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1. What is the Tohoku Economic Federation?
· The Tohoku Economic Federation (TEF) is a private economic organization founded in December 1966. The TEF has about 900 business-sector organizations engaged in economic activities in Tohoku, Japan. The TEF is one of several major regional economic bodies, including the Federation of Economic Organizations (Nippon Keidanren).
2. What are the TEF`s new business support activities?
· The Tohoku Economic Federation has undertaken new business support. We proposed the Tohoku Ventureland movement and established the Tohoku Ventureland Council in 1995. We worked to find expected fast-growing companies. From 2001, we reorganized the Tohoku Ventureland Council to the Tohoku Ventureland Promotion Center to foster fast-growing companies in Tohoku, Japan through hands-on support. As a result of that support, four companies have started preparations for initial public offerings.
· We set up the Industry and Academia Matchmaking Committee to use university seeds to produce new businesses by regional companies in July 2002. The Committee coordinated about 20 projects.
· The TEF chairman proposed an Industry, Academy, and Local Government Roundtable to the Miyagi Prefecture Governor, the Sendai City Mayor, and Tohoku University’s President in December 2003. At that first meeting, the TEF Chairman proposed the Tohoku Incubation Fund, with an investment of US$30 million, and launched it in March 2004. Now we are preparing to construct the Second Fund.
3. Where is Tohoku, Japan?
· Tohoku comprises seven prefectures (Aomori-ken, Iwate-ken, Miyagi-ken, Akita-ken, Yamagata-ken, Fukushima-ken, and Niigata-ken) in northeastern Japan. It occupies approximately 21% of Japan’s land area: about 80,000 square kilometers. Its population is about 12.6 million, and its gross product is about US$430 billion, which is roughly equivalent to that of Switzerland, Australia, or The Netherlands.
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