Situated in the South West of Japan, Fukuoka is Japan’s fifth largest city and the fastest growing – from 2010 to 2015 it grew 5%, significantly faster than any other major city in Japan. With a population of 5.1m (larger than Ireland), it also has the highest ratio of young residents (c.20% aged 15-29). Geographically located in the heart of East Asia it is a regional hub with convenient access to China, South Korea and Taiwan. The city also has Japan’s second largest number of international students. SIN Japan visited Fukuoka in April 2017 to learn more about the city’s latest initiatives and Kyushu University, one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Japan.
In 2014 Fukuoka was designated as a National Strategic Special Zone for Global Startups and Job Creation. Through this initiative they have began providing tax breaks, a special ‘startup visa’ and other support for both domestic and international entrepreneurs. During our visit local government officials introduced us to their flagship startup support facility Fukuoka growth next, a one-stop-shop for entrepreneurs housed in a former primary school which provides temporary offices, coworking space, regular seminars and more.
We then made our way to Kyushu University’s Medical Campus where Professor Hiroyuki Sasaki, Senior Vice President of Kyushu University kindly guided us around their labs introducing their impressive research in the life sciences. Kyushu University has strong ties to the UK and in September 2016 held a regenerative medicine symposium in London. One particular piece of work that stood out was the reproductive biology breakthrough by Dr Katsuhiko Hayashi that transformed mouse skin cells into eggs that were then used to birth fertile pups. Dr Hayashi, who previously spent four years as a research fellow at the Gurdon Institute of the University of Cambridge, was one of the many researchers we met with experience working at a UK university.
We wrapped up our visit by attending the Opening Symposium of Kyushu University’s Global Innovation Centre (GIC). A crowd of around 200 senior representatives of businesses, government and academia listened as HM Ambassador, Mr Paul Madden and Patrick Bannister, Deputy Head of SIN Japan gave speeches congratulating Kyushu University and outlining the UK policy landscape with the latest developments from the UK’s new Industrial Strategy. The GIC is a hub for industry-academia-government collaborations that is home to Kyushu University’s ‘KOINE’ platform, a model which aims to match businesses’ needs to academic research.
We hope the commitment to international collaboration on innovation demonstrated by Kyushu University and the Fukuoka City Government will further add to the deep partnership between the UK and Japan’s innovation landscapes.