ENABLING STARTUP-DRIVEN MARITIME INNOVATION AND TRANSFORMATION TRADE 2.0 – JAPAN – Maritime Startup and Innovation Ecosystem Report A QUIET REVOLUTION Nick Chubb Leonardo Zangrando STARTUP-DRIVEN INNOVATION IS THE NEW DRIVER OF MARITIME TRANSFORMATION FOR AN ETHICAL, SUSTAINABLE AND PROFITABLE MARITIME BUSINESS 4 | TRADE 2.0 JAPAN | Startup and Innovation Ecosystem Report CONTENT Foreword 4 Executive summary 6 Foreword Introduction 7 Japan’s unique maritime advantage 8 Understanding Japan’s innovation We are delighted to be the key sponsor philosophy 8 Lateral thinking with withered of this report, which is the first of a technology 9 series of in-depth profiles into maritime Bringing Japanese innovation to maritime 10 technology and start-ups in a specific The maritime innovation country and builds on the excellent ecosystem in Japan 13 global Trade 2.0 report that we jointly Innovation driven by partnerships 13 Startups wanted 15 launched with the authors in 2019. Supporting homegrown innovation 20 Innovation outlook 22 Japan’s maritime technology market 22 Strategic opportunities for the industry 22 Conclusion 25 Methodology 26 Bibliography 27 Acknowledgements 28 Startup and Innovation Ecosystem Report | TRADE 2.0 JAPAN | 5 Inmarsat’s connections in Japan run long and The introduction of Fleet Xpress four years deep with a Land Earth Station run by our ago, has helped drive levels of connectivity partner KDDI having been operational since that have never been experienced before we formed in 1979. We have since continued bringing the age of the connected ship. to hold a number of longstanding and vital When we first announced our vision of Fleet partnerships with other key partners in the Xpress, our revolutionary, high capacity, country such as JSAT Mobile, JDC, AT global broadband network, nine years ago, Communications and Japan Radio Company many considered it a shot in the dark. At the (JRC), along with counting many of the time, satellite communications were leading shipowners as long-standing and considered to be something of a niche valued clients. industry operating at the periphery of the In 2016 we purposely expanded our Tokyo mainstream, terrestrial telecommunications office to enhance the support we offered the sector. Japanese shipping community as the digital But today we are living in a very different revolution in the maritime industry started to world, one in which satellite communications take off, with Japanese owners at the heart of have become an essential enabler of the the drive for automation, operational emerging global digital society. Satellite efficiencies and greener and safer shipping. connectivity offers unique, mission-critical Owners such as K Line, MOL and NYK that capabilities – reliability, resilience and, above have installed Fleet Xpress are now involved all, the power to deliver applications, such as in ground-breaking projects in operational those covered in the following pages, in data sharing, manned autonomous ships, and real-time and via an established ecosystem. decarbonisation. With our five Global Xpress satellites, and a And, we can’t forget that we are also relying further seven satellites planned by 2023 we on Japan to deliver the first slice of our future are adding additional capacity to the network, with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries launching as well as in-orbit redundancy that further our first I-6 satellite in 2021. upgrades the reliability and resilience of our Working together in partnerships (a theme services. This kind of augmentation will be a that is continuously highlighted in this report) consistent feature in the years to come, as we with companies both large and small will maintain the Fleet Xpress platform at the always bring the most benefits and it’s for cutting edge of innovation in collaboration that reason that we continue to enter with our partners, and continue to enable partnerships with innovative Japanese digital transformation in the shipping companies such as the one we entered this industry. year with Ship Data Centre (ShipDC), the Ronald Spithout data integration company set up by classification society ClassNK and those President, Inmarsat Maritime covered in this report. 