New Municipality Joins the Support Program for Regional Foreign Direct Investment in Japan (Higashihiroshima City)

1. Outline of the support program

It is effective for municipalities of Japan that intend to attract overseas companies to their regions to identify their strengths, such as unique industrial clusters, agriculture, forestry and fishery products and tourism resources, and to connect these strengths with sales channels, technologies, human resources and know-how of overseas companies.

In May 2018, the Council for Promotion of Foreign Direct Investment in Japan, a body organized by the government, held a meeting and decided to implement the support program (secretariat: METI and JETRO), aiming to advance efforts to attract overseas companies to regional areas of Japan in a strategic manner by taking advantage of the uniqueness of such areas; and, to this end, support municipalities in developing their strategies and encourage them to effectively make use of related measures and advance specific activities for attracting overseas companies in accordance with the strategies by uniting the efforts of all ministries and agencies of the government. METI and JETRO have selected 29 successful municipalities to be supported under the support program so far and they are supporting the selected municipalities in formulating strategies that take advantage of regional strengths and in advancing specific activities for attracting overseas companies.

2. Outline of Higashihiroshima City as the successful municipality

Higashihiroshima City boasts outstanding research institutes, including Hiroshima University, as its strengths and is scheduled to embark on measures for vitalizing companies through promoting innovations in the areas surrounding the university. In addition, the central area of the city is home to Hiroshima Central Science Park, a well-organized base contributing to acceleration of research and development (R&D) providing locations to public research institutes, the Digital Monozukuri (Manufacturing) Education and Research Center and the Genome Editing Innovation Center of Hiroshima University, and other private research institutes.

The city concluded an “Agreement on Development of International Research Bases in Higashihiroshima City” with Hiroshima University and it has been advancing efforts for creating innovations by collaborating with research institutes of the university, inviting researchers and overseas students from around the world, implementing highly-advanced research and taking advantage of the results thereof. Aiming to deploy measures for attracting companies to the city by making use of the accumulated research results of the university, research institutes and other organizations, it will enhance efforts for further attracting overseas companies to the city that contribute to commercialization of technological seeds that the university and research institutes have, which target R&D-based companies, such as those in the fields of bio-technology and digital monodzukuri.

3. References

• Selected municipalities under the first round of the call for applicants for the support program (press release on October 4, 2018)
• Selected municipality under the second round of the call for applicants for the support program (press release on April 16, 2019)
• Selected municipalities under the third round of the call for applicants for the support program (press release on October 30, 2019)
• Selected municipalities under the fourth round of the call for applicants for the support program (press release on November 13, 2019)
• Selected municipality under the fifth round of the call for applicants for the support program (press release on July 20, 2020)