A wave of Asian startups is expanding into Tokyo

J-STORIES - Many Asian startups dream of going global and shining on the world stage. Some attempt to go to Silicon Valley to join the world’s most vibrant and competitive startup communities. Others choose Japan as their primary market outside their home countries.

A growing number of Korean and Taiwanese startups have been entering the Japanese market in recent years. A lot of them see Tokyo as the practical and viable destination for their first overseas expansion.  

“Frankly speaking, the number one reason why we choose Japan is because we’re in the same time zone,” said Jiho “Robin” Jang, founder of DoctorNow, Korea’s “telemedicine” pioneer that provides remote medical consultations and drug delivery services.

Jang was among several Korean and Taiwanese startup entrepreneurs who joined a recent East Asian-focused startup event organized by the Venture Café Tokyo, a global network of startup communities supporting early-stage entrepreneurs.

There’s a growing need to include East Asian startups in Japan’s startup ecosystem, said Tatsuo Ogura, program partner of the Tokyo chapter of Venture Café. He said the Boston-based nonprofit group will open its second and third Asian office in Fukuoka and Yokohama late this year, where Taiwanese and Korean startups will have easier access.

Jang travels back and forth between Tokyo and Seoul every week. He spends four days in Japan and three days in Korea on average per week, making logistics a critical factor for him

As South Korea’s domestic market is expected to shrink due to the country’s declining birthrate, predicted to dip below 0.7 this year, expanding into other countries is a “destiny” for many Korean startups, including his, Jang said. 

He added that his startup’s expansion into the Japanese market has been smooth-sailing, partly due to similarities between the medical laws in Japan and South Korea.

Vic Shen, co-founder and CEO of Taiwan’s AI-powered travel-tech startup Aiello, said the reasons he decided to expand into Japan were the market size and the network of people in Japan that he and his partners already know.

Aside from Taiwan, Aiello’s largest market, Shen operates in four other countries: Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Japan. He expects his revenue in Japan to surpass that of Taiwan next year, making Japan the biggest market for his company, which provides voice assistant tools for travel and hospitality industries.

Jae Sung “Jason” Rim, another Korean entrepreneur who spoke at the Venture Cafe event, said the Japanese government’s five-year “startup development plan,” which aims to produce 100 “unicorn” companies from Japan and provide funding for startups, has been indirectly helping his Seoul-based coaching startup expand into Japan.  

“We are not currently receiving funding from the Japanese government. However, we are collaborating with companies that have received such funding to advance our programs,” said Rim, manager at Underdogs (UD), a Korean startup specializing in entrepreneurship education. 

“Our goal is to receive (the Japanese government’s) funding next year and manage it directly,” he told J-Stories.

Japan has become a host to a growing trend of gatherings of startups from Taiwan and Korea, some of which get government support. One such event is Japan-Taiwan Innovation Summit, spearheaded by the government of Taiwan and supported by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which will take place in Tokyo on September 17 and 18. Top leaders from Taiwan and Tokyo, including Taiwan’s National Development Minister Paul Liu and Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike, are expected to join the gala. 

Meanwhile, on September 6, Venture Cafe Tokyo will host its biannual signature pitch event, Rocket Pitch Night, in Osaka, where a number of innovative Asian startups are expected to participate.  

Writing by:  Toshi Maeda  

Editing by: Desiderio Luna

Top photo: Courtesy of Venture Cafe Tokyo 

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