6 | TRADE 2.0 JAPAN | Startup and Innovation Ecosystem Report Thanks in part to the keiretsu system of business groupings, much of Japanese innovation is driven by partnerships. Today, those partnerships extend Executive horizontally, outside the vertical keiretsu system and across competitive lines, including the E5 Lab, the Ship Data Centre, and the now shuttered Maritime Summary Innovation Japan Corporation. Recognising that corporate innovation can only go so far, the Japanese maritime industry is now also partnering with startups to explore new technology development. Japan has only a very small startup JAPAN’s maritime industry has been at the forefront ecosystem and so the industry is instead looking out of innovation for a century and a half. Through the to international startups to help them solve big second half of the 20th century, when Japan problems. Large corporations with interests in the became one of the world’s great exporters of industry including NYK Group, Weathernews Inc, consumer technology, the country also cemented its and Mitsui Group have all established joint ventures position as a leading maritime nation. Today, Japan outside Japan, either to develop specific is the world’s third largest economy, the third largest technologies or to engage and build relationships shipbuilding nation, and the second largest ship with local startups. owning nation in the world. The Japanese government is attempting to grow the Japan’s innovation philosophy stems from the local startup ecosystem too, putting together nation’s culture of high context, where relationships programmes to help them trade internationally, and are given as much importance as individual making it easier for foreign entrepreneurs to launch elements in a system. This has led to Japanese businesses in Japan. Along with government engineers being particularly adept at fusing support for startups, there is an opportunity for seemingly unrelated technology disciplines to create shipping companies and shipyards to invest in them. entirely new paradigms. This methodology gave the We know from other maritime startup hubs around world modern day robotics, autopilot, anti-lock the world that “smart money”, where investors have braking systems, and the Nintendo Gameboy. an innate understanding of the industry, is crucial to In the maritime industry, as the traditionally helping startups break into maritime. Internal analogue shipping fleet becomes increasingly projects are also a hugely critical part of the digital, the need to understand the relationships innovation ecosystem, particularly when it comes to between physical and cyber technologies has never addressing strategically important problems that been more important. This puts Japan at a natural need to be solved at scale. advantage over other countries where much of the Looking ahead, it is estimated that Japan’s maritime innovation of the last 30 years has been in software technology market, which is worth $8.8 billion alone. today, will grow to be worth $15.8billion by 2030. A Japanese shipping companies continue to make much faster growth rate than the maritime industry innovation a high priority. Unlike in much of Europe as a whole or the wider economy. Very few other and North America, where innovation is driven by maritime nations have both the technological startups and entrepreneurs, it is large corporate expertise and the industrial scale of Japan. This enterprises that are pushing the technological gives the country huge potential to develop and envelope. In the last five years all of the major implement technology that can enact real change; carriers have trialled and implemented new especially in operational data sharing, manned technology initiatives including computer assisted autonomous ships, and decarbonisation. and augmented reality navigation, a payments app Japan’s lack of startups has not held the maritime for seafarers, and AI driven collision avoidance industry back to date. But it is important to realise systems. that much of the net job creation in Japan over the last few decades has come from entrepreneurs or foreign enterprises. While Japan has an enviable position as a leading maritime nation, one of the keys to unlocking the growth potential of the technology sector is to better support local entrepreneurs and innovators. Combining support for entrepreneurs creating new ideas, with the scale of Japan’s current shipbuilding and ship operating industries could create a force for innovation that is unmatched in the world. Startup and Innovation Ecosystem Report | TRADE 2.0 JAPAN | 7 IN 1878, a steel hull ship was launched from a UK shipyard. The Hideyoshi Maru was ordered by a fledgeling Japanese shipping line. The ship was at the cutting edge of technology. It was the first ship in the world Introduction to be fitted with a three cylinder compound steam engine and had been commissioned to carry coal between Fukuoka Prefecture and Nagasaki Prefecture. Six years later, in 1884, a partnership was formed between 55 small shipowners, including the owner of the over the role startups can play in creating Hideyoshi Maru, to pool their resources and positive change across the shipping industry, investments, creating Osaka Shosen Kaisha it is Japan’s large corporate enterprises that (OSK) Line, the forerunner to Mitsui OSK are breaking