Summary of the Ecosystem Building Plan
１．Target and KPI
Sendai Startup Ecosystem Acceleration Plan

We at the “Sendai Startup Ecosystem Acceleration Council“ would like to create a future in which many
Social Innovators solve a variety of issues in Japan and abroad, balance business and sociality, and create asuccession of startups that challenge the world from Sendai and Tohoku. We combine the various issues
facing Tohoku, which are called “show case of contemporary social issues,” and the rich regional resourcesof this area to create highly economically efficient projects and revitalize Tohoku. In addition to revitalizing
the local economy in Sendai and Tohoku, we aim to create a future where people living in Sendai andTohoku can live richer by solving social issues.
The startup ecosystem in Sendai and Tohoku began immediately after the Great East Japan Earthquake in2011. In the Great East Japan Earthquake, which was said to occur once in a millennium, there were figuresof people trying to solve social issues with entrepreneurship with the philosophy of "for the community" and"for society." In 2013, the City of Sendai was declared “Japan’s most startup-friendly city ” in order to foster
the movement brought about by the earthquake. The Sendai Startup Support Center and one of the largest
entrepreneurial events in the region, "SENDAI for Startups!", started at this time. In 2015, Sendai City wasdesignated as a Special Zone for Social Innovation and a Special Zone for Demonstrating the Future ofTechnology, and the first wide-area acceleration program in the entire Tohoku region was launched in 2017.
Furthermore, Tohoku University and the business community have taken the lead in preparing various
support measures to accelerate startup support.
The Sendai City Center Rebuilding Project has been launched to accelerate the accumulation of newstartups, with the central area of Sendai City as the base, with several projects already having begun. The
construction of the world’s first next-generation synchrotron radiation facility for industrial use, is built on
the Aobayama campus of Tohoku University and the science park formed around it is also underway. Thisfacility will produce startups that utilize the latest technology and serve as a base for innovation creation.
We will further develop the International Industrial Promotion Agreement with Oulu, the Republic ofFinland, where we have been deepening exchanges since 2005, further strengthen cooperation in events andprograms on the theme of start-up support, and create an environment where startups can challenge theworld from Tohoku.

Welcome toSENDAI : Capital of Social Innovation
Sendai Startup Ecosystem
Acceleration Council
Chairperson Kazuko Kohri(Mayor of City of Sendai)

The Sendai Startup Ecosystem Promotion Plan is not a “pie in the sky.” Students, youth and women, havebegun to gather and become visible and realizable. Sendai's startup ecosystem is about to blossom. Startup
ecosystem initiatives have begun in a number of cities. However, Sendai City's overwhelming strength is its
ambition, which seeks to balance solving social and local issues with the feasibility of business, as well as theaccumulation of state-of-the-art technologies and research seeds possessed by universities, etc. There are
networks in the six prefectures of Tohoku and in Japan and overseas that can be deployed in areas with theabove challenges. We are convinced that if the private sector, universities, and governments work together
and build up this movement steadily, a number of world-changing startups will be created from Sendai andTohoku. They will grow into a city where social innovators gather from around the world with the help ofstartups, industry, academia, and government. I would like to create a future where not just anyone living inSendai and Tohoku, but one where people around the world can live healthily and happily.

1Summary of the Ecosystem Building Plan
１． Target and KPI

Makoto Kaiwa
Chairman ofTohoku Economic Federation“Our mission is to create value-addedindustries in Tohoku and Niigata. We willfurther strengthen cooperation throughcouncils to promote the growth of local
industries. 2020 is the tenth year since theGreat East Japan Earthquake. We believethat startup ecosystem hub cities will be
the impetus for this innovation.”

Hideo Ohno
President of Tohoku University“We will create innovation throughoutstanding academic research, create newsocial value in partnerships with various
sectors as a university together with society,and lead the transformation to open up thefuture. We aim to create 100 companies.
The council will work together withstakeholders to form one of the country's
leading ecosystems and to create an area wherepeople who face challenges, especially young
people, can live and work.”

Hidefumi Kobayashi
President of
The 77 Bank, Ltd.
“Fostering local industries is the mission ofbanks. As a financial institution rooted in theregion, we want to create a powerful company
that will drive the local economy and create
new jobs. We will use the various functions
and networks of banks as well as the financialside of things to strongly support theentrepreneurial challenge.”2

Summary of the Ecosystem Building Plan
１． Target and KPI
Sendai and Tohoku will create world-changing startups
and become a city where social innovators gather from around the world
SENDAI : Capital of Social Innovation
In the Sendai and Tohoku regions, the number of entrepreneurs aiming to solve social issues has increasedin the wake of the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Sendai City's new opening rate is the second highest in government-designated cities *, expanding the base of entrepreneurship.
Furthermore, by utilizing the accumulation of industry-academia-government funds,
we will develop the startup ecosystem in Sendai and Tohoku,
and create startups that contribute to solving domestic and overseas issues
by utilizing the research results and technological seeds of universities from the advanced areas of issues, Tohoku.

