Japan’s quarterly summary of startup, funding and technologies news, covering April, May and June of 2024 in the Japanese tech space.
In June 2024 | In May 2024 | In April 2024
Europe’s security role in the Indo-Pacific
JApan’s technology news: June 2024
- Japan: SoftBank to re-develop soon-to-be-closed LCD panel site in Osaka into large-scale data center, seeing a range of opportunities in hosted services / full item
- Japan: Synspective satellite startup inks agreement with Rocket Lab USA to launch 10 satellites by 2027 in move towards a constellation to enable near-real-time global observation / full item
- Japan: Nat’l Institute of Advanced Industrial Science & Tech and IBM partner to develop quantum computer with 10,000 qubits, 75 times more than current quantum computers run with / full item
- Japan: A brief overview of Tanegashima Island, home to the nation’s rocket launch center, and hopes for startups, tech jobs and immigration as drivers for local revival / full item
- Japan: Tier IV adds Suzuki to alliance partners including Isuzu and Yamaha, with all seeking autonomous driving technology advantages and global positioning / full item
- Japan: Gov’t targets 30% share of global market for SDVs, software-defined vehicles / full item
- Japan: Toyota, Nissan, Honda and others announce collaboration on advanced AI and semiconductor tech for next-gen vehicles, supported by gov’t / full item
- Japan: Elephantech, first firm globally manufacturing Printed Circuit Boards using metal inkjet printing, seeks strategic partners to scale / full item
- Japan: NTT Docomo telco to launch network service using radio waves from unmanned stratospheric aircraft, providing coverage wider than grounded base stations / full item
- Japan: Hack Osaka innovation conference opens applications from Invest Japan and J-Bridge global networks to participate / full item
- Japan: DMM Bitcoin cryptocurrency exchange loses 4,502.9 bitcoin, valued around $308 million, in ‘unauthorized leak’, with full details yet to emerge / full item
- Japan’s Toyota, partnering with China’s state-owned Guangzhou Automobile Group, looks to launch autonomous driving-enabled EV in China, hoping to recover from sales slump / full item
- Philippines: South Korea’s Kakao and Japan’s LINE partner for Kaia blockchain platform in the Philippines, focusing on Web3 gaming and associated opportunities / full item
Japan’s tech news in May 2024
- Japan’s SusHi Tech Challenge concludes with Fermenstation taking 10M yen prize for most innovative startup, with circular approach to use of otherwise wasted resources / read it here
- Tokyo Metro Gov’t inks MOU with Startup Island TAIWAN and Thailand’s Nat’l Innovation Agency during SusHi Tech Tokyo 2024, aiming to boost startup ecosystem collaborations / read it here
- Japan: Mercari e-commerce giant launches Ethereum trading services on its app, adding to crypto exchange integration and acceptance of Bitcoin in payments / read it here
- Japan and ASEAN to create joint strategy on auto production and sales in bid to address China’s fast-growing presence in the region’s electric vehicles market / read it here
- An overview of the issues surrounding the Line messaging app data leak, given its 50-50 ownership by Japanese and South Korean firms / read it here
- Vertex Ventures Japan launches inaugural Vertex Ventures Japan Fund I, anchored by Vertex Holdings, venture capital arm of Singapore’s Temasek state fund / read it here
- South Korea’s K-Startup Center opens in Tokyo to help Korean firms expand via partnerships with Japanese firms, adding to KSC presence in Singapore, Vietnam, France and the US / read it here
- Japan: Researchers have developed a large language model trained predominantly in Japanese to serve as a foundation for generative AI, using Japan’s Fugaku supercomputer / read it here
- UTokyo Innovation Platform’s 1stRound deep-tech support program inks agreement with Germany’s Cyber Valley for mutual startup support between Japan and Europe / read it here
- Japan: Metaplanet investment firm adopts bitcoin as ‘strategic reserve asset’ as a hedge against Japan’s debt burden and volatility in the yen / read it here
- Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric partners UK’s Extend Robotics for VR tech for industrial robotics focusing on incidents and actions outside defined processes / read it here
- Japan: An overview of the country’s revitalized investment focus in advanced technologies / read it here
- Japanese research consortium announces 6G milestone with world-first 6G wireless device capable of transmitting 100 gigabits per second / read it here
- Japan: Osaka, Nagoya, Tsukuba and Yokosuka in talks with Microsoft, AWS and Google around guidelines governing use of AI in city and government work / read it here
- India: NoPo Nanotechnologies boosts production of advanced material that can replace silicon in semiconductors and batteries, with samples supplied to chipmakers in Japan and Taiwan / read it here
- A brief look at the recent Korea-Japan Venture & Startup Investment Summit 2024, and the new joint venture fund in which the two governments participate / read it here
- South Korea: NextRise 2024 Seoul tech and startup event is set for June, this year including Japan as inaugural ‘guest country’ with company and startup showcase / read it here
- ICYMI: In February, Korea Int’l Trade Assoc’n inaugurates Special Committee on ROK-Japan Cooperation to boost economic and trade collaboration between the two in the private sector / read it here
