Nihonbashi Tokyo Becomes 10th Life Science Base with Goal to Promote Global Collaboration
GLOBAL LIFE SCIENCE HUB Opened in Nihonbashi Muromachi Mitsui Tower
Creating New Knowledge and Innovation for Life Science, Accumulator of Academic and Venture Capital from Japan and Overseas

December 14, 2020
Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd.
Life Science Innovation Network Japan

Tokyo, Japan, December 14, 2020 - Mitsui Fudosan Co., Ltd., a leading global real estate company headquartered in Tokyo, has been working with Life Science Innovation Network Japan (LINK-J) to build an ecosystem to create new industries in the life science sector. Recently, as one aspect of that, GLOBAL LIFE SCIENCE HUB opened on the 7th Floor of Nihonbashi Muromachi Mitsui Tower as a new base accumulating life science players not only from Japan, but globally. This base, which will become the base for Mitsui Fudosan’s life science, is the 10th base in Nihonbashi, Tokyo.

■Summary of this release

1. Global Life Science Hub, the 10th life science base in the Nihonbashi area of Tokyo with the goal to promote global collaboration, opens on the 7th Floor of Nihonbashi Muromachi Mitsui Tower
   Facility equipped to accommodate global needs, including English-speaking receptionists
2. Promoting life science innovation with a particular focus on accumulating academia from Japan and overseas
   Decisions to use the base from academia have been made by Tohoku University Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization, Tohoku University Head Office for Open Innovation Strategy and Tohoku University Knowledge Cast Co., Ltd. in Japan, and the University of California San Diego of the US from overseas
3. Performing as a place to connect seeds from academia with funding from venture capital
   Already three venture capital companies from Japan and overseas have become tenants (MedVenture Partners, Inc. and Healthcare Innovation Co., Ltd. from Japan and Newton Biocapital from overseas). Move forward on attracting more venture capital companies going forward to promote global collaboration

Mitsui Fudosan and LINK-J have linked various players in the life science domain and promoted innovation creation centered on Nihonbashi, Tokyo, by LINK-J’s “Community Building” and Mitsui Fudosan’s “Location Establishment” and “Capital Investment.” As one aspect of location establishment, life science bases have been set up in 9 places in the Nihonbashi area of Tokyo and in one location near the Doshomachi area of Osaka. Furthermore, as part of community building, efforts are being made to connect academia from Japan and overseas with life science groups in such ways as inviting to events life science players such as renowned researchers from places that have signed memorandums of understanding regarding collaboration such as UC San Diego, the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) and Oxford University Innovation and venture capital companies. Going forward, collaboration with overseas will be further strengthened and focus placed on promoting global interaction and collaboration among life science players including academia and venture capital.

By promoting global collaboration in the life science domain, Mitsui Fudosan and LINK-J will reinforce construction of an ecosystem and contribute to further creation within the life science domain.

Exterior view of Nihonbashi Muromachi Mitsui Tower

View of the facility interior and communication lounge

（1）The 10th life science base in the Nihonbashi area of Tokyo, with the goal to promote global collaboration

Mitsui Fudosan has advanced the Nihonbashi Revitalization Plan in unity with the private sector, public sector and local community under the development concept of “preserving and revitalizing the heritage while creating the future.” Mitsui Fudosan has advanced neighborhood creation to realize the vision of the Nihonbashi Revitalization Plan since in entered its 3rd stage from 2019, promoting three priority initiatives of river and waterside regeneration, a focus on tomorrow’s innovative industries and a vital and welcoming international stage under the development concept of understand, collaborate, communicate. Particular concentration is being made on the life science domain as an initiative for a focus on tomorrow’s innovative industries. From a base in Tokyo’s Nihonbashi, a neighborhood lined with medical wholesalers since the Edo period, Mitsui Fudosan has joined with LINK-J to create places and opportunities for innovation to assemble a wide array of players.

As one aspect of these activities Mitsui Fudosan has up until now established life science bases in nine places in the Nihonbashi area of Tokyo and a base in one location near the Doshomachi area of Osaka. The Global Life Science Hub to open on the 7th floor of the Nihonbashi Muromachi Mitsui Tower will be the 10th base in the Nihonbashi, Tokyo, area. It will be a facility equipped to accommodate global needs and include English-speaking receptionists, with the goal to promote global collaboration.

