SPOTLIGHT ON KANAGAWA CAREERS Kanagawa hosts a concentration of heavy industry. A smart place to work Cheap housing, close proximity to Tokyo and a burgeoning research ecosystem are thrusting the ancient prefecture of Kanagawa into the modern world. BY BRETT DAVIS iven its ready access to the economic of heavy-industry and manufacturing “I think this shows how attractive this area has juggernaut of Tokyo, it would be easy organizations. The region was the industrial become for global R&D,” Hasimoto says. to imagine next-door Kanagawa and powerhouse of Japan’s rapid recovery after the Kanagawa claims more than 60,000 research Gits metropolitan area of Yokohama–Kawasaki Second World War, but it has now evolved a staff, a full 50% more than in Tokyo. They to be little more than a satellite ‘bed town’. But new character, driven by the promotion of an work in more than 1,000 research facilities, the region is very much a destination in its own innovative R&D culture and attractive incen- and many are in the prefecture’s 40 universi- JTB PHOTO/UIG VIA GETTY JTB PHOTO/UIG right — a rich ecosystem built on a pairing of the tives for international investment. ties. They include some of Japan’s foremost industry and research and development (R&D) “Kanagawa has the largest pool of research- institutes: the RIKEN Yokohama Campus, for which Japan is renowned. ers in Japan,” says Tōru Hashimoto, executive the Yokohama Institute for Earth Sciences, Kanagawa is the second most populous director of development cooperation for Yoko- the New Energy and Industrial Technology of Japan’s 47 prefectures, and home to the hama City Government. “We have so many Develop ment Organization, the Tokyo Insti- nation’s second largest city, Yokohama. The research labs and institutes, and a real environ- tute of Technology and Keio University. region stretches along the coast of the coun- ment of innovation.” Hashimoto points to the try, from the south of Tokyo to the foot of technology giant Apple as a beneficiary of that INNOVATION BY DESIGN Mount Fuji (see ‘Centre of an island’). The environment. In 2016, the world’s most valuable Kanagawa receives the obvious rewards that bayside area forms what is known as the company established one of its first R&D cen- come from hosting so many research institu- Keihin region — Japan’s largest concentration tres outside the United States in the prefecture. tions. It is part of the Yokohama–Tokyo ©2017 Mac millan Publishers Li mited, part of Spri nger Na21/28ture. All riDECEMBERghts reserved. 2017 | VOL 552 | NATURE | S107 CAREERS SPOTLIGHT ON KANAGAWA region, the world’s most prolific and create centres of employment, innovation centre. More than 94,000 CENTRE OF AN ISLAND collaboration and innovation. Since patents were filed from the region in Kanagawa — one of Japan’s 47 prefectures — then, successive governments have 2011–15, double the number from hugs the coast to the south of Tokyo in the actively nurtured this environment. runner-up Shenzhen–Hong Kong country’s central Honshu island. The most prominent of these dis- and three times more than from tricts, Minato Mirai 21, now forms third-placed Silicon Valley. the vibrant central business centre This culture is fed by the leading of Yokohama. industrial firms that call the region home — including engineering CLUSTERS SPEED UP RESEARCH giants Nissan and Bosch, computer A region with so many R&D manufacturers Fujitsu and Toshiba SEA OF JAPAN institutions is bound to form and chemical companies Shiseido research clusters with a specific and Takeda Pharmaceutical. These scientific focus, and Kanagawa TOKYO and hundreds of other engineering boasts many. Two of the largest are and technology firms are spurring Yokosuka Research Park, with its a new culture for research labs and concentration of leading wireless and creating a healthy environment of mobile-communications companies, collaboration between research and Kanagawa Science Park, which and engineering. “In recent years, YOKOHAMA spans a wide a range of sectors. we have made a deliberate and very R&D enterprises in the region careful conversion from a man- benefit from a multitude of eco- ufacturing-dependent economy nomic incentives and support, to one that is very much focused including various incubation and on research and innovation,” says innovation platforms. For example, Hashimoto. “This has resulted in a KANAGAWA the Keihin area has been designated remarkable change in the composi- PREFECTURE a Life Innovation Comprehen- tion of our workforce to be more sive Special Zone by the national research-oriented, and we see that government. That brings with it a trend continuing.” variety of incentives, including tax of 1923, which levelled almost every building relief, relaxed regulations and business sub- A HISTORIC MELTING POT in the area. Rebuilding began in earnest, only sidies specifically. Further inland is the Sag- Kanagawa was