Why Kyoto Matters to Japan’s Startup Future: From Nintendo and Kyocera to IVS Kyoto 2026

As IVS Kyoto 2026 brings founders, investors and corporates to Japan’s former imperial capital, Kyoto’s long record of building global companies offers a powerful context for the country’s startup ambitions

SINGAPORE, June 26, 2026 – When international founders and investors think of Japan’s startup ecosystem, Tokyo often dominates the conversation. It is the country’s financial centre, the base of many large corporations, and the most obvious first stop for foreign businesses entering Japan.

Yet as IVS Kyoto 2026 prepares to bring the startup world to Kyoto from July 1–3, the choice of host city carries a deeper meaning. Kyoto is not merely a cultural destination or historic capital. It is one of Japan’s most distinctive company-building cities, with a record of producing globally recognised businesses across gaming, electronics, advanced materials, automation, scientific instruments and precision manufacturing.

That makes Kyoto a fitting stage for IVS2026’s theme: “Japan is Back.”

The phrase is intended to signal Japan’s renewed startup ambition, but in Kyoto it also connects with a much longer story — one of companies that began with craft, science, technical depth and patient product-building before growing into international brands.

Nintendo is perhaps the most widely recognised example. The company traces its origins to 1889, when Fusajiro Yamauchi began manufacturing and selling hanafuda playing cards in Kyoto. Over more than a century, Nintendo evolved from traditional playing cards into toys, arcade games, consoles and some of the most valuable intellectual property in global entertainment.

Shimadzu, founded in Kyoto in 1875, began with scientific and educational instruments before growing into a major company in analytical and measuring instruments, medical systems and industrial technologies. Kyocera, established in Kyoto in 1959 as Kyoto Ceramic Co., Ltd., built its early business around fine ceramics and later expanded across electronic components, industrial products, energy systems and telecommunications.

Omron, ROHM, Nidec and Murata also form part of the wider Kyoto and Kansai company-building landscape. Together, these companies show that Kyoto’s innovation history is not simply a matter of heritage. It is rooted in product depth, engineering capability and the ability to convert specialised knowledge into global businesses.

This matters for startups because the next phase of venture creation may not be led only by consumer apps or software platforms. Around the world, investors are looking again at deep technology, hardware, climate technology, robotics, semiconductors, health technology, industrial AI and advanced manufacturing. These are areas where Kyoto’s industrial DNA remains highly relevant.

Kyoto Startup Ecosystem’s official platform captures this combination of past and future by describing the city as “a one-of-a-kind city” where history and culture interact with science and technology. It also notes that the city’s startup ecosystem brings together universities, startups, global companies, investors and government.

That networked structure is critical. Startups in deep tech and hardware often need more than capital. They require access to laboratories, suppliers, manufacturing partners, corporate customers, research institutions, technical mentors and patient investors. Kyoto’s ecosystem gives it the potential to support precisely these kinds of ventures.

Invest Kyoto also points to this layered support structure, saying the city’s ecosystem provides assistance from entrepreneurial training and commercialisation to fundraising, acceleration, market development and overseas expansion, with a focus on life sciences and deep tech.

That is why IVS Kyoto 2026 is important. It does not simply bring a conference to Kyoto. It brings international attention to a city that already has many of the building blocks required for a globally relevant startup ecosystem.

Whiplus Wang, who leads IVS Global, made this point in an AsiaBizToday interview ahead of the event. Explaining why Kyoto works as a gateway for overseas founders and investors, Wang said the city offers both cultural recognition and entrepreneurial inspiration.

“Kyoto is a city that can inspire startup founders to build better products and services for the world,” Wang told AsiaBizToday.

That is a useful way to understand Kyoto’s role. It is not trying to replicate Tokyo, Singapore or Silicon Valley. Its advantage lies in a different model — one where tradition, manufacturing, design, science and entrepreneurship sit closer together.

IVS Kyoto 2026 is expected to bring together founders, investors, corporates, policymakers and ecosystem builders across the main IVS programme, IVS Startup Market, IVS LAUNCHPAD, IVS CORE and a growing network of side events across the city. For Kyoto, the event strengthens its visibility as a startup hub. For Japan, it provides a platform to showcase a more regionally diverse innovation story.

The Startup Market will bring hundreds of companies into the spotlight, while IVS CORE will create an invitation-only environment for senior decision-makers. These formats matter because Japan’s startup ecosystem needs both visibility and outcomes: capital, partnerships, customers, talent and international market access.

For founders from Southeast Asia, India and the wider Asia-Pacific region, Kyoto offers a different route into Japan. Tokyo may be the natural point of entry for finance and headquarters. Kyoto offers access to universities, deep-tech research, manufacturing culture, advanced industrial companies and a history of firms that began small but scaled globally.

There are still challenges. Kyoto competes with Tokyo for talent, capital and corporate attention. Japan’s broader startup ecosystem must continue to improve global go-to-market capability, risk capital availability and international hiring. But Kyoto has a distinctive foundation on which to build.

Its legacy companies prove that global businesses can emerge from specialised knowledge. Its universities and research institutions provide technical depth. Its public-private ecosystem is becoming more structured. And IVS Kyoto 2026 gives the city a recurring platform through which to connect with international founders, investors and corporations.

The story of Kyoto’s startup future, therefore, is not a break from its past. It is an extension of it.

As IVS Kyoto 2026 brings the global startup community to the city, the larger message is clear: Japan’s startup comeback will not be written only in Tokyo. Kyoto’s model — built on craft, technology, research and long-term product thinking — may become one of its most compelling chapters.