（2）Promoting life science innovation with a particular focus on academia from Japan and overseas

GLOBAL LIFE SCIENCE HUB will be a place to accumulate life science players, particularly among academia and venture capital companies from Japan and overseas.

Among domestic academia, decisions to use the base have been made by Tohoku University Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization, Tohoku University Head Office for Open Innovation Strategy and Tohoku University Knowledge Cast Co., Ltd. All organizations aim to create innovations with significant social impact and Nihonbashi has been positioned as a strategic base to promote participation by various players, including industries.

Moreover, for academia from overseas, this base is equipped with a function called an “open seat,” which enables it to be used in place of an office when people from overseas are on business trips. From overseas academia, UC San Diego has decided to use the base. Going forward, focus will be placed on attracting academia to promote life science innovation such as this.

Tohoku University Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization

The organization was established as an initiative to recover from the Great East Japan Earthquake. It builds future-style medical care and while striving to rebuild community medical care and supporting health in areas affected by the earthquake, built a biobank combining information on medical care and genomes and creates new medical care based on the results of analysis of that genome information to promote industry-academia collaboration, create employment in related fields and medical reconstruction.

Tohoku University Head Office for Open Innovation Strategy

Promotes formation of a “co-creation site (MASAMUNE-TOI) (tentative name)” as an on-campus base for companies’ activities and develops open innovation based on an original Tohoku University Business-University-Business collaboration model (an innovation ecosystem formation-type collaboration model with the university as a platform and multiple companies taking part).

Tohoku University Knowledge Cast Co., Ltd.

Aims to contribute to the creation of new social value through the fusion of Tohoku University’s various types of “knowledge,” including results of original research and industries’ innovative capabilities continually taking on the challenges of innovation to respond to environmental changes.

（3）Performing as a place to connect seeds from academia with funding from venture capital

Already three venture capital companies from Japan and overseas have become tenants Life Science venture capital companies that will become flagships are being invited to the project and more renowned venture companies will be sought in the future. The domestic venture capital companies are MedVenture Partners, Inc., which is vigorously engaged in activities to create innovative medical devices from Japanese ideas and technologies effective globally, and Healthcare Innovation Co., Ltd., which finds, invests, and grows as a “health care-related venture company paving the way for the future” to be a leader in the next-generation healthcare industry.

From overseas, the tenant is Newton Biocapital, which was established in Belgium and has invested with a concentration on biotechnology and life science projects related to prevention and treatment of chronic patients in Japan and the main countries of the European continent. The plan is to increase overseas tenants in the future as well for the inflow of overseas capital and to promote the development of overseas biotech in Japan.

Attracting more academia and venture companies from Japan and overseas will continue progressing to promote connection of seeds from academia with funding from venture capital.

Details of GLOBAL LIFE SCIENCE HUB

GLOBAL LIFE SCIENCE HUB is equipped with facilities to facilitate interaction inside and outside the organization, and eventually within Japan and overseas, and will function as a place to connect to the creation of new knowledge and innovation centered on life science. LINK-J’s events and programs will be set up to provide opportunities for academia and venture capital companies from Japan and overseas to interact. LINK-J member tenant companies can use other life science bases and also take part in the various types of events and programs that LINK-J provides.

■Communication Lounge

• Function as a place for interaction, where tenants and J-LINK members can freely exchange opinions regardless of research field or affiliation
• Available for short meetings or work and can be reserved by tenants for informal gatherings or parties
• Tokyo and Osaka can be connected simultaneously, making it like a conference room

■Conference Room

• Tokyo and Osaka can be connected simultaneously, be used as for events that are a hybrid of participants with an online and physical presence and functions as a place for communicating information
• Can be used for a variety of different types of business situations, including results announcements
• Maximum capacity of 70 people (110 maximum if used in theater format), tenants can make priority reservations

■Meeting Room

• Can be used only by tenants, with 5 rooms from 8-people to 12-people rooms
• Some rooms are equipped with a teleconference system, enabling meetings with distant bases
• Plans are to equip one room to enable it to hold telephone conferences

Meanwhile, equipment has been prepared for use in a variety of scenarios with equipment needed for business such as office furniture and Wi-Fi preset, and options ranging from a personal booth, which can be chosen responding to the size of a group, through to open desks, which can be used from a single desk and utilized flexibly in a variety of situations, and open seats that enable interactions about cutting-edge expertise and knowledge among people from academia within and outside of Japan.

