Investing in Japan

Regional Information

Toyama

Building a shining, prosperous future together!

Your Regional Guide: Makoto Kawauchi

Toyama Pref. Concierge

Industrial Location & Trade Division, Toyama Prefectural Government
1-7 Shinsogawa, Toyama-city, Toyama Prefecture 930-8501
TEL: +81-76-444-3400 FAX: +81-76-444-8753

Basic Information
Regional Profile
Services for investment in Japan
Available incentives
Living environment for foreigners
Links to Related Websites

Basic Information

Population	1.11 million (Male: 0.535 million, Female: 0.575 million) (2007)
Labor force	0.70 million (Male: 0.35 million, Female: 0.35 million) (2007)
Area	4,247km² (2007)
GDP	46,807 million yen (2005)
Major industries	Aluminum, machinery, pharmaceuticals, plastics, electronic components
Developing industries	Same as above. In recent years there has been an increasing concentration in IT-related industries. Also, there is a push underway to promote new industries such as biotech and deep sea water.
Offices overseas	Dalian, China
Offices in Japan	Tokyo/Osaka/Nagoya
JETRO office	JETRO Toyama Joho Bldg. 2F, 527, Takata Toyama-city, Toyama Prefecture 930-0866 TEL: +81-76-444-7901 FAX: +81-76-444-7903 E-mail: toy@jetro.go.jp

Regional Profile

Strength of the region's industries and economy

In recent years, chemical and machinery-related corporations have been developing new business within Toyama in the area of electronic materials, and a number of outside companies have been moving into the prefecture. Currently, Toyama has the No. 1 industrial concentration along the Sea of Japan.

Strength of the region's education/research institutes

Six universities (one comprehensive university, one humanities university, one science and technology university, and one junior college), two science-oriented technical colleges, and three polytechnic colleges

Industry-government-academia collaboration

Cultivation of pharmaceutical and new biotech-related industries: Toyama has a pharmaceutical history that extends back more than 300 years and offers one of the most developed pharmaceutical industry clusters along the Sea of Japan. In addition, this pharmaceutical strength is being used to help cultivate new biotech-related industry in the prefecture. Centered on universities and in collaboration with local testing and research institutions, companies and government bodies, the prefecture’s industrial potential, developed over the years with Japanese, Chinese and Western medicine, is being put to use in building Toyama’s research functions and industrial concentration in biotech-related industries.
Comprehensive support for business creation and expansion into new fields: Toyama offers meticulous support for every stage of business creation and expansion into new fields, from the cultivation of entrepreneurs to support for sales channel development and financing. Specifically, the prefecture has a solid support system in place, manifested in the Toyama Kigyo Mirai Juku [Toyama Entrepreneurship School], the “trial order system”, subsidies for new company/venture creation, etc. The prefecture’s small and medium-size business support center (Toyama New Industry Organization), regional collaboration development centers (six locations in throughout Toyama), prefectural industrial technology center, and comprehensive design center all provide comprehensive consultations for topics such as management and technological development.

Strength of the region's infrastructure

As a center of exchange for Northeast Asia, Toyama maintains air and sea routes with countries around the Sea of Japan through Toyama Airport and Port Fushiki-Toyama.

<Land>

Four hours and 50 minutes to Tokyo/Four hours and ten minutes to Osaka/Three hours to Nagoya

<Air>

Toyama Airport (Tokyo, Sapporo, Seoul, Vladivostok, Dalian, Shanghai)

<Sea>

Specially-designated Port Fushiki-Toyama (international trade port)
One of only two specially-designated ports in Japan along the Sea of Japan.
Regular container routes maintained with China, Korea, Russia (only one on the Sea of Japan side).
18 berths with a large pier extending below 10m.

<Railway>

Two hours and seven minutes to Tokyo (after the completion in 2014 of the Hokuriku shinkansen (bullet train) line)
Three hours and seven minutes to Osaka
Two hours and fifty-five minutes to Nagoya

Foreign company(s) operating in the industry

Company name	AIU Insurance Company
Industry sector	Accident insurance
Date of entry	March 2004
Motivation for selecting region	High resident royalties
Comments	The AIU insurance company branch office in Toyama handles telephone enquiries from customers; operations at this branch have grown steadily. One reason for the success of AIU in Toyama has been the local residents’ strong desire to learn and their persistence. Specifically, it is their truly enthusiastic efforts to learn the complex, specialized details of AIU insurance and other job knowledge. Already, many of the locally hired Toyama staff have been promoted to managerial and specialist positions. Thanks to the results that AIU has achieved in Toyama, in 2007 it was decided that a portion of the contract management duties carried out by the AIU headquarters would be delegated to a center in Toyama employing over 300 people; this center will be the second largest such operations base outside of Tokyo.

Services for investment in Japan

Menu of services	Fees charged?	Content of services
Support for establishing a base
Listing of potential customers and partners	No	Interpreting is needed during consultations.
Support for establishing a base
Providing incubation facilities or other facilities	Yes	Incubation facilities within Toyama can be utilized for a fee. Foreign firms are also welcome (interpreting is needed during consultations).
Providing information on procedures for investing in Japan	No	Interpreting is needed during consultations.
Arranging the meetings needed to establish a base (real estate, manpower services)	No	Interpreting is needed during consultations.
Introduction of available properties and advice on hiring personnel	No	Interpreting is needed during consultations.
Providing information on permits and licensing procedures	No	Interpreting is needed during consultations.
Providing information on subsidy programs	No	Interpreting is needed during consultations.

Support service

A number of industry support facilities are located in Toyama, including the Toyama Industrial Technology Center (which carries out materials-related, lifestyle-related product, and mechanical electronics-related research), the Toyama Industrial Development Center (which provides support for the information and design industries), the Toyama Institute of Information Systems (which provides support for information and communications-related industries), and the Toyama New Industry Organization (which offers comprehensive technology, management and information-related consultation facilities). These facilities carry out their own independent research and development as well as provide total support for corporate activities, such as joint research tailored to the type and scale of business, technological consultations and human resource development.

Available incentives

Subsidies for plant, etc., relocation or to assist with land, building and equipment investment costs during expansions → up to 5 billion yen
Subsidies for research facility relocation or to assist with land, building and equipment investment costs during expansions → up to 5 billion yen
Subsidies for hiring new employees to work in natural science research facilities, etc. → up to 100 million yen

Living environment for foreigners

Living environment	Comfortable living No. 1 nationwide in terms of home ownership and home floor space, and possessing good social capital, such as roads, coupled with a low number of natural disasters, Toyama enjoys a high standard of living standard that puts it amongst the best living environment in Japan. In addition, Toyama’s working households have some of the highest average incomes, have a high number of dual income households, and have a high percentage of working women, making Toyama a wealthy prefecture in terms of household finances. Toyama residents are hardworking with strong ties to their families and communities and are also eager to learn about new things.
Health services catering to foreigners	Refer to the “Toyama Emergency Medical Information System; Information on Medical Institutions offering Medical Services in Foreign Languages”
Other	The Toyama International Center offers has staff available to help with daily living issues; English, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Korean and Urdu-speaking staff are available for consultations. Also, there are radio programs offered in five languages; these programs seek to raise disaster-prevention awareness and to provide useful daily living information as well as play popular music from different countries.