Large Japanese firms have a long history of having offices in Silicon Valley, mostly starting in the 1980s and 1990s in the heyday of semiconductors, early computing, software, and communications industries. In the past couple decades, as the Silicon Valley ecosystem produced firms that become global giants with new technologies and disruptive business models, the question has become how to most effectively “harness” the Silicon Valley ecosystem. There is currently a surge of large Japanese companies into Silicon Valley, the latest of several surges and retreats. This time around, most firms are aiming to identify new opportunities to collaborate with the startup ecosystem in order to understand future technological and industry trajectories, to facilitate new forms of “open” innovation within the company, and in some cases to even redefine how to add value to their core offerings. However, given a vast differently economic context from their core operations in Japan, many of the large Japanese firms’ initial forays tend to fall into patterns of “worst practices” that are ineffective. Yet, a small but growing number of innovative Japanese companies are producing novel and valuable collaborations with a variety of Silicon Valley firms, investors, and ecosystem players. This talk will introduce the strategies, structures, and activities of Komatsu, Honda, Yamaha, and several other Japanese companies that are undertaking new forms of collaboration with Silicon Valley companies. The talk will survey a range of strategic options available to Japanese companies, with implications for how to better adapt companies from Japan to Silicon Valley, and more broadly from different political economic systems.

SPEAKER:

Kenji Kushida, Research Scholar, Shorenstein APARC Japan Program and Stanford Silicon Valley-New Japan Project Leader

BIO:

Kenji E. Kushida is the Japan Program Research Scholar at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University (APARC), Project Leader of the Stanford Silicon Valley – New Japan Project (Stanford SV-NJ), research affiliate of the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE), International Research Fellow at the Canon Institute for Global Studies (CIGS), and Visiting Researcher at National Institute for Research Advancement (NIRA). He holds a PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, an MA in East Asian studies and BAs in economics and East Asian studies, all from Stanford University.

Kushida’s research streams include 1) Information Technology innovation, 2) Silicon Valley’s economic ecosystem, 3) Japan’s political economic transformation since the 1990s, and 4) the Fukushima nuclear disaster. He has published several books and numerous articles in each of these streams, including “The Politics of Commoditization in Global ICT Industries,” “Japan’s Startups Ecosystem,” “Cloud Computing: From Scarcity to Abundance,” and others. His latest business book in Japanese is “The Algorithmic Revolution’s Disruption: a Silicon Valley Vantage on IoT, Fintech, Cloud, and AI” (Asahi Shimbun Shuppan 2016).

He has appeared in media including The New York Times, Washington Post, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Nikkei Business, NHK, PBS NewsHour, and NPR.

He is also a trustee of the Japan ICU Foundation, a fellow of the US-Japan Leadership Program, an alumni of the Trilateral Commission David Rockefeller Fellows, and a member of the Mansfield Foundation Network for the Future.

AGENDA:

4:15pm: Doors open
4:30pm-5:30pm: Talk and Discussion
5:30pm-6:00pm: Networking

RSVP REQUIRED:

Register to attend at http://www.stanford-svnj.org/92719-public-forum

PARKING ON CAMPUS:

Please note there is significant construction taking place on campus, which is greatly affecting parking availability and traffic patterns at the university. Please plan accordingly.

For directions to the Jen-Hsun Huang Engineering Center, please click here.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) commenced operations on January 16, 2016. The Bank has approved 24 projects totaling US$4.26 billion to date, and its approved membership totals 84 with 64 members having completed all membership requirements and 20 prospective members in the process of finalizing their membership.
 
President Jin Liqun will give his assessment of the bank’s first two years – its accomplishments and challenges – and the future direction of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank. What is the potential impact of AIIB’s financing for regional infrastructure, trade connectivity and economic relations? How can multilateral institutions and various stakeholders best address the US$26 trillion infrastructure gap (from 2016 to 2030) in Asia? How is the AIIB distinguishing itself from other multilateral development banks like the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank? What is the AIIB’s commitment and contributions toward global economic governance and best international practices?

