YOKOHAMA’S MAJOR INDUSTRIES –INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (IT)Global trendsetters in IT are placing a bet
on Yokohama
The IT community was taken by surprise when they heard theannouncement that US tech giant Apple Inc. had chosen Tsunashima, a less-known area in the northern part of the City of Yokohama, as the location of the Apple YTC, their highly anticipatedmajor Asian R&D hub. Why would Apple choose Yokohama overother Asian tech hubs such as Singapore and Beijing? Why would
they be in Yokohama rather than in Tokyo, a world-class mega
city that is less than 20 miles away?

In fact, there are plenty of good reasons to back Apple’s choice.
Over the years, the port city of Yokohama has attracted many IT
companies from all over the country and abroad, due to a numberof favorable conditions such as being at just the right distancefrom the Tokyo mega-market, unbeatable accessibility to key industry centers, established cluster of high-tech manufacturing,
and a highly skilled workforce. It isn’t just Apple that has decided to establish a major R&D base in one of Yokohama’s ninebustling business districts. The NEC Lenovo Japan Group has
established an R&D facility in the Minato Mirai district, which
is one of the four R&D facilities operated by Lenovo Group Limited around the globe. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. and Huawei

Technologies Co. Ltd. have also moved their Japan-based R&D
functions in Yokohama. Furthermore, South Korean multinational LG Electronics, Inc. has announced plans to start operations oftheir LG Yokohama Innovation Center in 2021.

Many IT firms, from small local enterprises to global companies, have established branches or R&D headquarters in Yokohama, while the City has continued to be a popular destination
for startups and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The
Shin-Yokohama Area has attracted many semiconductor companies, while the Minato Mirai 21 District has seen a clustering ofsoftware companies, and the Kannai/Yamashita District has seena notable rise in the number of digital content businesses.

The growing IT sector is supported by first class educational and research institutions, such as 9 science and engineering
universities, incubation centers, and Technology Licensing Organizations (TLOs), many of which have collaborated with Yokohama IT companies in technology transfer and joint research
projects. The Tokyo Institute of Technology (TITECH) has recently established the Institute of Innovative Research (IIR),
while several leading institutions have advance research facilities
on their Yokohama campuses. Yokohama’s academic community
has also shown sensitivity towards the latest industry needs andtrends; there are a number of institutions in the region that offer
advanced degrees in information security, anticipating a growing need in cybersecurity professionals.
For instance, Yokohama City University(YCU) established a brand-new Schoolof Data Science in April 2018, becoming the first university in the Greater
Tokyo area to offer a full degree in datascience. Furthermore, Keio University
announced in May 2018 the opening ofthe IBM Q Network Hub, an advanced
quantum computing research base at its
Yokohama-Yagami Campus. IBM Q is a
general-purpose quantum computer being developed by the US tech giant International Business Machines Corporation (IBM), and Keio’s facility will be
the only facility in Asia equipped withthis high-spec cloud computing system.
The university has announced its plans
to collaborate with local companies in
research projects and workforce development programs aimed at raising“quantum natives.”Copyright © 2018 Office of the City of Yokohama Representative to the Americas. All right reserved.
Phone 646-905-3758
E-mail info@businessyokohama.com
URL www.BusinessYokohama.com

Initiatives

ITOP Yokohama An innovation platform for collaboration and exchange, project implementation, and human resources development
to spur the growth of new businesses in IoT, big data, AI, and robotics, while capitalizing on Yokohama’s existing manufacturing andIT industries. In order to qualify for membership, companies/organizations/universities must be prepared to launch an open innovation project to design a new product using IoT etc., and include a plan to involve SMEs in their prospective projects. Yokohama IT
Cluster Exchange An organization that aims to expand business opportunities for venture firms and SMEs in Yokohama. Initiatives
include technological and management advising and business matching between companies and universities. Initially launchedas the “Shin Yokohama IT Cluster Exchange” by several semiconductor companies and the Economic Affairs Bureau of the City
government, the exchange rebranded itself to its current name in February 12, 2013. The exchange is currently run jointly by local
companies, the Economic Affairs Bureau, and IDEC.

