This accelerator wants to encourage Japanese entrepreneurs – by taking them to Silicon Valley

Women’s Startup Lab founder and CEO Ari Horie with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Silicon Valley in April.

When Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe visited Silicon Valley in April, he told reporters of his desire to capture the region’s dynamism. As part of his new pro-innovation push, Abe intends to send 30 Japanese entrepreneurs to the Bay Area to pitch ideas at America’s top investors. Women’s Startup Lab founder and CEO Arie Horie, who hosted a dinner for Prime Minister Abe during his stay, was already working on something similar – an accelerator for Japanese startups, held in Menlo Park.

The Japan X Accelerator Program will take place from July 26 to August 8. Up to 12 Japanese startups can join for a fee of US$10,000 and will spend the two weeks in an intensive, all-English environment. Unlike Women’s Startup Lab’s other accelerator programs, Japan X will be open to both men and women. Horie has lined up mentors and advisors for the startups to work with, including Evernote founder Phil Libin, SunBridge Global Ventures CEO Allen Miner, and GoogleX head of consumer marketing Obi Felton.

Horie admits that she originally saw no use in a two-week accelerator, but decided to give it a shot with WSL’s accelerator for women. The results, she says, were staggering.

“We as founders are trained to BS, always saying we’re killing it,” Horie concedes. “But because of the speed and intensity of the shorter program, people let go of the garbage a lot faster. In that amount of time, they’re forced to admit when they have to pivot.”

Importance of women on teams

WSL will receive no equity from participating startups, and will consider accepting fee payment in installments if it means getting the right groups to join. The goal of this program, says Horie, is to expose Japanese entrepreneurs to Silicon Valley and inculcate in them the best of its values. First on the agenda – demonstrating the importance of having women on the team.

Horie feels that Japanese entrepreneurs share many of the same strengths and struggles that have characterized Silicon Valley’s women. In that regard, Horie believes that Women’s Startup Lab, which counts Swing By Swing founder Monique Gigy and Cognea founder Liesl Capper among its alumni, could be just the organization to galvanize the Japanese startup scene.

Ari Horie of Women’s Startup Lab.

“You can take a Japanese startup and throw them into Silicon Valley, and they’re not going to know how to behave right away. Japanese people say ‘sorry’ all the time. But just like with women, we can teach them how to effectively express themselves while honoring their intentions.”

Though current plans are limited to a coed program, WSL hopes to launch programs for Japanese women in the future. Stars like DeNA founder Tomoko Namba and Wantedly founder Akiko Naka have accomplished a lot, but Horie says there’s still a long way to go for Japanese women in tech.

“If I’m asked to point to successful Japanese female entrepreneurs, I have to think about it in terms of who we would choose in Silicon Valley,” she says. “There are one or two who have really become ‘it’ — but is that the role model we want to create, or do we go across the board and recognize women entrepreneurs by category?”

Applications for Japan X are open until July 17, and WSL will hold and online information event on Saturday, June 27.