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As the Tokyo-based co-founder and managing partner of global VC fund Fresco Capital, Allison Baum is frequently asked “Why are you in Japan?”  Indeed, with a global network of corporate partners, investors, and portfolio companies, many of them are curious to know why Fresco sees long term potential in the Japanese market. Though Japan is an advanced and well developed economy, the country is struggling with the need to innovate in the face of critical challenges such as a deflationary economy, a rapidly aging population, and an impending automation of the workforce. Fresco’s view is that this environment presents an extremely promising market opportunity for companies addressing challenges in healthcare, education and workplaces of the future. Join us as Allison shares her experience on the challenges and opportunities of expanding to Japan, bridging the cultural divide between Japan and the rest of the world, and discovering firsthand what it takes to successfully build long term partnerships in Japan.

Cross-Strait economic activities are no longer one-dimensional. Since the Republic of China (ROC) government opened up Taiwan’s doors to Chinese investment in 2009, no systematic research has been carried out to examine the positive and negative consequences of Chinese investment in Taiwan.

The aim, therefore, of this talk is to address the crucial, yet unexplored, comparison: What are the similarities and differences between Taiwanese investment in China and Chinese investment in Taiwan. Taiwanese businesses started to invest in China since late 80s, most of Taiwanese businesses went to China at the time were SMEs, they depended on mainly the rapport (guanxi) with local officials to obtain their economic interests. Nevertheless, since 2009 the Chinese investment in Taiwan seems to adopt a different route. They are not as many as the Taiwanese business in China, and most of Chinese investors in Taiwan are highly monitored by the Taiwanese government.

This talk will start by introducing briefly the historical background of cross-Strait bilateral investment, during the process it will tease out thematic discussion including identity, more specifically Taiwanese businessmen’s identity in China; state and society relationship, more specifically on government and business relationship; and how political dynamics changes affected the economic activities and vice versa, more specifically on the case of ECFA and Sun Flower movement.

[[{"fid":"230230","view_mode":"crop_870xauto","fields":{"format":"crop_870xauto","field_file_image_description[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_credit[und][0][value]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","thumbnails":"crop_870xauto","alt":"","title":""},"type":"media","field_deltas":{"2":{"format":"crop_870xauto","field_file_image_description[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_credit[und][0][value]":"","field_caption[und][0][value]":"","thumbnails":"crop_870xauto","alt":"","title":""}},"link_text":null,"attributes":{"style":"margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 15px; padding: 0px; float: left; height: 150px; width: 120px;","class":"media-element file-crop-870xauto","data-delta":"2"}}]]Chun-Yi Lee is an Assistant Professor at the school of Politics and International Relations (SPIR) at University of Nottingham. Her last research project is: 'Chinese Investment in Taiwan: Opportunities or Challenges to Taiwan's Industrial Development?' She is also the director of Taiwan Studies Program at University of Nottingham.

GSVlabs is a startup and corporate innovation accelerator located in the heart of Silicon Valley in Redwood City. It houses more than 180 startups and supports corporate innovation programs for more than 25 corporations. During the past few years, GSVlabs has welcomed numerous startups from foreign countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Thailand, China, Korea, Germany, Austria just to name a few. In many cases, these foreign startup acceleration programs are funded by large corporations and governments that see long-term economic benefits of supporting such activities in Silicon Valley. In this public forum, Atsuko Jenks will discuss examples of such corporate and government funded accelerator programs and implications for the efforts by Japanese corporations and Japanese government organizations to accelerate corporate innovation and economic growth of Japan.

SPEAKER:

Atsuko Jenks, Managing Director, Japan, GSVlabs

BIO:

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AGENDA:

4:15pm: Doors open
4:30pm-5:30pm: Talk and Discussion
5:30pm-6:00pm: Networking

RSVP REQUIRED:

We have reached venue capacity.  RSVPs are no longer being accepted.

