Jazzing Up Fukuoka: September Highlights for Community and Business

Innovation Jam Session: Insights from the Japan-Taiwan Summit

The Japan-Taiwan Innovation Summit 2024 was a masterclass in how to strut innovation with style. Taiwan didn’t just send startups—they sent a revolution in AI, healthcare, and green tech, showcasing 46 trailblazers. But the main act, the crown jewel, was Taiwan’s command of the semiconductor world, a vital sector that’s shaping the global supply chain like never before. Their message? When it comes to high-tech leadership, Taiwan plays first chair.

What really jazzed up the summit was the grand debut of Taiwan’s Bridge Plan, a strategic initiative designed to catapult Taiwanese startups into international markets. This wasn’t a mere expansion strategy, but a bold claim to the future of tech cooperation. With a focus on solidifying their position in the semiconductor industry and other frontier technologies, Taiwan is charting a course not just for itself but for the entire region, hinting at a new era of interdependence and innovation.

This summit was no tentative affair—it was a full-on declaration. Taiwan is stepping into the spotlight with swagger, determined to be more than a participant in global tech trends—it wants to lead. With the Bridge Plan as their vehicle, these startups aren’t looking to just grow—they’re looking to define the landscape. AI, healthcare, and sustainability? Consider them the foundation of Taiwan’s future, and by extension, the future of tech in Asia.

Fukuoka City and Global Business Support graced the Japan-Taiwan Innovation Summit and engaged with organizers to discourse further plans for RamenTech—a bold initiative fostering cross-cultural collaboration. The discourse spotlighted potential Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) topics between Fukuoka and Taipei, aimed at deepening economic ties.

A nod to the SushiTech organizers of RamenTech was essential, as their pioneering spirit drove this dialogue. The summit offered Fukuoka a stage to assert its global innovation ambitions and forge new partnerships in the technological realm.

Qin Wang Interview

Qin Wang is the CEO of Chiral and his business is to provide a society by streamlining the research and development process, enabling more scientists and researchers to make new scientific discoveries, and fostering innovative product development with SaaS business models.

Here is 500 words PR by Qin.

QUOTE:

Scientific computing in the cloud poses challenges. Scientists must be as proficient as IT professionals to manage scientific software. Additionally, they face increasing costs to handle the growing size of data and high computational loads.

Chiral has developed a comprehensive service that provides an interface to simplify the use of cloud-based software for scientists, maintaining the same level of convenience and functionality they experience on their personal computers, while also offering budget control and cost optimization. Our vision is to make cloud infrastructure as accessible as possible, enabling more scientists to have equal opportunities to utilize computing power for their research work.

UNQUOTE:

Here is the highlight of why he came to Fukuoka to start his business in Japan.

1. Why did you choose Fukuoka to start a business?

Qin was interested in Japan for a long time and 3 years ago, he researched several cities in Japan.  Then, the Global Startup Cafe in Fukuoka was supportive and responsive to his questions and he decided to come to Fukuoka.

2. What are the biggest challenges your start-up faced so far? 

He has two challenges; one is HR and another is fundraising.

Regarding HR, as a foreigner it is very difficult to find the right person to hire locally here in Japan without speaking/reading Japanese and good networking.  It is also difficult to manage hiring interviews.Currently, Qin is looking for a full time sales engineer and two part-time for a fundraiser and marketing/communication.

Regarding fundraising, he is now working for angeles/seed round. 

For this challenge, he stated his business uniqueness vis other cloud platformers as follows;
– It is a niche market and not so many competitors
– Steam gaming platform – high-end HW required(GPU) but provide this solution with cloud computing.

3. What are your current needs?

He is looking for JPY14M fundraising right now as mentioned above.

Summary

Qin has been at FGN’s office space after he entered with a startup visa. He provides a cyber security service on SaaS for B2B business.

I am afraid that it requires a high IT literacy to understand his service and its benefits so that it will be important for Qin to hire some sales & marketing person locally ASAP who can approach potential customers in Japanese.  He is aware of this as mentioned above.

There is no I in Fukuoka but there is a U!

Feel free to drop by anytime or shoot us a message. We look forward to hearing from you and supporting you on this exciting and wonderful journey.

Global Business Support

Opening hours:
Everyday 10:00-17:00 (Days closed: New Year’s holidays)

Location:
Fukuoka Growth Next 1F, Global Business Support
2-6-11 Daimyo, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka 810-0041
*The entrance to Fukuoka Growth Next is on the south side of the building. As there is no on-site parking or bicycle parking available, we kindly ask that you utilize nearby parking facilities or bicycle parking areas.

Contact Information:
Tel: 070‐8406-7169
Mail: info@global-fgn.com