[Breaking News] CIC Tokyo Opening Report: Featured Guests included Governor Koike, Member of the House of Representatives Taira, and President of the University of Tokyo Gonokami

CIC Japan headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo and led by Chairperson Takaaki Umezawa, opened CIC Tokyo, Japan’s largest innovation center, on October 1, 2020.CIC Japan held an invitation-only opening event attended by guests including Governor Yuriko Koike of Tokyo, Masaaki Taira of the House of Representatives, and President Makoto Gonokami of the University of Tokyo, among others. As one of the leading innovation centers in the world, CIC Tokyo will foster startups and help drive innovation. In addition, CIC Japan will hold a grand opening event for the general public from November 25th to 27th. If you are looking for office space, CIC Tokyo is still accepting inquiries about space.

■ Overview of the opening event
Date and time: October 1, 2020
Venue: CIC Tokyo in Toranomon Hills Business Tower
Attendees: Limited to related parties and media
Program: 15:00-16: 00 Opening event
16:00-17: 00 CIC Tokyo tour and panel discussion
Featured Guests: Yuriko Koike, Governor of Tokyo,
Masaaki Taira, ember of the House of Representatives
Makoto Gonokami, President of the University of Tokyo

■ Opening event report
(1) CIC Tokyo’s Vision
CIC Japan Chairperson Takaaki Umezawa (also serving as Chairman of A.T. Kearney Japan) and Director Minako Hirata gave a presentation about how CIC Tokyo will collaborate with various players and build the future innovation ecosystem in Japan. CIC Tokyo will help bring together players from environment/energy, sports/live entertainment, and smart city industries, as well as hold events promoting international innovation.

(2) Design of CIC Tokyo
Mr. Tetsuo Kobori, a celebrated architect who has won the Japan Architecture Award on two occasions co-designed CIC Tokyo. Hepresented about the design of CIC Tokyo, explaining how design can help to promote communication and build communities, as well as the ideas and design concepts contained in the design of CIC Tokyo.

(3) Remarks from Representative Masaaki Taira of the House of Representatives
Mr. Taira gave a speech about the importance of fostering a diverse community to drive innovation and the role of startups in government strategy related to innovation. He also underscored efforts by the government to break down bureaucratic segmentation, pointing to the establishment of the Digital Agency to speed up digitization in Japan and cooperative efforts between Members of the Parliament in Japan and CIC Tokyo.

(4) Remarks from Governor Yuriko Koike of Tokyo
Governor Koike gave a speech about how to transform Tokyo into a base city for startups, her expectations for the Toranomon area, and her hopes for CIC Tokyo to create global startups.

(5) Panel discussion
Massaki Taira, Member of the House of Representatives, Yukiko Tsuneda, for Startups, Inc., Taro Kodama,  Anchorstar, Sputniko! , Ryusuke Komura, Venture Cafe Tokyo, joined a panel discussion on what kind of future will be created by innovation.

(6) Remarks by President Makoto Gonokami of the University of Tokyo
President Gonokami spoke about the growth potential of startups in Japan, as well as the role he could see for CIC Tokyo in supporting the global expansion of startups from Japan. He spoke about the collaboration between the University of Tokyo and CIC Tokyo, and encouraged students and researchers from the University of Tokyo to visit CIC Tokyo frequently to take advantage of all it offers.

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