Innovation fueled by multi-layered
collaboration
Another reason that companies like Apple are choosing Yokohama over other locations is its unique culture that embraces innovation and large-scale experimentation of new ideas andtechnology. The Apple YTC will be located in the Tsunashima
Sustainable Smart Town (Tsunashima SST), a groundbreaking
project spearheaded by Panasonic Corporation, Nomura Real Estate Development Co., Ltd., and the City of Yokohama that embodies the region’s innovation prowess. The aim of the project isto create a smart community that serves as a place for cross-sector
collaboration that gives way to innovation that links technology,people, and the community. Tsunashima has set aggressive goals
in areas such as environment, safety, and security to become amodel for the rest of Japan and the world as a city that addresses
sustainability through the use of technology.
The city has been actively involved in building platforms to facilitate various government-industry-academia collaborations. In
June 2017, Yokohama and its partners launched the IoT Open Innovation Partners (ITOP Yokohama), a collaboration platform forbusinesses and organizations invested in innovation in fields suchas the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, artificial intelligence(AI), and robotics. ITOP Yokohama currently has over 300 members and carries out a wide variety of activities such as knowledge
exchange, networking, collaborative projects, and joint workforce
development initiatives to collectively address challenges facing
the industry and create new opportunities. ITOP Yokohama hasrecently spearheaded several newsworthy field tests in smart
technology; in December 2017, mobile portal and e-commerce
website provider DeNA Co., Ltd. and NISSAN MOTOR CO.,LTD. announced that they are collaborating with ITOP Yokoha-ma to start field testing Easy Ride, a smart ride-hailing service
that deploys a fleet of self-driving cabs, in the Minato Mirai 21
District, with the goal of launching full-fledged service in the early 2020s. Another example is the ITOP Yokohama House of theFuture Project, which has worked with 10 industry partners inexperimenting IoT smart homes since December 2017 and completed its second proof of concept in summer 2018. ITOP Yokohama also provides small grants of up to 100,000 JPY to support
SMEs looking to install IoT devices in their companies to boost
productivity.
Additionally, the Economic Affairs Bureau of the city and theYokohama Industrial Development Corporation (IDEC) co-hostthe “Yokohama IT Cluster Exchange,” a private sector led networking initiative which brings together IT professionals fromlarge companies and SMEs, academics, and entrepreneurs to hold
events such as seminars, discussions, and startup pitch competitions.

Efforts by the city to increase the global competitiveness of
its IT sector started early; in the early 2000s. In 2004, the City
released the “City of Yokohama IT Sector Strategy,” and established a “Special Zone for Global IT Business Exchange” (20042010) within the city bounds to accelerate collaboration between
leading companies and influencers from all over the country andabroad. This was part of a national government led scheme tocreate “Special Zones for Structural Reforms” in focus industrial
centers around Japan. Through such initiatives, the city has committed itself to developing the capacity of its IT workforce overthe years.

December 2018

References• IDEC: http://www.idec.or.jp/shisetsu/• ITOP subsidies for IOT installation by SMEs: https://itop.yokohama/news/detail.php?nid=85• ITOP Yokohama House of the Future Project: http://fpcj.jp/en/prlisting/yokohama_house-of-the-future-project_pressevent/• IT sector statistics (At a Glance): http://www.city.yokohama.lg.jp/keizai/toukei/yokohamakeizai/• JETRO “Regional Information: Yokohama city”: https://www.jetro.go.jp/invest/region/yokohama-city/icinfo.html• Keio University: http://www.sd.keio.ac.jp/first/aboutsd/; https://www.businessinsider.jp/post-167668; https://www.hpcwire.com/2018/05/17/ibm-q-network-expands-injapan/• LG Yokohama Innovation Center: https://www.lgjlab.com/company/future.html• Special Zones: http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/tiiki/kouzou2/ninteisinsei.html; http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/headline/kokkasenryaku_tokku2013.html; http://www.kantei.
go.jp/jp/singi/tiiki/kouzou2/kouhyou/051122/dai9/101.pdf; http://www.city.yokohama.lg.jp/seisaku/kyoso/tokku/• TITECH Institute of Innovative Research: https://www.titech.ac.jp/about/organization/iir.html; https://www.titech.ac.jp/news/2018/041424.html• TLOs: https://www.jpo.go.jp/kanren/tlo.htm; http://www.yokohamatlo.co.jp/• Tsunashima SST: http://tsunashimasst.com/EN/• Venture Plaza: http://www.smrj.go.jp/incubation/yvp/• Yokohama City University School of Data Science: https://www.yokohama-cu.ac.jp/academics/ds/index.html• Yokohama IT Cluster Exchange: http://www.shin-yokohama.jp/event.html

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Phone 646-905-3758
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