After his well-received lecture in June, Dr. Atsuhiro Nakagawa of Tohoku University Hospital was again invited to give an online lecture on 12 November to the participants of the “German Accelerator Japan Market Discovery Program” organized by the German government.

 

This was the second time for Dr. Nakagawa to be invited to take part in the program, in which four promising German healthcare-related startups are learning about ways in which they can expand their business into Asian countries, including Japan.

 

After an informative presentation in which Miyagi Prefecture introduced its attractive business environment, Dr. Nakagawa started by explaining the challenges that Japan and the world are facing, including low birth rates and aging populations, as well as people’s accessibility to healthcare.

 

Dr. Nakagawa also spoke about how connections can be made with the appropriate people in Japan, recommending those interested to join relevant programs such as Japan biodesign and to participate in Japanese networks for entrepreneurs. In addition, he introduced the Philips Co-Creation Center in Sendai and the Academic Science Unit at Tohoku University as potential collaboration opportunities.

 

Representatives from participating startups enjoyed lively discussions with Dr. Nakagawa, who possesses extensive knowledge and is a member of a wide range of networks in healthcare fields. All received meaningful advice as to how to progress to make the next step, and they will continue to discuss matters with Dr. Nakagawa.

 

JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization), which is working closely with an Accelerator program in Germany in the expectation that there will be further international collaborations and business development, organized and ran this lecture in cooperation with Tohoku University.

 

German Accelerator Program: https://www.germanaccelerator.com/

 

Participating startups:

apoQlar (AR&VR Software, Healthcare)

Healthcare X.0 (Healthcare IT, Digital Health)

Nordic Oil (Healthcare, e-Commerce)

Terraplasma medical (Medical Devices, Healthcare)