Personal Booth

Open Desk

Open Seat

Floor plan

Click illustration to enlarge

■ Life Science Innovation Network Japan (LINK-J)

LINK-J is a general incorporated association established by Mitsui Fudosan and mainly volunteers from industry and academia. Based in the Nihonbashi area with an aggregation of pharmaceutical-related companies, LINK-J promotes open innovation in the life science domain through collaboration between industry, the public sector and academia, and has the objective of supporting new industry creation. It promotes untethered interactions among humans, technologies, businesses and more in the life science domain, which is a mixture of many types of scientific domains including medicine, science, engineering and new technologies such as ICT and artificial intelligence.
https://www.link-j.org/

■Initiatives for Industry Creation in Nihonbashi

Mitsui Fudosan is currently promoting the Nihonbashi Revitalization Project, a joint public-private-community initiative on the concept of " preserving and revitalizing the heritage while creating the future " that began in 2004 with the opening of COREDO Nihonbashi. The project has promoted the diversification of urban functions and greater urban vitality through mixed-used redevelopment. In 2019, Mitsui Fudosan announced the 3rd Stage of the Nihonbashi Revitalization Plan following completion of construction on the Nihonbashi Muromachi Mitsui Tower. In the 3rd stage, based on an "understand, collaborate, communicate" approach to neighborhood creation, Mitsui Fudosan will promote the three priority initiatives described as river and waterside regeneration, a focus on tomorrow’s innovative industries, and a vital and welcoming international stage to realize the vision of the Nihonbashi Revitalization Project.
From these, for a focus on tomorrow’s innovative industries, Mitsui Fudosan will invigorate open innovation, continuing in the future to attract players on the stage of the district of Nihonbashi where the mindset of co-existence and helping each other has long existed.
Adding life science to the local industry of Nihonbashi where medicine wholesalers have long prospered, Mitsui Fudosan will support the growth of industry from both hard and soft aspects to lead to joint creation in the space sector and other fields under the X-NIHONBASHI Project that has made its full-scale start.

■Mitsui Fudosan Life Science Innovation Promotion Project

Mitsui Fudosan regards the creation of new industries for a broader business area as an important strategy. By sharing knowledge, technology, and assets with key players such as startups, universities, seeds, hospitals, and major pharmaceutical companies, Mitsui Fudosan is pursuing research and development that goes beyond industry boundaries and is creating an ecosystem of communities, creating venues, and providing capital to that end, and in turn driving innovation in the life sciences.

• Building a communities
  LINK-J aims to promote open innovation and build a ecosystems in the life sciences. To facilitate this, LINK-J hosts projects for “interaction and cooperation” as well as “training and support”. As of December 2020, LINK-J has 471 members, and conducted 518 interaction and cooperation in 2019.
• Developing sites
  Mitsui Fudosan will prepare physical spaces for constructing ecosystems that will promote the creation and growth of new industries through innovation. In addition to rental labs and offices, the Company has developed a series of 11 life science buildings centered on the areas of Nihonbashi and near Doshomachi in Osaka, with GLOBAL LIFE SCIENCE HUB the 10th base in the Nihonbashi area of Tokyo. Since setting up these bases, 129 new tenants have gathered in the Nihonbashi area.
• Providing Capital
  Mitsui Fudosan makes limited partner investments to further accelerate the creation of new industries by enabling the commercialization of a greater number of sophisticated technological seeds at universities and research institutions and supporting life science venture companies.

■Mitsui Fudosan Group’s Contribution to SDGs

https://www.mitsuifudosan.co.jp/english/corporate/esg_csr/
The Mitsui Fudosan Group aims for a society that enriches both people and the planet under the principles of coexist in harmony with society, link diverse values and achieve a sustainable society, and advances business with an awareness of the environment (E), society (S) and governance (G), thus promoting ESG management. By further accelerating its ESG management, the Group will realize Society 5.0, which the Japanese government has been advocating, and contribute significantly to achieving the SDGs.

* The initiatives covered in this press release are contributing to four of the UN’s SDGs.