In China, Japan, and Korea, large companies have historically played predominant roles in their economies. However, with startups often driving disruptive innovation in the current digital global era, the question is how incumbent large firms can adapt, adjust, and harness the power of small firms while making use of their existing resources. This panel brings together perspectives from China, Japan and Korea. 

In China, we have seen the explosive growth of information technology firms such as Alibaba and Tencent, who are now at the technological forefront of several areas such as using data and artificial intelligence for financial tech (Fintech) offerings. What are the key features of China's entrepreneurship ecosystem and how do large firms work with new firms?

In Japan, a major challenge is how to unleash potential innovations currently held by large companies who are unable to capitalize on them. World Innovation Lab (WiL) is a Palo Alto and Tokyo based company structured as an investment fund, designed to assist large Japanese companies carve out potential intellectual property into startups, and to harness Silicon Valley startups through investments and partnerships. ANA is a large Japanese airline company that has partnered with WiL to find new strategies for driving its next wave of innovations.

South Korea is home to some of the most competitive firms in the high tech areas, and the question is to how to remain at the forefront of high value added activities in rapidly commoditizing offerings. Samsung Research America is focused on harnessing Silicon Valley through development of software, user experience, and services for the next generation of products. 

Panelists:

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Li is widely believed as an innovative visionary and highly strategic entrepreneur. Before founding APUS Group, Li served as senior Vice President of Qihoo 360 (QIHU NYSE), a major internet company player known for its antivirus software. Prior to that, Li has involved with several well-known companies like Datang Telcom, 3721. He is an internet expert with expert internet knowledge, distribution channels and marketing experience. Mr. Li is an active venture capitalist that has invested in dynamic startup companies from media and VR technology to video advertising companies, both domestically and abroad. Li received a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Zhengzhou University in 1998. Currently Li is a Finance EMBA student in Tsinghua University.

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Mr. Koto enjoys working with visionary entrepreneurs in frontier tech such as VR/AR, Bitcoin, IoT, and Autonomous Driving as the investment partner. He is also passionate about WiL’s corporate innovation efforts to bring WiL’s corporate partners’ organizational and corporate cultures more in line with Silicon Valley’s ethos. Through his facilitation of the Design Thinking Workshops and mentorship of the workshop facilitators, he has deepened his relationships with corporate executives which are influential in opening up business development opportunities between corporations and startup companies.

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Mr. Matsumoto is in charge of researching and creating new business, service, and process innovation models. Currently, he is investigating new business paradigms in the areas of education and sports that fully leverage ANA's brand, assets, and strengths. He is actively researching startups and cutting-edge technology related to these two fields both in Japan and around the world. Prior to ANA, he worked in the R&D Center at Canon and was responsible for developing new recognition technologies like OCR, form recognition and face recognition. He holds both a BS and MS from Kyushu University.

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Pranav Mistry is a computer scientist and inventor. He is currently Head of Think Tank Team at Samsung Research America and is best known for his work on SixthSense, Samsung Galaxy Gear and Project Beyond. His research interests include Wearable Computing, Augmented reality, Ubiquitous computing, Gestural interaction, AI, Machine vision, Collective intelligence and Robotics. The World Economic Forum honored Mistry as one of the Young Global Leader in 2013. Prior to his current position, he has worked with Microsoft, Google, CMU, NASA, UNESCO and Japan Science & Technology, to name a few. Pranav was a PhD candidate at the MIT Media Lab and earned his MA in Media Arts and Sciences from MIT, MDES from IIT, Bombay and a BS in Computer Science and Engineering.

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Kushida’s research interests are in the fields of comparative politics, political economy, and information technology. He has four streams of academic research and publication: political economy issues surrounding information technology such as Cloud Computing; institutional and governance structures of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster; political strategies of foreign multinational corporations in Japan; and Japan’s political economic transformation since the 1990s.