National Knowledge Manufacturing Industry Conference 2025 on 4/18】Keynote Session "Why All Small and Mid-Sized Companies Should Expand into Southeast Asia" will be held.

Lifeness Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo; Representative Director and Group CEO: Yukihiro Maru) will host the National Knowledge-Based Manufacturing Conference 2025 on Friday, April 18, 2025. As part of the conference, a keynote session titled “Why All Mid-Sized and Small Companies Should Expand into Southeast Asia” will be held.

With mid-sized and small businesses expected to make significant strides these days, initiatives to expand their reach beyond Japan to overseas markets are attracting a great deal of attention. In this session, Mr. Kumamoto—a director of the “RealTech Global Fund II” (managed by UntroD Capital Asia), which specializes in investing in and nurturing global deep-tech startups primarily in Southeast Asia—will serve as moderator. The session will feature three companies that, despite being core regional enterprises with over 100 years of history, we have invited three companies—each a regional pillar with over 100 years of history—that are seeking to deepen their partnerships with Southeast Asian startups to create new business ventures. We will discuss the overseas strategies of these mid-sized companies, exploring why they are turning their attention to Southeast Asia and strengthening ties with local startups, what approaches they are taking to achieve this, and what they envision for the future.

speaker

Mr. Toyohisa Yamada, President and CEO of Yamada Shokai Holdings Co., Ltd.
In March 2004, he graduated from the Department of Chemical Systems Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo, and joined Yamada Shokai Co. After serving as Executive Vice President in September 2004, he was appointed President and Representative Director in May 2008.

KOBASHI HOLDINGS Co., Ltd. President and CEO Shojiro Kobashi
Born in Okayama, Japan in 1982, Mr. Kikuchi has been a manufacturer of agricultural machinery since its establishment in 1910. 2017 saw the reorganization of the KOBASHI Group to establish KOBASHI HOLDINGS Corporation, where he was appointed President and Representative Director. Under the philosophy of "Cultivating the Earth," he applies the knowledge and technology he has cultivated over the past 100 years to solve global issues. In 2020, he also established KOBASHI ROBOTICS Corporation and launched "Manufacturing Booster," which provides comprehensive support for start-up manufacturing. The company aims to implement technologies that solve global issues into society as early as possible.

Mr. Kengo Suzuki, Representative Director, Tsunan Brewing Co., Ltd.
Ph.D. (Agricultural Sciences)/Ph.D. (Medicine). In 2005, while a student at the University of Tokyo, he was involved in the founding of Euglena Co., Ltd. and, as one of the co-founders, has served as the head of research and development to the present day. His work focuses primarily on technological development related to the large-scale cultivation of Euglena, a type of microalgae. He earned his Ph.D. in Agricultural Sciences from the University of Tokyo Graduate School in 2016 and his Ph.D. in Medicine from Kitasato University Graduate School in 2019. He currently serves as Team Leader of the Algal Resource Upcycling Research Team at the RIKEN Institute; Visiting Professor at the Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia; Specially Appointed Professor (Visiting) at the Tohoku University Graduate School Program for Excellence in Future Medicine; and Visiting Professor at Gadjah Mada University. In 2023, he was appointed Director and CFO of FARM8 and Representative Director of Tsunan Brewing Co., Ltd.

Mr. Daiki Kumamoto, Director of UntroD Capital Asia Pte. Ltd. (Moderator)
He graduated from the Faculty of Policy Management at Keio University. In 2019, he joined UntroD Capital Japan—which manages the RealTech Fund—as its first new graduate hire and serves as a Growth Manager. While overseeing ventures that apply innovative technologies in the welfare and long-term care sectors in Japan, he has also served as the lead for the “Global Fund,” which invests in deep-tech ventures in Southeast Asia, since 2020. In 2023, he was appointed to the board of directors of UntroD Capital Asia.

Tickets are now on sale

If you are interested in the realization of the knowledge-based manufacturing industry, please be sure to attend.

Overview

Date and Time: Friday, April 18, 2024

Venue: Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Trade Center, Hamamatsucho Building, 4th Floor, Exhibition Hall (Tokyo Port City Takeshiba, 1-7-1 Kaigan, Minato-ku, Tokyo)