age of 78. the french born confectioner spent 27 years, serving five united states presidents. now on bbc news, the bbc�*s mariko oi travels across japan to see what impact new funding may have on tech and explores whether it has the potential to be asia's silicon valley. home of nintendo and the bullet train, japan was once a pioneer in innovation, but then fresh global competition emerged. i'm heading home to meet the next generation of entrepreneurs across a country where starting your own business wasn't always seen as an ideal career choice. for many areas, start—ups have kind of disadvantages injapan, but from now it'll be changed. the government is putting its weight behind this and has tapped into its huge pension fund, worth $1.5 trillion, hoping to increase the number of starters by ten fold over the next five years. they want to encourage a spirit of enterprise in every corner of the land. i've come to tokushima. it's a bit of a backwater, and hasn't got a reputation of being a thriving area. but it has been trying to reinvent itself as a place for start—ups, and in recent years, a local company has hit the jackpot by taking its new venture across the country. this little truck offers a lifeline to thousands of elderly who live in a remote area like this. it's a supermarket on wheels called tokushimaru, and it's named after the area. junichi kishimoto, one of the company's drivers, is making a regular stop in the small town of kamiyama. fewer than 5,000 people live there, and all of his customers are over 75. they no longer drive, so a service like this is not just crucial for their essentials, but also has a big impact on their social lives. translation: he remembers| what i want to buy every week. if my grandkids are coming on sunday, i request something special. it is nice to be able to chat with friends after my shopping. translation: oh, no, no, i cannot use a smartphone! i i have been shopping with them for five years because it is very helpful. the company was founded a decade ago. initially it only had two trucks in tokushima. today it's got more than 1000 of these on the road across japan, with annual sales topping $150 million. some of the customers live alone after their partners passed away so it is also a nice weekly bit of human interaction. forjunichi, joining the company was more about helping the elderly rather than picking up a wage. translation: | used - to work at a nursing home and i realised some residents came to live there because they were worried about their everyday food. so i wondered how i could help. that's when i found this company. the company's founder, tatsuya sumitomo, is a serial entrepreneur. he has decided to start up the venture after seeing his own parents struggle with their daily routine. translation: my parents, in their 805, lived in a ruralj area and they were really struggling to get hold of basic necessities. their neighbours were the same. but no one in the society was coming up with a solution. that's when i thought that this could be a good business. he's started many businesses over the past 30 years and has this piece of advice for younger entrepreneurs, firmly believing making mistakes was not necessarily a negative. translation: there is no point in increasing your knowledge - by reading books. you have to go to the field, to the real world. because it's really different from what you can learn at school. you need to fail, you have to struggle, you have to face difficulties and that is how you grow. the japanese government is playing catch—up with its economic rivals, when it comes to start—ups. recently, it announced that it would tap into the world's largest, $1.5 trillion pension fund to finance the scheme. under current law, 5% of the fund can be used for the new initiative. that is the equivalent of $75 billion. the plan wants to encourage more local companies to think big. but one of the main barriers to innovation might be japan's own lucrative domestic market of elderly customers. up until now they have not demanded cutting edge technology, but that is beginning to change. so will the likes of tokushimaru join the online revolution? the company is also moving with the times. at the moment all of the orders are in the driver's head but it is now testing out an app which it hopes will become available in the next two years. that means that the next generation of customers will have an option to order online. mr sumitomo is fully aware the company needs to go digital or risk being left behind by its rivals. translation: baby boomers in their late 70s will soon - become our customers. they have better internet literacy. so we're combining our mobile supermarket with online shopping. no matter how much technology is developed, our basic needs to eat and sleep don't change. there will always be customers who want to see fresh produce in person before making the purchase. so i do think there will be demand for our mobile supermarket. the senior citizens of kamiyama may prefer to pay cash for the moment, but this little town has big plans to innovate. like most rural areas injapan, the population has shrunk and aged as young people left for the cities. now it is about to welcome an influx of teenagers dreaming of running their own businesses. right behind me, they are building a brand—new boarding school, which is quite rare and ground—breaking. they are planning on opening in spring of next year, which they hope will produce the next generation of japanese entrepreneurs. the school is for 15— to 