Live from SusHi Tech Tokyo 2025 –Why Japan’s regions are throwing open their doors to global founders

May 2025, SusHi Tech Tokyo pulled more than 50,000 visitors and 500 start-ups into Tokyo Big Sight, positioning itself as Asia’s biggest, government-backed startup showcase. A sanctioned side-event, “Scramble & Connect”, took over Shibuya’s brand-new Sakura Stage towers for rapid-fire pitches and open networking hosted by Shibuya Startup Support and Tokyu Land. That’s where our Program Manager Junik Bae grabbed the mic for Innovation Dojo Japan (IDJ) – and, by extension, for the many diverse founders we coach.

Why this matters

• SusHi Tech Tokyo is Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s flagship innovation week – a mix of SXSW and Slush, but focused on “sustainable high-tech” smart-city solutions.
• Scramble & Connect is informally called the “Triple-Startup-Visa Bar” because the visa teams from Shibuya, Kobe and Hokkaido staff it in person, letting founders compare soft-landing options in minutes.
• Kobe Global Startup Support (KGSS) is Kobe City’s year-round program that subsidises office rent, offers bilingual mentoring and plugs founders directly into local corporates. IDJ has delivered parts of KGSS since 2023.

Junik’s three lightning take-aways

1. “We’re glad we launched in Japan.”
   Trust takes time here – our first Kobe City contract followed six months of courtship – but once earned it turns into multi-year, multi-project partnerships that still anchor our Japan business five years on.
2. Cash-flow crunch is real (and survivable).
   Japan’s pay-on-completion norm can stifle growth of young companies. We negotiated partial up-front fees and kept a mix of overseas clients who pay early, smoothing local cash gaps and supporting a team that’s now ten strong and growing.
3. Master the Japan-foreign see-saw.
   Be impeccably Japanese on compliance, documentation and risk management (that’s the trust piece), yet keep your foreign perspective front-and-centre in product and storytelling. That managed tension becomes a moat competitors can’t copy. IDJ’s job is to help founders balance the two so they don’t just land – they thrive.

How we can help you next

Missed Junik’s session? Need warm intros to Kobe corporates, visa officers, or a sanity check on market-entry strategy? Reply to this email or catch us at our upcoming events on Peatix (search Innovation Dojo Japan). We’ll make sure your first steps in Japan have firm footing.

Big thanks to our friends at Kobe City, Shibuya City, Hokkaido Government and the entire SusHi Tech team for making Japan’s ecosystem more open, more global – and a lot more fun.