Hive Shibuya courts foreign startups with Tokyo co-working space

As we heard from some of our guest speakers at Tech in Asia Tokyo 2015, Japan isn’t exactly renowned for its diversity. Startup CEOs and venture capitalists alike lament the ecosystem’s homogeneity, citing it as a barrier to overseas success for Japan’s entrepreneurs. To bring some diversity to the nation’s startup scene, Skyland Ventures and East Ventures have have partnered up to open Hive Shibuya, a co-working space primed to draw foreign startups and investors to Tokyo.

Located in Tokyo’s bustling Shibuya district, Hive Shibuya is a 250-square-meter space designed to accommodate more than 500 visitors each month. Major partners include Tech in Asia, PR Times, and IBM BlueHub, an accelerator run by IBM Japan.

Member startups – invitation only – will have access to engineering seminars, mentoring, matching services, and free press release service. For startups coming from elsewhere in Asia and even farther abroad, those perks could be the difference between success and failure in the Japanese market.

Kinoshita (center) orchestrates the breaking of the ceremonial sake cask on opening night.

More than 200 startup founders, VCs, and media people were in attendance at the September 7 kickoff party at Hive Shibuya. Skyland Ventures founder Max Kinoshita was on hand to break the ceremonial sake cask, sharing the honors with East Ventures partner Matsuyama Taiga. Kinoshita is optimistic about what Hive Shibuya will mean for Tokyo’s startup scene.

“We hope to make this the go-to spot in Tokyo for startups trying to go global,” he says. “This is our way of helping to establish Tokyo as an entrepreneurship hub.”