Did you know that Hokkaido is a SpaceTech cluster?
Currently S-Booster 2022, a business idea contest for SpaceTech startups is accepting applications and it is due on the 20th of June — one week to go!
Apply from here 🚀https://s-booster.jp/en/2022/
S-Booster 2022
This business idea contest is led by the Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, and co-organized by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) and NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development).
This contest specifically targets ventures, individuals, and businesses in different industries in Japan and the Asia-Oceania region that aim to commercialize their business ideas utilizing “space”, and the businesses utilizing space is not limited to rockets, satellites and commercial space stations, but includes businesses on the ground utilizing space assets such as satellite data and technology are eligible.
Market size of SpaceTech industry
As we featured on our article on August 16th, 2021, the current market size is expected to be around 1.2 trillion JPY in total (400 billion JPY amongst industries manufacturing rockets and satellites, and 800 billion JPY amongst businesses that use satellite data). With the space industry vision 2030 that the Cabinet Office announced, the market size is expected to double by 2030.
Why Hokkaido?
Taiki is a town located about 250km away from Sapporo, and by fiscal 2025 this small town is planning to complete a “Hokkaido Spaceport” rocket launch facility.
(reference : Mainichi Shinbun, May 30th, 2021)
Hokkaido Space Port (in short, HOSPO), the first global commercial spaceport in Asia will enable all players including private sectors, universities, research institutions and governments to use the Hokkaido Spaceport’s rocket launch site, experimental facilities, and runways.
SPACE COTAN Co., Ltd. is managing HOSPO, and since the launch in 2021 it developed HOSPO SUPPORTERS, a community that empowers HOSPO and collaborate together in order to support the global space business industry as a infrastructure.
After the success of rocket launch in 2019 by Interstellar Technologies, Hokkaido started accelerating the support for SpaceTech industries.
These remarkable initiatives all started in the last few years, but Hokkaido has been striving for creating a Super Cluster for the past two decades.
In the article published in 2008, David W. Edgington stated that
METI has also encouraged cluster development organizations elsewhere in Japan. In the northern island of Hokkaido, a Super Cluster Project has been formed to promote biotechnology and information technology (IT) industries. …
… The Hokkaido project has a wider area and networked character involving 16 universities, five public research institutes, and nearly 300 companies in four non-contiguous locations within the prefecture.
With the effort of Hokkaido in collaboration with the Cabinet Office, Government of Japan, and co-organized by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development) and some of the leading SpaceTech companies like SPACE COTAN & Interstellar Technologies, what’s going to happen next?
The Frontier Spirit in Hokkaido will keep accelerating the support initiatives and community building!