Yuta Hirayama: Hi. My name is Yuta.

Audrey Tang: Nice to meet you. It’s a pleasure.

Yuta Hirayama: Nice to meet you.

Kosuke Shimada: My name is Kosuke.

Audrey Tang: Hi. Nice to meet you.

Kosuke Shimada: Nice to meet you.

Lisa Lin: A pleasure.

Audrey Tang: Please, take a seat.

Yuta Hirayama: I am a CEO of IDEAPOST and we are working as a consultant, and our client is Fukuoka D.C. which is very close to Fukuoka City. Before, I supported to have MOU on Innovation and Entrepreneurship between Taipei City and Fukuoka City. MOU details: https://bit.ly/2JrzsTh

Yuta Hirayama: Then I found that startup companies want to expand their business to Japan, but they don’t have inforamtion about expand their buisness to Japan,itis quite difficult to understand the Japan business culture, custom and so on. So, we provides those information like marketing research, report and actual support when they start their business in Japan.

Audrey Tang: The points of presence of strategies?

Yuta Hirayama: ...list some approachable customers, and then approach. After that, they will need to establish a company in Japan. So, my point is like, if they hire the person in Japan, or send the person to Japan, it leads to continuous expenditure and costs a lot. I t is also difficult to manage it. On the other hand, If they use our service, it’s more reasonable. We provide first six months program include marketing, lists potential customers, approach with them. This is my point, and then we are about to start this business in Taiwan now.

Audrey Tang: That sounds great. How many people in a cohort over six months do you support?

Yuta Hirayama: Actually, it depends on the project. Over the past two years, I supported more than 10 companies, and three companies already established a company in Fukuoka. I think it has a space to expand.

Audrey Tang: That’s pretty good.

Yuta Hirayama: I hired him (Kosuke) two months ago and tried to expand this business especially in Taiwan.

Audrey Tang: You have dispatches to the Smart City expo?

Yuta Hirayama: My consultant client is...Now the main customer is Fukuoka D.C. Fukuoka D.C. is kind of economic organization and one of their purpose is connecting to the big company and small company, and lead the open innovation. We’d love to make new value, create innovation and so on. I have a title at that organization as the Senior Manager, on the other hand, IDEAPOST is my own company. One of client is Fukuoka D.C.,

Yuta Hirayama: Actually, I have several titles, haha.

Audrey Tang: Several hats?

Yuta Hirayama: In addition, from April, I’ll be a visiting associate professor at Nagoya Univerisity.

Audrey Tang: Congrats!

Yuta Hirayama: This is just a support job. I really have many titles now. but leading innovation is the main. [laughs]

Audrey Tang: IDEAPOST is your baby?

Yuta Hirayama: Yeah.

Audrey Tang: So you’re here just for the exhibition, or is there other...

Yuta Hirayama: Just the exhibition, as this company.

Audrey Tang: Here in this social innovation lab, we’re trying to do something very similar. We’re trying to connecting large nonprofits and large companies, corporate social responsibility programs, and the new ventures that are aimed to solve one of the sustainable development issues.

Audrey Tang: We align those things together, and try to create new innovations that maybe run counter or violating some existing regulations or laws. We in the government, we see ourselves as solving the problem of the problem solvers.

Audrey Tang: Anyone who has any issue whatsoever can find me here in Wednesday, or find me in one of the regional centers every other Tuesday. I bring 12 different ministries with me when I tour around Taiwan.

Yuta Hirayama: Wow.

Audrey Tang: People who cannot join me through the high-speed rails, they are here, and we do video conference. Just yesterday, I was in Hualien in a video conference with 12 ministries here in Taipei. It is a virtual team that spans 12 different ministries. We also incubate a cohort of maybe 20 companies or teams every six months this way.

Yuta Hirayama: This is good. Actually, the Fukuoka City is a special economic zone in Japan for startups, so this is the point. New technology service like Uber or Airbnb, or Unmanned car or Drone or whatever, always face regulation problem, however, we can try to deregulate those rules or regulation. Because we have a special economic zone for startups. That is the point. Actually, I’m working as a consultant to support them. How to deregulate those rules..This is my main job, the high-end main work [laughs] is that. I’m in charge of that in the organization. I think my job and this lab"s purpose is very close, I think.

Audrey Tang: Yeah, where we’re connectors and catalysts. I think Japan used to have one of the most difficult to enter immigration...

Yuta Hirayama: Yes, yes.

Audrey Tang: ...program for professionals. That was a big problem, not just for Taiwan people but everybody else. Right?

Audrey Tang: Now you have one of the best programs...

Yuta Hirayama: Not the best but a little bit better.

Audrey Tang: One of the better ones. We passed the Foreign Talent Act also. After Japan, we were perhaps one of the second strictest, we used to be, but now we are much more open to foreign talent. Also, it now becomes much more easier to be naturalized while keeping your own nationality...

Yuta Hirayama: Oh, wow, good.

Audrey Tang: ...so you can also be Taiwanese.

Audrey Tang: We offer this because we have Medicare and some other benefits to let people who are coming to Taiwan and try to make a social impact so that they will continue to solve social issues here in Taiwan and based in Taiwan to connect with the rest of Asia.

Audrey Tang: We’re taking a nonexclusive approach. It’s better if our partners are in Japan or in Korea or every other places but you can also be Taiwanese, you can also be a foreign company.

Yuta Hirayama: That’s great. Very advanced approach. We have very strong connection between Taipei City and Fukuoka City. Maybe we can exchange some good examples or cases.

Audrey Tang: Yeah, I’m sure. We have the CTO of the Taipei City, the integrating director of information technology, as well as Taichung, then the CIO of Taichung City. There’s many similar CIO roles now in all the different six major cities. Like there’s one in Taoyuan also, and so on.

Audrey Tang: We’re now seeing really knowledgeable IT innovation folks running as CIO or CTO for a city, and from the city radiate toward the non-metropolitan areas. We in the central government are mostly a platform for all those innovations to be visible internationally and also across Taiwan. This is our regional innovation.

Lisa Lin: Can you share some experience of how you build the Fukuoka Special Zone, I mean how do you build up Fukuoka’s new startup programs?

Yuta Hirayama: Yeah, Fukuoka. How to build. This is difficult to answer. But Fukuoka City and Fukuoka D.C. had submitted the application for special economic zone for startups in 2013. Then the national government approved Fukuoka City as a special economic zone in 2014.

Yuta Hirayama: Before, Japan is one of the most difficult country to get a working VISA, however, thanks to special economic zone for startups, Fukuoka city started tp provide startup VISA for foreign Entrepreneurs. This is very good outcome of Special economic zone for Fukuoka city.

Yuta Hirayama: You know, we argued that always new technology face regulation problems right?, and it is very difficult to test in Tokyo because it is too big to test, however, Fukuoka city is the best place to those test it. This is also the important point.

Audrey Tang: Yeah, so it’s like a lab that’s similar enough but not so big so that you can manage the social inclusion and understanding of new technology.

Yuta Hirayama: I’m thinking we’re very close.

Audrey Tang: Yeah, we’re doing the same thing. We’re starting with the fintech sandbox, and then the AI sandbox and then our general-purpose sandbox much like Japan. I think there’s many cases and ways that we evaluate it. For example, just a couple of days ago, people from MIT are just testing those autonomous tricycles.

Yuta Hirayama: I met someone working on Fintech... It’s his name card.

Audrey Tang: Lman, yes. That’s the IOTA team.