Why are so many Japanese investors coming to Southeast Asia? (#StartupAsia preview)

Japanese venture capitalists have been flocking to Southeast Asia in the past couple of years. To give you a sense of how rapid their expansion is, here’s a list of new Japanese funds that have launched recently to invest in the region:

July 2014: Rakuten Ventures’ $100 million fund for Asia, United States and Israel

June 2014: Cyberagent Ventures’ $50 million fund for Asia

June 2014: Softbank’s $20 million fund for the Philippines

May 2014: Softbank’s $50 million fund for Indonesia

May 2014: Gree Ventures’ $50 million fund

May 2013: Rebright Partners’ new fund in Southeast Asia

March 2014: East Ventures’ new fund for Southeast Asia

April 2013: IMJ Investment Partners’ new fund in Southeast Asia

To unpack the motivations behind this wave of investor interest, we have a panel discussion at Startup Asia Tokyo entitled “Why are Japanese investors investing in Southeast Asia?” which will involve four speakers: Batara Eto, co-founder and managing partner at East Ventures (Disclosure: East Ventures has invested in Tech in Asia. Read our ethics page), Tatsuo Tsutsumi, partner at Gree Ventures, Tommy Matsuo, director of Transcosmos Thailand, Yasuhiko Yurimoto, founder and CEO at Global Brain, and Yuji Horiguchi, CEO at IMJ Investment Partners.

Akio Tanaka, co-founder and managing partner at Infinity Venture Partners, will moderate the session. It will be conducted in Japanese, but instant English translation will be made available.

Startup Asia Tokyo 2014 is on September 3 and 4. Unlock secret level using code .

9月3日と4日にスタートアップアジア東京を開催します！割引コード を使ってみて下さい！