20—year—olds. it will costjust over 20,000 us dollars each year to attend. across the river there is an old abandoned school which is being refurbished into accommodation for the 200 plus students and staff. the man behind it is chikahiro terada. he's the boss of tokyo—based start—up sansan, which specialises in digitalisation of business cards. mr terada is not from here, so why did he choose tokushima, and this small town? translation: 12 years ago i set up a remote office - here because i heard that kamiyama is an interesting town with high—speed internet at old houses. mr terada paid a visit and met with local businessman shinya 0minami, who was behind this town's revival. translation: after sansan, others followed to set - up their remote offices in kamiyama. it was exciting to see the town being rejuvenated. i then wondered what else i could do to contribute back to society. that is when i thought, education. i became an entrepreneur after graduating from university but i don't recall learning any crucial skills i needed to start a business with at school, so that is what i wanted to address. the curriculum will include subjects such as engineering, programming, designing, as well as business skills like marketing. these potential students are here to attend the school's summer camp. translation: this school | is unprecedented and fits my purpose, that is why i chose it. where i live in kanagawa, it isn't very rich in nature, so i thought by coming here it will polish up my creativity. this school teaches everything from entrepreneurship spirit, i technology and art. i want to start my own business using ai and the latest - technology. there are also 50 entrepreneurs coming here as guest lecturers. i think that is very important for our students, to know that steve jobs, elon musk are normal people and that behind the new revolution is an ordinary person. there is no financial subsidies from the local government, but they gave us an abandoned school and a plot of land. we have also managed to raise $15 million from donations and through a local tax system. more than 30 companies are now behind us, mostlyjapanese, but also international ones like consultancy deloitte. in a country where most elite students have long aspired tojoin large corporates until recently, his ambitions plans have seen some big interest, with more than 500 students from all overjapan attending briefings to find out about the first a0 slots. translation: the japanese children's mentality - is definitely changing. the top—notch elite no longer want tojoin big corporations, they are more interested in started their own business. what they are doing here is exactly what the japanese government hopes to see, with start—ups and entrepreneurship popping up across the country. but the fact remains that japan is still playing catch up against its regional rivals and this changing mindset is not a quick fix. crucially, it is committed to a 50/50 ratio of boys and girls, which is a step in the right direction forjapan, where men still dominate the start—up scene and the workforce. mr terada is hoping to raise more funds so that future students can study for free. he believes that that is the sort of investment required to train a future generation of forward—thinking entrepreneurs if japan wants to succeed in competing with silicon valley. tokyo tends to get a lot of global attention, especially when it comes to tech start—ups. i am travelling on one of japan's most famous inventions, a bullet train, to another city that wants some of that spotlight. kyoto is the country's ancient capital, known for its centuries—old temples and shrines. but its biggest festival, gion, which started in the ninth century, is now going digital. this shows where all the carriages are. this is machi takahashi, who started this digital map business in 2015. this is a map that is dedicated to gion festival. can you tell me why this house is on your digital map? so this house is a preservation office for the major carriage of the gion festival. and this street gets really crowded on the day? oh yes, it gets very crowded in the city but it's really fun. so it is really important for us to find where the carriages are. this is where the business idea came to her — at kyoto's movie theme park. we wanted to show where users are. it was really hard to find yourself on, like, these objective maps. so how does it work? who pays you to be on the map, is it users or businesses? we don't charge users, we only ask the businesses to pay to use our service. it is an annual subscription, and these businesses are, like, developers, transportation, travels and also theme parks. because they have these maps that are already there, but they are analog, they are on papers, or on the signboards or on pdf on their website and they are not interactive, so they want us to make them interactive, digitised, with gps and up to date information. kiyomizu temple has always been a popular tourist attraction, but it is so crowded today, isn't it? i think it is the first time in three years that is so crowded. is that a relief for you and some of your clients? definitely. because of these visitors coming back, our clients are getting more of their business coming back. what about you being a female entrepreneur? because i have noticed that japan's start—up scene is still very much male dominated. have you faced more challenges when you wanted to raise money? what about you being a female entrepreneur? oh, yeah, definitely. when i started in 