On November 11, Yokohama, Japan officially opened a new innovation center for startups and entrepreneurs, titled Tech Hub Yokohama, centrally located in the downtown waterfront Minato Mirai 21 district. Run by a joint collaboration between the City, Mitsubishi Estate, and Yokohama Future Organization, and powered by a partnership between international startup support organizations such as Venture Café, and The Drivery, Tech Hub Yokohama will serve as a location for events, meetings, and open innovation to support the growth of tech startups in Yokohama, be they domestic companies or entering Japan from abroad.

Yokohama, as the second most populous city in Japan, has been a hotbed for research and development, with major tech companies from around the worlds choosing Yokohama as the location for their headquarters or R&D centers in Japan. Now, Yokohama and its partners are taking the next step in the city’s long history of supporting the growth of startups through this innovation support center, which is expected to help facilitate open innovation and meetings between international and domestic startups and these larger corporations in Yokohama.

Tech Hub Yokohama features an open and sleek design, specially envisioned to promote connections between innovators to create new opportunities and enhance open exchange. The location features a work lounge area that doubles as a coworking space and event space, as well as a restaurant/café that is open to the general public and provides a casual meeting space. Additionally, the Hub has a dedicated area for exhibiting the cutting-edge technologies and innovations of tech startups and entrepreneurs, providing a stage to raise awareness to the amazing advances in tech happening in Yokohama, and providing inspiration to the next generations of startups.

Tech Hub Yokohama celebrated its opening night on November 11th with an event featuring over 300 innovators. In addition, this opening event served as the first of a series of “YOKOHAMA CONNÉCT” events to be held by Venture Café twice a month providing an opportunity for innovators to regularly gather and enrich the local ecosystem, and coinciding with regular “YOKOHAMA x The Drivery” events which focus on support for innovation in the mobility space, including autonomous vehicles, and all things automotive.

Tech Hub Yokohama’s international partner organizations that run these events are a key force behind the support that the innovation space offers to entrepreneurs and local workers from larger corporations in the business district of Minato Mirai in Yokohama City: Venture Café is a global network of innovation supporters, with locations from Cambridge, MA to Tokyo, and The Drivery is a Berlin-based startup support offering consulting to mobility-based startups looking to expand into the thriving auto industry in Yokohama.

With a driving motto of “connecting innovators to make things happen,” and a diverse and experienced team of partners supporting the events and support, Tech Hub Yokohama is well-positioned to support and help the growth of tech startups in Yokohama, Japan, one of Japan’s biggest and most diverse cities. Alongside other recent initiatives and centers in the city such as the Yokohama Startup Visa program and the YOXO BOX startup support center in the nearby Kannai district, Yokohama is poised to become one of the most welcoming cities for international startups in Japan.