Kazuo Sakurai

The Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ), a unique public-private partnership aimed at promoting innovation and enhancing the value of businesses in Japan, was launched in July 2009. Leveraging the rich history of Japanese technological prowess, the INCJ aims to provide financial, technological and management support in order to promote the creation of next-generation businesses through 'open innovation,' or the flow of technology and expertise beyond the boundaries of existing organizational structures. The INCJ will draw on funding as well as management and technological expertise from the public and private sectors. The INCJ is actively reviewing various investment opportunities in areas of environment and energy, electronics and IT, bio-tech, and infrastructure such as water supply, railway service, and nuclear power supply. Each investment will be thoroughly vetted to ensure it meets the exacting standards of the INCJ's Innovation Network Committee, which will make the final investment decisions. The INCJ is capitalized at 92 billion yen, with the Japanese government injecting 82 billion yen and 19 private corporations (refer to details in Appendix below) providing a further 10 billion yen. The government will also provide guarantees up to a total of 800 billion yen for INCJ investments, giving it an investment capability of approximately 900 billion yen (US$10 billion). The INCJ will be established for a period of 15 years.

Advanced Industrial Science & Technology is a research institute that focuses on solving social issues through the creation and practical use of technology. The private company is based in Tokyo, Japan. and has subsidiaries in Japan.

Part of Sosei Group Corp., Sosei Co. Ltd. is a world-leader in GPCR medicine design and development. The company is based in Tokyo, Japan. The Japanese company obtains and maintains intellectual property rights to protect its innovations and technologies.

Open Loop Inc. is engaged chiefly in human resources business. The Company operates through its four business segments: The Information Technology (IT) Security segment provides technical consulting services, deploys technical personnel as well as develops, maintains and sells IT security-related products and services such as licenses and technology-built in products. The General Outsourcing segment provides temporary staffing services and contracting of logistics-and-warehousing-related work for production plants, event sites, among others. The Sales Outsourcing segment deploys telecommunications agents, trainers, supervisors, etc. and undertakes call center and sales promotion work contracting. The Others segment is engaged in investment business. The company was founded on October 24, 1997 and is headquartered in Sapporo, Japan.

The Hokkaido Bank Ltd. provides banking services. Its operations are carried out through the following segments: Banking and Others. The Banking segment provides financial services, with focus on deposits and loans. The Others segment provides cash arrangement, credit card and credit guarantee services. The company was founded on March 5, 1951 and is headquartered in Sapporo, Japan.

Jitsubo Co., Ltd. researches, develops, and produces peptides. It operates as a peptide development company that provides solutions to patients using their proprietary technologies for manufacturing and engineering peptides. The firm specializes in peptide synthesis, which enables users to modify amino acid sequence for the creation of physical, chemical, and pharmacological properties. It also engages in development of peptide pharmaceuticals, licensing regarding active ingredient manufacturing technology for peptides, and peptide drug discovery research. The company was founded by Yusuke Kohno and Kazuhiro Chiba in 2000 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

SCOHIA PHARMA, Inc. is a drug discovery venture that focuses on lifestyle-related diseases. The company is based in Fujisawa, Japan. The Japanese company has a strong development pipeline and an experienced R & D team that specializes in drug discovery, including compound creation, drug efficacy evaluation, and clinical development. The CEO of the company is Masanori Watanabe.

Atonarp, Inc. provides chemical analysis solutions and systems. The firm develops the Smart Spectrometer technology that focus on industrial gas process analytics applications in the energy, pharmaceutical, petrochemical and semiconductor industries. The company was founded by Tomoyoshi Sato and Prakash S. Murthy in November 2009 and is headquartered in Minato-Ku, Japan.

KBI Biopharma, Inc. provides drug development and contract manufacturing services. It helps client partners accelerate and optimize drug development and manufacturing programs by offering an extensive suite of expert development and manufacturing services. The firm offers services to global pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, and academic and non-profit organizations. The company was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Durham, NC.

Mitsui & Co. Global Investment Ltd is a private Equity/venture Capital firm, a subsidiary of Mitsui & Co., Ltd. founded in 1996. The firm is headquartered in Tokyo.

Quantum Biosystems, Inc. is a holding company that develops single-molecule DNA sequencers. It develops and commercializes sequencers based on quantum mechanics. The company was founded by Toshihiko Honkura and Masateru Taniguchi on January 7, 2013 and is headquartered in Osaka, Japan.

Megakaryon Corp. operates as an pluripotent stem cells research laboratory. It produce platelets and red blood cells from iPS cell lines, and to develop blood products that do not depend on blood donations. The firm specializes in development of technologies to produce and store induced pluripotent stem cell derived human T cells. Megakaryon was founded by Genjiro Miwa on September 9, 2011 and is headquartered in Kyoto, Japan.

PRISM Pharma Co., Ltd. operates as a pharmaceutical company that focuses on discovery and development of small molecules to modulate protein-protein interactions. It utilizes protein secondary structure mimetic library, which modulates intracellular protein and protein interactions. The firm develops an anti-cancer drug CP/Catenin inhibitor PRI-724 that acts on both cancer cells and cancer stem cells that can switch from proliferation to differentiation. The company was founded by Hiroyuki Kouji on November 2, 2006 and is headquartered in Fujisawa, Japan.

Japan Medical Information Research Institute, Inc. engages in the collection, analysis, marketing, and consulting of medical information. The company was founded on July 14, 2005 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.

Fast Track Initiative, Inc. (FTI) is a Venture Capital firm, a subsidiary of Life Science Management, Inc. founded in 2004 by Koichi Ashida and Hiromichi Kimura. Fast Track Initiative, Inc. is headquartered in Tokyo with additional office in the Unites States.

Part of Bayer AG, Monsanto Japan Ltd. is a Japanese company that manufactures a wide range of genetically altered seeds, fertilizers, and agrochemicals. The company is based in Tokyo, Japan.

PROMETHERA Biosciences SA discovers, develops and commercializes cell therapy products to treat liver diseases. It operates as a pharmaceutical company that develops treatment based on allogeneic adult stem cell technology. The firm’s technology platform is based on a newly discovered cell type, isolated from normal human adult liver tissue: Heterologous Human Adult Liver Progenitor Cells (HHALPC). The company was founded by Etienne Marc Sokal and Eric Halioua on February 12, 2009 and is headquartered in Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium.