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Fukuoka in the News

Fukuoka’s generating a lot of great media buzz these days.

Fukuoka has been recognized around the world for being such a great place to live and work. Below are some prime examples of how much attention Fukuoka has gotten recently.

“As the National Strategic Special Zone for Global Startups & Job Creation, Fukuoka offers multiple startup support initiatives. With a strategic geographic location and a young workforce, Fukuoka has the potential to become a global startup hub.”
– StartupBlink
“With easy access to beaches, mountains and plenty of green space, Fukuoka offers city dwellers a slower pace of life.”
– MONOCLE
“Today, Fukuoka City is home to 23 globally ranked universities, several R&D centers, and 135 international firms.”
– Startup Genome
“In this way, we believe that the role of Fukuoka City is to foster a movement, deregulate and implement support measures using special zones, and to become a hub for startups and their stakeholders around the world,”
– e27
“Topping the list is Fukuoka prefecture, with just over 33 percent of respondents saying they wanted to move back to Fukuoka (over 10 percent want to move back there immediately, apparently)!”
– SoraNews24
“In a surprising victory, Fukuoka Prefecture takes the top spot for "most worry-free area," with 40.9 percent – a whopping 9 percent more than the runner up.”
– Japan Today
“1,123 or (7.2% of total votes) rated Fukuoka number one for criteria such as the city’s accessibility, comparatively-low living costs, and an abundance of dining spots.”
– Fukuoka Now
“Under the leadership of Mayor Soichiro Takashima, the city government went to work in improving the policy environment for business creation.”
– GEN
“On the encouraging side, the survey found that there are now 2.86 million foreigners living in Japan, also a record and up by 7.5 per cent year on year. Another positive is Fukuoka, one of the three Japanese cities that have been regular standouts in Monocle’s Quality of Life surveys, which has seen its population grow by 10,000 to 1.59 million.”
– MONOCLE
“Fukuoka is being positioned as Japan's answer to Silicon Valley - a breeding ground of new start-ups.”
– BBC
“Cue Fukuoka Growth Next, the country’s largest startup accelerator, which debuted in 2017, refurbished this May, and in August launches a nearly half-billion yen internal venture capital fund, FGN ABBALab, that will double investment in the next year. ”
– FORTUNE
“In addition to being well known as a city open to the world, being located close to major cities in Asia, Fukuoka is now also attracting attention as an important incubator in Japan of domestic and overseas start-up businesses.”
– The government of Japan
“Indeed, Fukuoka ranks first among 44 cities in the world for commuting convenience according to the 2018 Global Power City Index Yearbook”
– The Japan Times
“In starting his company, Dorfman saw the opportunity to move abroad and so, in June 2016, made the decision to base the company’s Japan operations out of Fukuoka…”
– The Japan Times
“This is Fukuoka’s seventh startup related MOU, and the second time that the city has reached this kind of agreement with one of its sister cities after a similar arrangement with Bordeaux.”
– Fukuoka Now
“On the issue of startups, the city is keen to be seen to be doing all it can to promote the creation of new businesses, going so far as to introduce the “startup visa,” aimed at encouraging non-Japanese entrepreneurs to establish their businesses in Fukuoka, and recently opening Fukuoka Growth Next, a public-private startup support facility located in the city center.”
– The Japan Times
“Fukuoka is the fastest-growing major city in Japan outside of the capital, which has been steadily draining talent and workers from the rest of the country for decades. This ancient port, hemmed in by mountains and as close to Shanghai as it is to Tokyo, is bucking that trend, drawing entrepreneurs like Watabe from Japan and abroad.”
– Bloomberg
“The establishment of Fukuoka Growth Next aims, in short, to create future unicorns from Fukuoka. To promote “interactions” between startups and to increase public awareness of startups, co-working space, event space, cafe, standing bar and DIY studio will be set up at the facility.”
– The Bridge
“Municipal governments of Japan’s Fukuoka and Taiwan’s Taipei earlier this month signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) on mutual support by Japanese and Taiwanese startups upon expanding their businesses to the respective markets.”
– The Bridge
“Fukuoka is cultivating a budding startup scene. Home to 1.5 million people, the industrious port city welcomed 2,800 new companies last year, cranking out everything from social messaging apps to task-management tools.”
– CNN Tech
“If you want to take on new challenges in Japan, you should look at Fukuoka. We have every intention of becoming a global gateway.”
– Soichiro Takashima, Fukuoka Mayor
“Fukuoka is giving a boost to budding entrepreneurs.”
– CNN
“We expect foreign entrepreneurs to develop their business in their style, not in the traditional Japanese way.”
– Masashi Tomita, Fukuoka City Official
“Fukuoka has long been popular among Japanese tourists for its rich cultural heritage, which dates back 2,000 years...”
– Newsweek
“...this thriving city on the island of Kyushu, is becoming ever-more green, bike friendly, and business savvy”
– Monocle
“...Fukuoka also made the top 10 list, which is created based on quality of life measures including crime rate, public transportation, culture and economy.”
– Wall Street Journal
“The cities of Fukuoka and Bordeaux (France) recently agreed to encourage startup activities in the drone field, including interaction of startups or business mapping...”
– The Bridge
“...Mayor Takashima announced that a startup support base in Fukuoka Startup Café and Taiwan Startup Hub will cooperate and start mutually supporting both the Japanese startups expanding into Taiwan and the Taiwanese startups expanding into Japan.”
– The Bridge