from diverse areas of undergraduate and graduate study set out to solve the issue of enhancing ANA's brand awareness in the United States. Within a few short hours, each team, whose members were strangers before the contest began, delivered a three minute pitch on how to solve this brand awareness issue. Executives from ANA, the World Innovation Lab (WiL), and bTrax, judged the pitches, and prizes were given to the winning team for their creativity and the feasibility of their concept.
ANA is a silver sponsor of the Stanford Silicon Valley-New Japan Project.
Read more here: http://aparc.fsi.stanford.edu/japan/news/students-share-marketing-insights-japanese-airline
Students brainstorm then pitch branding ideas to judges at the ANA Ideathon
Links to the events can be found below.
Kanetaka M. Maki is a Japan Program Research Associate at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and an International Affiliated Fellow at National Institute of Science and Technology Policy (NISTEP).
Maki’s research interests are in the fields of socio-economics of innovation & entrepreneurship, science policy, and university-industry technology transfer. He has three streams of research contribution: (1) the institutional design of entrepreneurship in connection with research universities; (2) startup success rates; and (3) comparative quantitative research, in particular innovation streams in Japan.
Prior to coming to the US, Maki served as a Founding Chief Officer of SIV Entrepreneur Laboratory at Keio University in Japan. He has designed and overseen courses and programs on entrepreneurship at Keio University. Additionally, he actively involved as committee member of "Basic Research for Academic Entrepreneurship" hosted by Minister of Economy, Trading and Industry and several others to create effective academic entrepreneurship model in Japan.
Maki holds a Ph.D. in management from the University of California, San Diego. He received M.A. in Media and Governance and B.A. in Environmental Information, both from Keio University.
Kanetaka Maki's full profile can be found here: http://aparc.fsi.stanford.edu/japan/people/kanetaka-maki
On September 14th the Silicon-Valley New Japan Project held a joint seminar with Keio University Media Design School entitled "Why Silicon Valley Cannot be Created in Japan" (シリコンバレーなぜ日本でできないのか） The seminar had 33 attendees with 15 attending via Skype from Keio University in Japan. The seminar, led by Kenji Kushida, discussed university-industry relations in Silicon-Valley and Stanford as well as challenges facing Japanese universities and the start-up ecosystem.
On April 28th Kenji Kushida gave a seminar hosted by the Canon Institute for Global Studies (CIGS) in Tokyo on IT innovation, Silicon Valley, and SV-NJ's efforts to effectively harness the Silicon Valley ecosystem.
Details and seminar summary (Japanese only) can be found on the CIGS website:
http://www.canon-igs.org/event/report/20150907_3117.html
"Led by Associate Professor Fei-Fei Li, the new [Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab] SAIL-Toyota Center for AI Research will focus on teaching computers to see and make critical decisions about how to interact with the world."
For the full article visit:
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2015/september/toyota-stanford-center-090415.html
Nomura Research Institute (NRI), one of the leading management and IT consulting firms in Japan, joined the Silicon Valley-New Japan Project as a Silver Sponsor.
Press release on September 4th in the Nikkei Sangyo Newspaper.
"Plenty of students enter Stanford not planning to become entrepreneurs, but by interacting with so many alumni and ecosystem players, they get interested," said Kenji Kushida, a researcher at Stanford who leads a project that seeks to help Japan build closer connections to Silicon Valley and learn from it.
Full article available here: http://www.wsj.com/articles/silicon-valley-ethos-prestigious-japan-school-ventures-into-entrepreneurship-1440704144
Please note that article access does require login or subscription to the Wall Street Journal.
Dasher, Richard, Nobuyuki Harada, Takeo Hoshi, Kenji E. Kushida, Tetsuji Okazaki. "Institutional Foundation for Innovation-Based Economic Growth." National Institute for Research Advancement (NIRA).
Innovation is essential for the growth of a matured economy like Japan. This report examines the institutional foundations of innovation-based economic growth and explores the role of Japanese government in encouraging innovation by Japanese companies and entrepreneurs. We start by summarizing eleven elements that characterize the ecosystem of Silicon Valley, which is often considered to be the best example of innovation-based economy. We then discuss how those elements fit with six institutional foundations that support the innovation-based economic growth. Those are (A) financial system that provides funding for risky ventures, (B) labor market that provides high quality, diverse and mobile human resources, (C) interactions between industry, universities, and government to generate a constant stream of innovative ideas, products, and businesses, (D) industrial organization where large established firms and small startups grow together, (E) social system that encourage entrepreneurship, and (F) professionals that assist establishment and growth of startups. Japan has not yet established these institutional foundations. The government can help by encouraging development of these institutional foundations. If it is difficult to establish a certain institutional foundation in a short time, the government may instead help Japanese firms and entrepreneurs to tap the Silicon Valley ecosystem directly. The Japanese government has been trying numerous industrial policies that may encourage development of some of the six institutional foundations, as well as policies that directly support R&Das precursors for innovation. The latest attempts are found in the Abenomics growth strategy. Thus, we find that the underdevelopment of those institutions in Japan is not due to the lack of policy ideas. The problem has been the shortcoming in the efforts of policy evaluation to find out which policy interventions are actually promising and how those should be implemented to guarantee effectiveness. The policies that help Japanese firms and entrepreneurs to directly benefit from the Silicon Valley ecosystem have been lacking. It is worthwhile to try those policies if those are accompanied by rigorous policy evaluation and adjustments to find the effective policies.