National Development Council (NDC) Minister Yeh Jiunn-Shyan led 46 Taiwanese startup teams to Tokyo, Japan on the 18th to attend the fifth “Taiwan-Japan Innovation Summit,” officially announcing that the startup hub in Tokyo’s Minato Ward will expand operations on August 20, upgrading from the existing bilateral Taiwan-Japan cooperation to a trilateral mechanism connecting Taiwan, Japan, and the United States.<\/p>\n
The summit attracted over 500 participants. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike and Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Executive Director Takahiro Takashima attended in person to deliver remarks, while John Speaks, Regional Technology Officer at the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, also delivered a keynote address \u2014 underscoring that trilateral cooperation intent in critical technology sectors has elevated from private-sector exchanges to official-level strategic dialogue.<\/p>\n
In his remarks, Yeh stated that Taiwan’s competitiveness and innovation capacity continue to climb. Taiwan ranked 4th globally in the IMD World Competitiveness Ranking 2026, and in StartupBlink’s global startup ecosystem index, Taiwan entered the top 20 for the first time, with the fastest rate of improvement among the top 20 countries. He emphasized that beyond actively promoting major initiatives such as the “AI New Ten Major Construction Projects,” Taiwan has \u2014 through this summit, the Startup Island TAIWAN Tokyo hub, and partnerships with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, JETRO, and the Kansai Hankyu Hanshin Group \u2014 already assisted over 500 Taiwanese startup engagements with the Japanese market.<\/p>\n
Yeh further noted that as exchange frequency and collaboration cases continue to grow, the NDC’s startup hub in Tokyo’s Minato Ward will expand operations, with expectations of facilitating more investment cooperation between Taiwanese and Japanese enterprises and startups. He publicly expressed his hope to “promote cooperative relations, advance joint R&D, technology validation, and cross-border investment” among Taiwan, Japan, and the United States.<\/p>\n
In her remarks, Governor Koike stated that this is a pivotal moment for Taiwan-Japan startup cooperation. Many Taiwanese startups have already participated in SusHi Tech Tokyo (Tokyo’s sustainable high-tech conference), and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government will also assist Japanese startups in expanding business opportunities in Taiwan. She expressed anticipation for further connecting enterprises and innovation talent from both sides to create more business opportunities and international outcomes.<\/p>\n
Takahiro Takashima cited the Kumamoto semiconductor supply chain centered on TSMC (2330.TW) as an important symbol of complementary industrial strengths between Taiwan and Japan, noting that cooperation among Taiwan, Japan, the United States, and other partners can be further strengthened going forward.<\/p>\n
In his keynote address, Speaks stated bluntly: “AI, semiconductors, and quantum technologies have become the core arenas of strategic competition.” He highlighted the shared interests of Taiwan, Japan, and the United States in securing critical technology supply chains, framing the summit as an important platform for geotechnological cooperation.<\/p>\n
46 Startups Span Six Deep Tech Sectors<\/p>\n
The 46 Taiwanese startup teams participating in this year’s summit span deep tech fields including artificial intelligence, semiconductors, space technology, autonomous driving, and digital health. The roster of participating international corporations and investment institutions was formidable, including Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsui Group, Kyocera Group, ITOCHU Corporation, Sony, Daiwa Biotech Ventures, and U.S.-based SRI Ventures \u2014 demonstrating that the three parties possess substantive foundations for alignment across capital, technology, and market channels.<\/p>\n
The NDC stated that over 30 Taiwanese startups have already established a presence in Japan, received investment subsidies, or launched collaborations with Japanese enterprises. Many of these are award-winning teams from the “Startup Blossom \u2014 Startup Alliance Competition” or teams incubated at the Startup Island TAIWAN Tokyo hub, indicating that government support for startups is yielding tangible results.<\/p>\n
Lin Chun-Hsiu, Director-General of the Department of Digital Industry under Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs, along with domestic community partners, also participated in the summit, strengthening inter-ministerial coordination on startup internationalization policy.<\/p>\n
Tokyo Hub Upgrade \u2014 Dual-Axis Layout with Silicon Valley<\/p>\n
The NDC indicated that it will continue leveraging Startup Island TAIWAN and its dual hubs in Tokyo and Silicon Valley to connect global innovation resources, strengthen inter-ministerial and community collaboration, and work with Taiwan’s domestic innovation ecosystem, enterprises, investors, and international partners to enhance the global competitiveness of Taiwanese startups.<\/p>\n
The expanded operations of the Tokyo hub mark a shift in Taiwanese startups’ Asia market strategy from single-point breakthroughs to systematic connectivity. By positioning Tokyo as the pivot for trilateral Taiwan-Japan-U.S. cooperation, Taiwanese startups can more efficiently address Japanese enterprises’ technology validation needs and market channels, while also leveraging U.S. partner participation to position early for new business opportunities arising from global supply chain restructuring.<\/p>\n
Observers note that amid the accelerating regionalization of global semiconductor and AI supply chains, trilateral cooperation in deep tech has evolved from isolated investment deals or technology licensing into a systematic framework encompassing joint R&D, talent exchange, and cross-border investment. The Tokyo hub’s upgrade is a concrete manifestation of this trend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"National Development Council (NDC) Minister Yeh Jiunn-Shyan led 46 Taiwanese startup teams to Tokyo, Japan on the 18th…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8,6641,48955,48957,27111,42465,48956,48954,52,1883,48953,9416],"class_list":["post-76147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tokyo","tag-japan","tag-japan-external-trade-organization","tag-john-speaks","tag-kyocera-group","tag-mitsubishi-corporation","tag-national-development-council","tag-sri-ventures","tag-startup-island-taiwan","tag-tokyo","tag-tsmc","tag-yeh-jiunn-shyan","tag-yuriko-koike"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}