2018.07.27

"Shibuya SCSQ innovation project" started for the opening of business in 2019, promotion of innovation through collaboration among five major universities in Tokyo

Among the areas around Shibuya Station, the largest redevelopment is “ SHIBUYA SCRAMBLE SQUARE (abbreviated as“ Shibuya SCSQ ”)”. By 2027, JR Shibuya Station and the station buildings on the former Toyoko Line Shibuya Station, and Tokyu Department Stores directly connected to the station will all be reborn.
▲ Shibuya station surrounding completed image (2027) Image offer = Shibuya station front area management
"Shibuya SCSQ" consisting of the three buildings "East Building", "Central Building" and "West Building" is scheduled to be completed early in the "East Building" during fiscal 2019 ahead of the Tokyo Olympic Games. It is about 230 meters tall and on the rooftop floor there will be an observation deck that will allow you to overlook the Shibuya scrambled intersection and it will be attracting a lot of attention as Tokyo's new landmark crowded with the Olympics. Already on the office floor of the East Building, in addition to moving in Mixi and cyber agents, the transfer of the Google Japan corporation to the adjacent " SHIBUYA STREAM " has also been announced, and creative companies representing domestic and overseas are starting to gather one by one. In the future, great expectations are made that the area around Shibuya station will leap forward as an innovative place like Silicon Valley.

In addition to the concentration of creative companies, major universities in Tokyo are beginning to show a move to create new bases. On July 11, SHIBUYA SCRAMBLE SQUARE Co., Ltd., an operating company co-founded by TOKYU CORPORATION , JR East and Tokyo Metro Co.,Ltd. , and the University of Tokyo, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Keio University, Waseda University and Tokyo City University The university signed a collaborative business agreement and launched the Shibuya SCSQ Innovation Project (provisional name) as a new initiative. Shibuya SCSQ on the 15th floor will set up an "industrial exchange facility" that will be its base, and will carry out activities aimed at creating and transmitting innovation through industry-academia collaboration and fostering creative human resources.
▲ A base to promote innovation in collaboration with five universities is opened on the 15th floor of a 47-story building on the ground. The size is 2,600 square meters.
The keywords "industry-university collaboration" and "innovation" are never new. Although it has already been carried out with various private companies, universities, administrative etc.,What is different about the "Shibuya SCSQ Innovation Project (tentative name)" this time?
様子 State of the first pre-event held at Shibuya Hikarie 8 / COURT.
Shibuya SCSQ Director and five university faculty members on the theme of 'Shibuya SCSQ Innovation Project' as the first pre-event on July 19, with the theme of "Environment and city development where innovation occurs" and "Human resources and start-ups that produce innovation" A panel discussion on which the administration and investors entered was held. I would like to concretely look at what the related parties are seeking from the project from the words issued at the event.

First of all, Yukio Nomura, director of SHIBUYA SCRAMBLE SQUARE , talks about the reasons behind this "business-academia collaboration" as follows.

"Creative cities all over the world are in London, Silicon Valley, Berlin ... and so on, but they are often closely linked to the university. In addition to Todai Komaba near Shibuya, it opens on the FUKU-TOSHIN LINE and also Waseda It has become very close, and collaboration with universities in Tokyo has become very easy.Despite the fact that basic research such as taking the Nobel Prize is very advanced, it is very difficult that it is not implemented socially It's a waste

It is said that there is a present situation that the knowledge accumulated in the university and the know-how of private companies are not going to solve society's problems.
▲ left) Associate Professor Keio University · Associate Professor Right) Shibuya SCSQ Director · Yukio Nomura
"There are many early adapters in Shibuya, so there is an advantage that you can try your research right away, There are also two Families Tamagawa and Tama Plaza along the line, a living room like laboratory experiments (repeated experiments in people's lives) There is a possibility that you can practice something like Scandinavian Future Center, etc. Let's try new things more quickly and make it a place to polish, "Mr. Nomura said.

Through the project, Shibuya and other areas along the railroad area will be used as a field of demonstration experiments while aiming to implement university research socially.
▲ Location map of five universities centered on Shibuya
What kind of floor will the 15th floor, which is the activity base of "Shibuya SCSQ Innovation Project", become?

