New partnerships help nanotech startups access Japanese market

A new partnership between the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology (WIN) and Landing Pad Tokyo will help Canadian startups accelerate the development of their technologies and break into the Japanese market—the world’s third largest national economy.

Landing Pad Tokyo is an “incubator/accelerator” for Japanese manufacturing SMEs. In October, it also formed a partnership with Ryerson University’s DMZ tech accelerator to increase collaboration between the Canadian and Japanese companies.

The focus of these new relationships is on pairing startups from DMZ and WIN with state-of-the-art technologies and creative expertise with the R&D and operational capabilities of Japanese manufacturing SMEs.

As a direct result of the partnership between WIN and Landing Pad Tokyo, Kitchener, ON-based ICSPI Corp., which manufactures microscopes-on-a-chip, is working with a Japanese company to develop a new product for industrial applications.

Led by a WIN faculty member, it’s a spin-off from a centre for radio-frequency engineering at the University of Waterloo. The Waterloo Commercialization Office and WIN are currently matching additional companies through Landing Pad Tokyo, providing Canadian companies with a much-needed entry point to the Japanese market.

"It’s not always easy for Canadian startups to get direct access to Japanese connections such as industry leaders, small and mid-size businesses and potential customers,” says Sherif El Tawil, who leads the strategic direction of DMZ’s international operations as its senior director of Programs and Partnerships.

Japan invests nearly $200 billion annually in R&D, and 78 cents of every dollar comes from the private sector. Plugging into that R&D know-how could give Canadian companies an edge, in part because Japan's R&D leaders know how to manage risk and can help Canadian startups mitigate the risks they face as they expand and enter new markets.

Nanoscience and nanotechnology are priority research fields in industrialized countries today, including Japan and Canada, where they are key elements of advanced manufacturing.

Japan has been steadily investing in nanotech for decades. The 5th Science and Technology Basic Plan, developed by the Japanese government for FY2016-2020, is focused on supporting technologies essential for “Society 5.0,” the country’s vision of an emerging, network-enabled “super smart society.” Those technologies include materials science and nanotech.

In 1986, the Canada-Japan Science and Technology Agreement laid the foundation for Canada's and Japan’s S&T relationship and is a catalyst for bilateral cooperative projects. Over the past decade, the two countries have been strengthening their collaboration in the field of nanotechnology R&D through high-level discussions and workshops, including several hosted at WIN. The WIN-Landing Pad partnership stemmed from an event organized by the Canadian Embassy in January, alongside Japan’s annual nanotechnology showcase, one of the biggest in the world.

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