- PLDT, Philippines’ largest telecoms group, now in talks to sell up to 49% of data centre business to Japan’s Nippon Telegraph & Telephone in $750M deal / read it here
Q2 2024 DDoS Cyber Attacks in Asia Pacific in Q2 2024
Japanese tech in April 2024
- Japan: Tokyo Stock Exchange launches TSE Asia Startup Hub, aiming to be ‘an ecosystem where TSE and IPO stakeholders collaborate to encourage promising Asian companies to choose TSE for IPOs’ / read it here
- Japan: NTT Digital telco to launch cryptocurrency wallet by year-end, compatible with NFTs and with eyes on the gaming market, partnering with US-based NowGG platform for cloud and browser gaming / read it here
- Japan: An overview of the recently-launched Tokyo Innovation Base, the city’s bid to create a high-impact tech startup hub / read it here
- ‘From reactive to proactive: Japan’s advances in cybersecurity and cyber defence strategies’ from India’s Observer Research Foundation / read it here
- Japan’s Kaga Electronics’ proposed Mexico factory project selected by JP gov’t for its Indo-Pacific & Central-South America Regional Supply Chain Involvement Support Project / read it here
- Japan and European Union reportedly to enter talks on cooperation in advanced materials for next-gen chips and batteries in moves to reduce reliance on China on supply and materials / read it here
- Japan: Gov’t approves $3.9BN in new subsidies to home-grown chips firm, Rapidus, stepping up the country’s moves into semiconductor manufacturing / read it here
- Japan: Startup Genome to launch Global Hypergrowth Tokyo program, focusing on helping later-stage startups expand internationally / read it here
- Japan: An intro to the firms selected for cohort 1 of the Global Hypergrowth Tokyo program for late-stage scale-ups, an initiative from Startup Genome and Tokyo Metro Gov’t / read it here
- Japan looks at producing hydrogen primarily using waste heat from next-gen nuclear reactor, with field tests likely for 2028 / read it here
- The factors underpinning Taiwan chip-maker moves into Japan, creating production bases in a strategy that dovetails with Japan’s bid for a semicon industry revival / read it here
- Japan: Tokyo Uni of Science and DENSO Corp researchers make breakthrough in solid-state Li-ion batteries with non-flammable units capable of high- and low-temperature operation / read it here
- Japan: Ispace and Takasago Thermal Engineering partner to produce H2 using solar panel energy during space mission later this year / read it here
- Japan: Hokkoku regional bank launches stablecoin backed by bank deposits, available via its Tochituka app, enabling local transactions and with sights on person-to-person payments / read it here
- Japan: Astroscale space junk removal firm potentially targeting Tokyo listing in June, with the domestic space sector projected to hit $53BN in value by early next decade / read it here
- Japan’s Toyota reportedly to use ‘smart drive’ tech developed with China’s Huawei and Momenta for global EV models / read it here
- Japan’s Toyota reportedly to use ‘smart drive’ tech developed with China’s Huawei and Momenta for global EV models / read it here
- ICYMI: Bank for International Settlements and 7 central banks, including Japan and Korea, partner for Project Agorá, exploring tokenization of bank deposits via ‘unified ledger’ / read it here
- Japan: Semiconductor materials maker, Shin-Etsu Chemical, to invest near $550M in new plant, targeting production in 2026 / read it here
- Japan to participate in AUKUS Pillar 2 component, joining Australia, the US and the UK in collaboration on defence tech across fields including quantum and artificial intelligence / read it here
- A little more on the recent collaboration MOU between the Korean Positioning System and Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite system, aiming for autonomous positioning services / read it here
- Japan: A brief intro to the tech startups selected for OIST Innovation Accelerator working on GenAI and LLMs, advanced prosthetics and more / read it here
- Japan and NASA partner for lunar exploration with Japan to develop rover vehicle for crewed and uncrewed use, and NASA providing launch and delivery / read it here
- Japan to increase penalties for monopolistic practices by tech firms to 20% or more of applicable nationwide sales, more than tripling the current antitrust law penalty / read it here
- Japan: Oracle to invest $8BN in AI infrastructure in Japan over 10, projecting growing demand for cloud computing / read it here
- Japan: Gov’t to fund 5 major technology companies to a total of $470M in bid to develop sovereign artificial intelligence capabilities / read it here
- Japan’s Astroscale publishes close-up image of space debris, 11 meters long, 4 meters diameter and weight of 3 tons, illustrating necessity of removal / read it here
- South Korea and Japan to collaborate on development and operation of satellite navigation systems in East Asia, looking to better enable the two systems to coexist and interoperate / read it here
- South Korea and Japan to collaborate on development and operation of satellite navigation systems in East Asia, looking to better enable the two systems to coexist and interoperate / read it here
- Japan’s Mizuho Bank and Taiwan’s Industrial Tech Research Institute ink major agreements on information exchange, startup matching and corporate connections / read it here
- India’s Polymatech Electronics inks MoU with Japan’s Orbray to expand semiconductor wafer production and expertise / read it here
Critical technologies, globally, in Q2 2024 – space, semiconductors, cyber…
Asia/Indo-Pac tech news
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