Although the specific floor composition, functions, design, etc. were not disclosed in this event, the main function of the new facility seems to have the following image. The most important emphasis is "a place where a diversity community can be found". A place where academies such as university officials, artists in Shibuya, IT, startup companies gather and various things can be discussed. Specifically, a space where dirty prototypes (simple prototypes) can be made more and more, a space that can support it, a space where such people can meet and interact with each other. In addition, we are planning to create a space where each space (function) can be organically mixed, with a space where studies can be presented, information can be input from the world, and space can be disseminated to the world.
▲ Part of the Special Zone Proposal submitted to the administration in 2013. Five years after initial proposal, it is studying to make floor including functions and roles according to the times.
Why do you need to be "Shibuya" as a base for industry-university collaboration innovation?

Keio University Graduate School of Media Design Graduate School of Media Design · Associate Professor Kota Nanzawa talks about the charm of Shibuya as follows. "Although it is also Halloween, it is Shibuya that is the first attempt in Japan in the beginning, something will happen in Shibuya, so it is natural that you should wake up in Shibuya, including the garbage problem etc. Naturally, Shibuya is a SANDBOX (sand box), making it like a sandbox, destroying it, making it and destroying ... .... It leads to innovation.The depth of the pocket in Shibuya It looks very attractive when we see it from university. "

Characteristics of Shibuya such as Halloween, year-end countdown, excitement of the World Cup of the Football that had been held until the previous day may be summarized in the word "diversity town" if it is considered positively, "chaos town" if it is taken negative . For good or bad, the "tolerance of the town" which can not be thought of in the Omemachi, Marunouchi, Yurakucho area is perhaps the fun and unique strength of Shibuya.

TomyK Representative TomyK, who supports "Tech Entrepreneur" and "University of Tokyo Venture", said, "Tomihisa Kamada will strengthen our spirit" Japan thinks unless innovation is born in Shibuya. 150 years since the Meiji Restoration, the population of Japan increased from 30 million people to 130 million people. According to the estimate by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the population has begun to decrease with a tremendous momentum since 2008, according to the estimate it is estimated that in 2006 the number will be reduced by approximately 50 million to 8.808 million. Furthermore, according to the average age (central age) by country by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2013, Japan is the oldest "45.9 years old", then Germany is "45.5 years old", Italy is "44.3 years old "Followed. Now, America and China that are innovating are about 37.4 years old, India is 26.4 years old very much. If that is the case, unless innovation is born in Shibuya where the youngest people in Japan gather, there is no longer Japan. "Just saying that the average age is young is enough for Shibuya."
▲ left) The University of Tokyo, Yoshi Ikeuchi Associate Professor Hori Right) Tokyo Institute of Technology Professor Senohiro
In addition to "tolerance" "average age", Professor Seno University of Technology Institute of Tokyo Institute of Technology explains the superiority of Shibuya.

"It is often said that three items of" hacker "," hustler "and" hip star "are necessary for startup.The Tokyo Institute of Science and Technology has rotten hackers, but there is no hustler and hip star. Although Hustler can manage somehow by accepting social students etc., the biggest problem is hip star, I think Shibuya supplements that part. "

Students of science and engineering who have many honor students may be bad at Shibuya. However, they expect that a new chemical reaction will occur by meeting hipsters in Shibuya.

There are several places where coexistence can coexist, such as co-working space and open innovation base also in Shibuya in Tokyo, now, can it really function really?

Regarding that point, Mr. Sawada Shin-ichi Shibuya Ward said, "In Shibuya-ku, interesting people from all over the world including WeWork to open in Iceberg, including edge-offs are gathering, but from now on we will create a place and" connect " In the old days, "networking", "making a platform" was important, but now it is content.What to do? It is requested to do something concretely I will strongly insist.

"In the first place, the university is not just networking, it is exactly what you are making the content. Parts of university overlap in this place, innovation has become materialized, funds gather, people gather, it becomes a solution We will solve the problem of ... ... "(Sawada Deputy Chairperson). It is said that not only "communication" but also "content" needs to be emphasized in new places.

