Singapore / New York, September 28, 2026 : Japanese corporations are becoming more active venture investors and strategic partners as they look beyond traditional in-house innovation models for new sources of growth, according to Miho Tsukamoto, who works at the intersection of corporate venture capital and the global startup ecosystem.
Speaking to AsiaBizToday for the Asia Insights series ahead of Global Startup Expo 2026 in Osaka, where she is one of the speakers, Tsukamoto said Japanese companies have significantly increased their startup activity over the past three to four years, both domestically and overseas.
“A lot of Japanese corporates have begun to have their own CVCs, and they’ve started really investing in startups, not only in Japan, but across the globe,” she said, adding that the aim is increasingly to find strategic partnerships and build new businesses.
Tsukamoto said the shift is being driven partly by necessity. Many established Japanese companies are confronting slower growth and stronger global competition, and are recognising that relying only on internal R&D and traditional business models is no longer sufficient.
“They are starting to realise that just doing things internally in-house isn’t working anymore,” she said. “They have no choice but to look outside and partner with startups to accelerate the growth.”
Japan’s Startup Culture Is Changing, Slowly
The change is not limited to corporations. Tsukamoto said Japan’s startup culture itself is gradually becoming more open, although risk aversion remains deeply embedded.
For younger professionals, choosing entrepreneurship instead of a large corporate career is still culturally difficult. But she sees more startups being created, not only by young founders but also by experienced professionals leaving established careers to build companies.
Success stories from the United States have also influenced attitudes. “Those great stories of startups succeeding in the U.S. give us hope to go out and try,” she said.
For Tsukamoto, startup activity is becoming increasingly important to Japan’s broader economic renewal. She linked entrepreneurship and startup collaboration directly to the country’s effort to move beyond decades of weak growth.
“I could maybe say that it is the only way for Japan to go over this stagnation of growth,” she said, adding that collaboration with startups both in Japan and globally will be important.
The Hardest Step Is Moving From Pilot to Commercial Contract
GSE2026 is strongly focused on deep-tech commercialisation, and Tsukamoto said one of the biggest challenges startups face when working with Japanese corporations is converting a pilot into a full commercial relationship.
Pilots are easier for large companies because the financial and organisational risks are relatively limited. Commercial contracts require more capital, longer-term commitment and greater internal approval.
“I guess the most difficult part is moving from a pilot to an actual commercial contract,” Tsukamoto said.
Japanese companies can also take a long time to make decisions, she noted, which can create tension with startups that operate at a much faster pace.
But there is another side to that relationship. Once a Japanese corporate commits, Tsukamoto said it tends to remain loyal and build relationships around honesty and integrity.
“Once they really engage in a relationship, Japanese companies are very loyal,” she said.
That long-term commitment can be a major advantage for startups willing to navigate the slower initial process.
Tsukamoto said her own organisation has invested across a broad range of sectors. These include biomedical technologies, robotics, drones, semiconductors and biomanufacturing. She said the group invests from seed stage through roughly Series C, with ticket sizes reaching up to US$5 million.
Its second fund, run out of the United States, was established a little over a year ago and had already made seven direct investments at the time of the interview. Those investments are international rather than Japanese.
A separate fund is used for Japanese startups, and Tsukamoto said roughly one-third of the organisation’s combined investments are currently in Japan, with the majority overseas.
That split illustrates the increasingly global nature of Japanese corporate venture capital.
Japanese corporates have traditionally been strong in hard tech and deep tech, and those areas continue to attract significant CVC interest. Tsukamoto also highlighted data centres and robotics as sectors currently gaining substantial traction globally and among Japanese companies.
That aligns with Japan’s broader industrial strengths in manufacturing, materials, automation and engineering. For overseas startups, this creates opportunities not simply for financial investment, but for industrial collaboration, distribution and market access.
Foreign Startups Need the Right Japanese Partner
Tsukamoto described Japan as a large but difficult market to enter. Language, regulation and business culture can create practical barriers, and she believes the most efficient route for international startups is often through a Japanese corporate partner.
But she warned founders not to take the first opportunity available. The right partner needs to fit the startup’s business model, market strategy and long-term objectives.
She recommended that overseas founders seek advice from Japanese VCs, corporates and experienced businesspeople before choosing a partner.
Tsukamoto also emphasised the importance of face-to-face interaction. “It takes some time for Japanese companies, but once you build that trust, it goes a long way,” she said.
Her recommendation to overseas founders was straightforward: go to Japan, meet people in person and invest time in relationships. “Meeting face-to-face, I think, speeds up that relationship building by tenfold, 100-fold.”
Academia-to-Startup Commercialisation Still Needs Work
Despite Japan’s powerful research base, Tsukamoto is less certain that the gap between academic research and commercial startups is narrowing quickly enough. She said Japanese academia has traditionally concentrated heavily on research and publishing, rather than commercialising knowledge and technology in the way many US universities do.
That can limit the number of research-driven companies emerging from universities.
Tsukamoto does see more startups either originating from or working with Japanese universities and professors, but she believes the overall share remains too low.
“There’s still a lot more to do in that regard,” she said. This could become an important area for Japan’s deep-tech strategy. If more research can be converted into startups and paired with corporate customers and global capital, Japan’s science and engineering strength could become a more powerful source of new-company formation.
GSE2026 Can Help Build a Collaboration Mindset
For Tsukamoto, GSE2026’s value will depend on what happens beyond networking. The strongest outcome would be real commercial relationships between startups and companies.
But she also sees value in the event creating a better understanding on both sides of how collaboration actually works.
Corporates need to learn how to engage effectively with startups, while founders need to understand the expectations and working style of large companies.
If GSE2026 can become a platform for building that collaboration mindset, she said, Japan could benefit significantly.
Japanese CVC Is Becoming More Global
Tsukamoto expects Japanese corporate venture activity to become significantly more international over the next five years.
She said other Japanese CVCs, corporate development teams and new-business departments increasingly approach her organisation to understand how it manages overseas investments and identifies international startups.
That suggests the interest in global venture activity is widening across corporate Japan. “In five years, I expect a lot more money, as well as partnerships, to be coming out of Japan,” she said.
The movement could work in both directions. Japan remains a large and attractive market for international startups, even if it is difficult to enter.
Tsukamoto believes greater openness among Japanese corporates could make that market more accessible by giving foreign startups the local partnerships, resources and credibility they need.
“Japan is still a big market. It’s a hard one to crack, but it is a big market,” she said.
For GSE2026, that is a central opportunity: helping Japanese corporations become more global while making Japan itself more accessible to startups from overseas.