300+

400+

100+

Startup creation(2020-2024)

Collaboration
with localcompanies(2020-2024)

Globalcollaboration(2020-2024)

50+

5 billion yen+ 1+

Startup Visa
(2020-2024)

Fundingamount(2024)

Unicorncompany(2024)

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Summary of the Ecosystem Building Plan
２． Organizations and Roles of each organization
Realization of social innovation
GOOD GROWTH
Fostering core startup companies

UserCitizens

Nurturing many core startups in the region in various
aspects such as job creation, human resource
development, and industry-academia collaboration.

Demonstration support,
living lab,user interviews, etc.

Public support
organizations
Profession and Specialists
Tohoku Headquarters, Organizationfor Small & Medium Enterprises andRegional Innovation
Sendai City Industrial Promotion
Organization
Professional advice,entrepreneurship base,
Government
subsidy,
Prefecture
market development, etc.

Municipality

Startup creation and support
Support for commercialization of world-class researchseeds owned by Tohoku University, etc., second
establishment of local companies,
support for new business expansion, implementation ofentrepreneurship education.

Growth support, matching support,
attracting entrepreneurial personnel
and start-ups, etc.

Financial institution
Venture capital
77 Bank, etc.
Growth support, financing,venture investment,
matching support,
CFO personnel, etc.

University
Sendai Startup Ecosystem Acceleration Council
R&D corporation
Comprehensive support by strengthening
College of technology
the industry-academia-government network

Tohoku Bureau of Economy,
Trade and Industry,
City of Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture
Entrepreneurship awareness,seminars, growth support,
environmental improvement
Acceleration program,
Support human resource
development, etc.

Domestic and foreign
MOU signing municipality andSupport organization

Tohoku University, etc.

Companies
Economic organizations
Accelerators

Entrepreneurship education
Research results / technical seeds
Open innovation
Tohoku Economic Federation, Sendai Keizai
CXO human resource development, etc.
Doyukai, Sendai Chamber of Commerce
MAKOTO, IMPACT Foundation Japan, etc.
Collaborative research, open innovation,
Venture investment, growth support,Matching support,
Hands-on support, entrepreneurial base, etc.

4Summary of the Ecosystem Building Plan
３． Leader of the Ecosystem building
MAKOTO Inc.
CEO Tomohiro Takei
There are business opportunities in the region thatTokyo entrepreneurs are not aware of. I want tocreate a world-class business from Tohoku and beable to say to people around the world, "It's time
to give back." Create a strong business to protect
your weaknesses. I want to make Tohoku the ideal
home for such challengers.

IMPACT Foundation JapanCEO Takashi Takekawa
Entrepreneurs are born where there is a chance
to innovate within “challenges” and when there
is a sense of crisis. Sendai and Tohoku, which
experienced the Great East Japan Earthquake,are the areas that satisfy both of these conditions
more than anywhere else in Japan.

ENRISE CORPORATION Inc.
CEO Katsuhiro Ago
In Sendai and Tohoku, there are many excellent
young people with local love. We want to be aplace to train engineers who are overwhelmingly
lacking in rural areas, and to support thosechallenges in a way that gives them expertise.
I hope that there will be businesses from Sendaiand Tohoku that can aim for the world, not justthe local region.

Sendai Keizai Doyukai
Entrepreneurship support chairman
Conno Print Inc. CEO Ryuichi Hashiura
Entrepreneurs are apt to dream, but from amanager's point of view, we want to create
entrepreneurs who have both a dream and anabacus. I want to be an entrepreneur who offers
various business advice.

Sendai Development Commission Inc.
CEO Koichi Hongo
To make Sendai attractive, it is necessary to create
an environment where various people can take onchallenges. This is not an era when thegovernment creates a city, but one where people
who live in the city and who work there make thecity. I want to create a Sendai-like entrepreneurial
ecosystem together.

NTT East Director and General Manager of
Miyagi Business Division
Hiroshi Nakamura
Sendai will accelerate the formation of an
ecosystem triggered by the installation of nextgeneration synchrotron radiation facilities. We
want to create a mechanism to fully utilize theassets of the Group and connect them to new
businesses, services, and products. The NTT
Group wants to work on such town planning inSendai.
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