Also Keio and Nanzawa Associate Professor continue this way.

"Although it is said to make 0 to 1 in the university, it is actually quite difficult, in fact it is only born as about 0.3, while the start-up company has set 0 to 1, 1 to 10, and 10 to 1000. If the university I think that it is impossible for the university to go outside and pull out 0.3 and take it to 1. As a result, I will start from university and lead to venture capital ... "

It seems to me that this Shibuya SCSQ project can be said to be one of the major roles of how the start-up can be linked with the "contents" of the university. Recently, "Kagaku Tuna" of Kinki University got a lot of attention, and as a result it became a university with the largest number of applicants in Japan, but "university departure venture" is not so easy.

Although it is said that the research level of Japanese universities is inevitable in the world, why is it that the university departure venture does not go well?

To this problem, Mr. Chiaki Hayashi, a moderator, makes this proposal.
"Excellent scientists do not necessarily become excellent managers. In Japan it is often said that" Start up! ", But I think that if you merge a professional management with a university-originated venture how about that"

Mr. Haruhiko Uchiyama of DBJ Capital says, "Among my experiences, the success rate of university-originated ventures is certainly low, in some cases money (which raises funds) is spent for writing papers, and in commercialization , I think that it is also important for professional management to suggest a suggestion to the teacher, "he agrees with the idea that researchers and professional managers form tags. Mr. Hayashi also says, "The difference between CEOs in Japan and the United States is that there are many double major in the United States. As Japan splits from science and science, management of science does not grow up, so five universities gather together So, what if you think that science students are seriously able to learn management? ", I hope that it will be a place to complement the shortcomings of Japanese university education system.
▲ left) Moderator · Chisaku Hayashi Central) Representative TomyK · Tomihisa Kamada left) DBJ Capital · Haruhiko Uchiyama
Mr. Kamada insisted that "Entrepreneurship is possible without technological progress, even if they are not professional managers," said Mr. Kamada, who said, "Professional managers are necessary." For example, by using the cloud funding "academist (academist)" specialized in acquiring research expenditure well, students can explain their research in Shibuya SCSQ in an easy-to-understand manner, and general people who agree with the research You can also collect donations from. In a sense, it explains that it was an era in which we can work on commercialization easily without stretching your shoulder elbows in a way that is close to your twist. Furthermore, "There is no need for anyone to aim for 1 trillion yen corporation." It is not always necessary to aim for Japan-style innovation and venture with modest humility like Japan, "necessarily necessitating the model of an American type unicorn company He expanded his opinion that it was not.

5 What is the challenge for the project by the university?

Shibuya SCSQ Innovation Project aims to bring students and companies, students and administrative organizations of other universities, which had few opportunities to meet so far, meet and get innovation and start up. However, encounters with people with different values are indeed very stressful. "Do students from science and engineering gather in Shibuya where they come out of the cozy university's laboratories and get stress and stress?" - In this event, such a fundamental question came out. To make unprecedented innovation, there is much less stress and it is natural, but it does not make sense if students gather in the first place.

As one solution, as an event "South By Southwest (SXSW)" which fuses music festival, film festival, interactive festival etc. to be held in Austin in the USA in March every year, "Adult school "Why do not you make a festival?" Certainly, each target launches a project with annual announcement place (festival), and if the response of the presentation is good, it leads to fund procurement and leads to startup .... It is going to be very interesting if it is possible to encourage such young researchers and to develop "innovation festival of industry-university collaboration" where business development is born. I would like you to realize the Japanese version of SXSW.
The first event that each stakeholder gathered for the opening of business in 2019. There was no concrete announcement on the facility outline this time, and I was not sure what kind of facility would be born. However, it seems that the stakeholders seemed to be able to see the contour while drowning, "what kind of open innovation is going to be realized" by each stakeholder at this place. I felt that I was listening to the voices of the teachers at each university that I watched this time, "I anticipate that you can supplement what you can not supplement alone in the university, in Shibuya." To bring about innovation, we need power to defeat the existing system, but for that we will surely have the young and excellent talent and the stimulus and destructive power of Shibuya that is not in the Oyamaru district .