Japanese biotech firms interested in investments and partnerships from China, Hong Kong

Japanese firms and startups in the biotechnology sector are interested in partnerships with and investments from China including Hong Kong. That was the message which the Sakura Business Mission learnt during its trip to Japan, which was organized by Brillix Intelligence, a Hong Kong company engaged in conferences and media. The Sakura Business Mission, mostly consisting of delegates from Hong Kong, visited Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka and Kobe from April 2 to 6. 

“We encourage Japanese startups to visit China including Hong Kong,” Toyoki Oka, secretary general of the Japan-China Investment Promotion Organization, told the Sakura Business Mission in Tokyo on April 4.

“We also encourage Japanese companies to go to Southeast Asian countries,” said Oka, who is also representative director of the Japan-China Investment Promotion Organization. 

The Japan-China Investment Promotion Organization is a Japanese nonprofit organization whose members include over 300 large Japanese companies including Hitachi, Toyota and Panasonic. 

About 20 years ago, Japanese workers saw virtually zero growth in salaries, Japan’s GDP growth and interest rates were virtually zero making it difficult for Japanese banks to make money, Oka added. “But now Japanese salaries are going up, some as much as 20 percent per year. Japanese properties rose a lot, especially in Tokyo and Osaka.”

Oka attributed Japan’s economic recovery to Chinese companies’ interest in Japan, especially Japanese property. 

In the past, Japanese firms were less willing to accept Chinese investments, but now Japanese small and medium enterprises (SMEs) lack capital and people, so they have to take Chinese money, Oka explained. 

More and more foreign law firms have set up in Japan, Oka pointed out. Currently, the corporate tax rate in Japan is high, hence many Japanese firms are moving to Hong Kong and Singapore where the corporate tax rate is lower, Oka said. 

It is expensive to manufacture drugs in Japan, while drug manufacturing in non-coastal cities in China are cheaper, Oka pointed out. “So we encourage Japanese drug companies to have factories in these places.”

During the meeting with Oka, Albert Yu, a delegate of the Sakura Business Mission, said Japanese companies should manufacture in China because they can earn much revenue and profit. Yu, chairman of HKBIO, a Hong Kong nonprofit organization which promotes the biotechnology industry, expressed the hope that more Japanese startups would visit the Greater Bay Area, which comprises Hong Kong, Macao and nine cities in Guangdong province, namely Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Zhuhai, Foshan, Zhongshan, Jiangmen, Huizhou and Zhaoqing. 

Ba Sujuan(Right), CEO of the Asian Fund for Cancer Research, trying out a devise to help blind people navigate obstacles

Ming Tang, another delegate of the Sakura Business Mission, told Oka that his company, YNBY International, hoped to forge partnerships with Japanese companies. YNBY International, where Tang is the chief executive officer (CEO), is a Hong Kong-listed healthcare company. 

Hideyuki Okano, director of the Keio University Regenerative Medicine Research Centre, expressed interest in collaboration with companies, institutions and universities in Hong Kong.

During a meeting in Kawasaki, Kanagawa on April 3, Okano, who is also the chief scientific officer of K Pharma, a Japanese drug discovery and regenerative medicine company, said it was important for him to visit the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. 

The Sakura Business Mission attended a meeting in Yokohama on April 3, where companies invested by Defta Partners demonstrated their innovations. Defta Partners is a Japanese investment firm which has invested in healthcare and technology companies in Japan and other countries.

One Japanese company which Defta Partners invested in is Qolo Inc., which demonstrated a wheelchair that allows the user to move upright and perform physiotherapeutic movements. Yu suggested that Qolo manufactures its wheelchairs in China which is cheaper than in Japan.

Another Defta investee company, PhotoQ3 Inc., demonstrated a minimally invasive cancer treatment using a combination of cancer-specific antibodies, immune-toxins and light technology. PhotoQ3’s founding CEO and chief scientific officer, Takao Hamakubo, said the treatment technique of PhotoQ3 can achieve remission of lung cancer. 

Yet another Defta investee company, Raise the Flag, demonstrated a device which enabled blind people to have a high degree of mobility while avoiding obstacles. A delegate of the Sakura Business Mission, Ba Sujuan, the founding CEO of the Asian Fund for Cancer Research, tested the device while blindfolded. Ba was able to walk between two men without bumping into them, because the device detected objects, processed the information using artificial intelligence (AI) and conveyed sounds to her ears as she approached the two men. 

Akihiko Kondo, CEO of Bacchus Bio Innovation, told the Sakura Business Mission, “My company is open to investment from companies in China and Hong Kong. We are interested in research and development partnerships in Hong Kong.”

“Our strategy is to raise funds from manufacturing companies, so we can work with them,” said Kondo. 

Bacchus Bio Innovation was founded in 2020 as a startup from Kobe University. On its website, the company, which is located next to Kobe University, describes itself on its website as an “Integrated BioFoundry”, which develops and genetically engineers microorganisms for clients. Companies outsource their research and development to Bacchus Bio Innovation, which manufactures a fraction of the final products, then the companies take over the mass production, said Siddhant Sethi, an executive of the customer team of Bacchus Bio Innovation. Bacchus Bio Innovation has a capital of 4.5 billion yen (US$31 million) as of February 2025, according to its website. The company’s investors include Defta Partners and JGC Group, one of the largest Japanese engineering companies which is also a client of Bacchus Bio Innovation, said Sethi. 

Kondo said he was previously a visiting professor at Tsinghua University in China and a university in Shenzhen, where he witnessed China’s startup sector moving very quickly. Previously, Japanese universities were not helpful to startups, but now they are more helpful through means like creating venture capital funds to finance startups, he added. 

At a meeting in Osaka on April 5, Ryuichi Moroshita, a founder of AnGes, Inc., a Japanese biopharmaceutical company, expressed interest in his company having manufacturing in China, which will be cheaper than in Japan. AnGes listed on the Mothers market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in September 2002, which was the first initial public offering (IPO) of a biotechnology company in Japan. 

At the Osaka meeting, Shuko Takeda, an associate professor of the department of clinical gene therapy at Osaka University, described a system for the early detection of dementia using AI and eye-tracking technology. This system detects dementia in a matter of minutes, substantially faster than conventional methods. Takeda said he hopes to expand this system worldwide, where the first priority will be Asia including China, South Korea and Singapore. 

All in all, it was a fruitful visit to Japan, where valuable relations with Japanese biotechnology firms were forged. The Sakura Business Mission to Japan from April 2 to 6 provided a useful bridge between the biotechnology industries of Japan and China including Hong Kong. The partners of the Sakura Business Mission are the Alliance Forum Foundation, Blockchain Arbitrators and Experts Association, BIOHK, HKBIO and Proof of Japan Co., Ltd.