Almost all of the accelerator programs are run in Tokyo.
When your friends find a new job, it's in Tokyo.
When you find talent, they're living in Tokyo.
To talk to investors, you often have to go to Tokyo, which can be payed for either through an expensive Shinkansen ticket or a night of sleep on the 夜行-Bus.
But Osaka - or rather the general "Kansai" area including Kyoto and Kobe - is far from dead. It surely has it advantages to be here. And it's not just the food.
The annual Yodogawa firework.
Cost of doing business is lower, and since the community is smaller, it is also more closely connected. Often it is not even apparent which company people belong to, as they walk in and out of each others offices and freely recommend you to who would technically be their competitor.
The city actively tries to support new businesses to the point where you can get free consultation from a lawyer for hiring people.
A disproportional large amount of the talent are immigrants. This is often attributed to Japanese Culture. Foreigners find it harder to gain recognition in established Japanese corporations and the culture favors a stable job at a large corporation over taking chances and chasing dreams.
Then again, I often hear that Silicon Valley also has a large share of immigrants.
Maybe it is not that the county pushes people out of traditional employment roles, but rather that immigrants are more likely to be risk takers and dream chasers - else they would have stayed at home.
The Osaka Innovation Hub many events, meet-ups and seminars to help budding entrepreneurs to get off the ground.
In December, it held the Regional Innovation Weekend Pitch Contest. MARUI participated in the contest and was thus chosen to represent Osaka in the Global Finals. Which, of course, was held in Tokyo again...
The biggest event though is Hack Osaka, which was held just last week.
It features keynote speeches, panel discussions, speed-dating with investors and booths to present your tech. It also attracts students from the area who are open to the idea to start working in a startup after graduating.
Of course there is a Pitch Contest and of course MARUI did it's best to represent Osaka.
We won the Bronze Price and were awarded a generous travel budget. Now we don't have to worry about financing our trips to Tokyo anymore.
Also, the world famous accelerator program 500StartUps has it's own chapter in Kobe, accepting promising ventures from the region. The next batch is scheduled to start in April. We're excited to see what new businesses will spring up in Kansai.