once the ultimate seat of for the city to be ruined again by air raids in ami Robotics Industry Special Zone, where power in Japan. For almost four centuries, the Second World War. Yet it was from these many of Japan’s leading and most innovative the southern city of Kamakura was a major embers that Japan found the means for its eco- robotics companies are rapidly expanding seat of power in Shōgun-era Japan, and it is nomic and industrial resurgence, which was the technology into practical applications, thought to have been the fourth largest city in driven in no small part by the rapid restoration such as of life-support robots. the world during the thirteenth century, after and rise of the Keihin Industrial Zone with “We have had a particular focus on Hangzhou, Cairo and Fez. When Kamakura its concentration of heavy industry, includ- well-being and health care, starting roughly was destroyed by the Tokugawa Shogunate, ing steel mills, oil refineries, petrochemical 20 years ago when we attracted RIKEN to the nation’s capital was relocated to what is complexes and shipyards. establish a new life-sciences research institute now Tokyo. The resulting 200 years of iso- in Yokohama,” says Kousuke Adachi, direc- lationist policy in Kamakura was eventually tor of the life-innovation promotion division brought to an abrupt end in 1858 when the of the City of Yokohama. “Then, in 2003, we United States and Japan — in the shadow of THAT REALLY established the Leading Venture Plaza near American gunboats — negotiated the open- LAID THE the RIKEN Yokohama Campus as a low-cost ing of Yokohama and other Kanagawa ports incubation facility for biotech start-ups. That for international trade. Yokohama quickly really laid the foundation for state-of-the-art became a portal for everything Western, a true FOUNDATION life-sciences research and the concentration melting pot where foreign ideas, influences FOR STATE-OF-THE-ART of industries in this field.” and technology were blended with Japanese LIFE-SCIENCES The city also set up a life-innovation plat- sense and tradition before being scattered form (LIP) in Yokohama to act as a network for across the country. cooperation between industry, academia and “Through that period, the port of RESEARCH government in biotechnology and life sciences. Yokohama was very important,” says Hashi- AND THE CONCENTRATION “Through the LIP, leading Japanese phar- moto. “It was the first place in Japan to get maceutical companies and manufacturers of street lighting, water treatment, a lighthouse, OF INDUSTRIES. medical equipment, as well as leading aca- iron bridges, street design and even railways demic institutes such as RIKEN and financial — all Western technologies that were intro- institutions, support the work of small enter- duced to Japan through Yokohama.” By the 1980s, Keihin had become so suc- prises and ventures,” says Adachi. “In all, we By the end of the nineteenth century, cessful that the Yokohama region risked now have some 90 organizations participat- Yokohama was a vibrant city with a popula- being entirely consumed by heavy industry. ing in the LIP as a bridge between academia tion of half a million, and bursting with tech- Recognizing a need for diversification, local and the private sector to create and imple- nological innovations, entrepreneurship and government decided to convert shipyards ment innovative projects, stimulating Yoko- foreigners. Yet this would all be brought to an and warehouses into mixed-use business, hama’s economy and connecting the results abrupt end with the Great Kanto Earthquake industry, research and residential zones of projects with advances in health care and S108 | NATURE | VOL 552 | 21/28 DECEMBER©2017 Mac mill a2017n Publishers Li mited, part of Spri nger Nature. All ri ghts reserved. ©2017 Mac millan Publishers Li mited, part of Spri nger Nature. All ri ghts reserved. SPOTLIGHT ON KANAGAWA CAREERS well-being for our citizens.” a couple of years and are researchers can only Kanagawa offers researchers a range of ever get one. Those who hope to stay longer opportunities, from academic positions with will need to find a position with an employer organizations such as RIKEN and the Japan who is willing to sponsor a visa application. Agency for Marine–Earth Science and Tech- People fortunate enough to find a nology (JAMSTEC), to industrial R&D with longerterm position at a university can find global technology giants. Finding the right the strict hierarchy stifling and difficult to position from abroad can be tricky — Japa- climb. However, the government has tried to nese recruitment systems are often archaic tackle that through its Top Global University and heavy on detailed documentation — but Project, which offers better employment con- foreigners are generally afforded a warm wel- ditions and opportunities to attract interna- come and respect as a source of international tional researchers.