2015, thinking about starting my own business, it was more like, there were no women in this information technology field. so, i had to find my way into this community so that ifind vcs orfunding and all this support. so i had to actually contact someone in silicon valley instead of in japan. it interesting that you say you had to contact someone in silicon valley. you travel around the world, do you notice the difference between the japanese start—up scene and elsewhere? oh, yes, definitely. there are definitely more female leaders outside ofjapan who are visible in conferences or in, you know, this ecosystem. there are more vcs who are female or more government leaders who are female. but injapan there is hardly any support, especially for women, until very recently. but they just started working on that. if there is one piece of advice for young entrepreneurs, what would that be? jump into that ecosystem. it is very easy to get to know someone in that field. once you know someone it is a network and it is a great network that you need to expand your business. we have 10,000 maps... machi's success is an exception to the rule. one of the reason why female entrepreneurs like herfind it difficult to raise money is because only 1% of funds that lend money, known as venture capital firms, are run by women. kathy matsui is one of them, best known for her womenomics drive since the 90s, which has encouraged the japanese government to improve gender equality. she is still working on the same course, this time helping out a new initiative to increase the number of female politicians. she has also recently started a venture capital fund with two female partners. i would say the vast majority of entrepreneurs and founders we have met so far here injapan, not surprisingly, are male. when we think about start—ups and what are start—ups really trying to do, they are trying to use innovation, to create disruptive businesses, life changing technologies and if you are excluding half of the population from your potential talent pool as a start—up, you are already trying to run a marathon on one leg rather than two. if i think thatjapan has actually experienced quite a dramatic expansion in its venture start—up ecosystem in the last eight, nine years, we have also seen a visible shift in human capitalflow. i think the start—up ecosystem was perceived as, if you don't work at a big company, you can't fit in a big company, then this is plan b. in other words, not mainstream. but we're now seeing young people coming out of, say, investment banks or consulting firms thinking, "life's short, i want to do something on my own." while we see a lot more entrepreneurs and the entire ecosystem has grown something like sevenfold in the past seven or eight years, which is big, the absolute amount of money going into start—ups is still maybe 1/35th or 1/40th of that of the united states, despite japan being one of the biggest economies in the world, despite having amazing human capital talent, despite having tremendous abundant capital and despite having some leading edge technologies. to change that, japan's elite universities are also setting up their own venture capital firms, in part thanks to government funding. kyoto university has produced 11 nobel prize winners but it wasn't known for producing a lot of start—ups, and that is something the government wanted to change. today, a department dedicated to innovation is led by koji murota. in 2015, it received $300 million, along with three other universities. the funding allowed the university to set up two funds to invest in its own new ventures. since then the number of start—ups have more than doubled to 242, second only to tokyo university. kyoto specialises in deep tech, that is new technology that has a potential to change the world. this area requires a long time and a large amount of money. so, sometimes it a private investment company hesitates to enter the investment. one of the start—ups which received funding from the university is enecoat technologies. they're developing the next technology of solar cells, called perovskite solar panel, which can create energy, not just from sunlight but also from artificial light. they are also making this. look how thin it is! it is like a piece of paper. they are hoping to make it printable in the next three years, and they are also making it transparent. so it won't be as dark as this, and you can just put it on your window and create energy without blocking any sunlight. translation: our solar sheets have two sides, l one for sunlight and the other for artificial light. if we make both sides transparent, one sheet can generate energy from both sides. when ready, they are hoping that their solar sheets will have similar efficiency to a regular solar panel. translation: we hope to market them in three to four years - but to make them outdoors, we need to make them durable, for any kind of weather conditions. so that will take longer. this type of venture is exactly what kyoto university is about. they focus on providing long—term support for the latest innovation and are prepared to play the long game to get it right. we received a lot of support from kyoto university before we started our business. through their programme we received 30 million yen this year and after our company was founded the university venture capital gave us 500 million yen in total. that is a lot of money. for hard tech manufacturing business like ours, we struggle to raise money, but kyoto university's venture capital focuses on investing in companies like ours, so it matched what we needed. another start—up success story from kyoto university is this chip manufacturer, flosfia. it makes power semiconductors which use energy more efficiently and extend the life span of products such as electric cars. the company's chips are used everywhere, but a recent global shortage caused by the pandemic has suddenly put the company in the spotlight. kyoto university graduate toshimi hitora founded this company in 2011. translation: the mentality has changed drastically. _ kyoto's uniqueness is being small and yet diverse. kyoto university is at the heart of it and with so many researchers in our community, anyone can access what is needed to start a business. it has been ten years since we started our firm because deep tech takes time and people at kyoto understand this. 30 years ago, japan was a pioneer in the semiconductor industry, now it has less than 10% of the market share, despite having some of the world's largest tech companies. it's firms like this that the government hopes will lead the road to recovery. establishing a significant presence in the highly competitive semiconductor industry, dominated by south korea and taiwan, won't happen overnight. china and the us are also trying to put their stamp on the market, with washington spending some $280 billion on semiconductor production and research in order to reduce dependence on other nations. translation: semiconductors are needed globally. _ some governments may try to intervene to ensure the supply for their home markets. but it takes a long time to produce semiconductors. to mass produce them, we need a lot of stakeholders, a lot of companies in many countries. that is why the alliance with other companies is important. that is new innovation dealing with current world problems. japan is a country with a rich history. this 400—year—old dance called awa 0dori has found a way to go big outside of the tokushima area. it is now performed in other much bigger cities, like tokyo, every year. while somejapanese culture and traditions have gone mainstream globally, many businesses and recent start—ups still focus on the domestic industry. its lucrative home market is a blessing and a curse, as companies don't need to expand overseas to become profitable. but if japan wants to move on from relying on its past glory and catch up with its rivals, they too need to step out of their comfort zone. hello. the bank holiday weekend continues for most parts of the uk, and the dry weather continues for most, as well. but there will be some contrast in our weather fortunes through monday. the warmest and sunniest weather will be in the south and the west where you have some shelter from a keen north—easterly breeze, blowing around the area of high pressure centred to the north of us. along the northern and eastern coast where you are exposed to that breeze, well, there will be a lot of cloud, even some showers through the morning. and also a bit of showery rain first thing around some of these the irish sea coasts. much of that will tend to ease. through the day, we'll keep quite a lot of cloud across northern and eastern areas. more sunshine across western scotland, northern ireland, parts of wales, the south—west of england. there will be some showers around as well, blowing along this brisk breeze, but many places will avoid the showers and stay dry. as far as temperatures go, some north sea coasts only getting to 1a or 15 degrees. compare that with a possible 25 in parts of north cornwall and north devon. as we go through monday night, we will continue to see some areas of cloud across northern and eastern parts, giving a little bit of patchy rain here and there. clear spells further south and west. it remains fairly breezy. for most, that should hold the temperatures up — nine degrees for aberdeen, 13 for cardiff and plymouth. as we go through the week, we're going to see more dry weather. it may turn just a little bit warmer for some of us around the middle part of the week. there is the chance of rain later today, but some uncertainty about exactly who will see that. through tuesday, again, a lot of dry weather, a fair amount of cloud, particularly up towards the north—east. one or two showers further west. that's where you'll see the best of the sunshine. still quite breezy across eastern and southern areas. that breeze quite brisk, actually, through some english channel coasts. 2a degees for cardiff. further north in glasgow, a high of 18. looking deeper into the week, our area of high pressure looks set to retreat northwards. 0ne frontal system pushing in from the west and a showery low trying to drift up from the south. some uncertainty about how this will pay out but it does look like there is increasing chance of rain as we head towards the end of the week and into the weekend. but i suspect there will be places that don't see very much and stay predominantly dry. welcome to bbc news — i'm simon pusey. our top stories... a catastrophe on a scale never seen before — pakistan's foreign minister assesses the flooding that's swept across his country. mission to the moon — america prepares to test—launch a rocket, heralding a new era of space exploration. more palestinians face eviction and their homes destroyed by israel's army — the un says it could amount to a war crime. and tributes to roland mesnier, the veteran white house pastry chef who served five us presidents. hello.

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