Korean venture companies are lining up to enter the Japanese market despite the LINE robbery affair... How to wipe away anxiety = Korean reports

Despite the prolonged pressure from the Japanese government on Naver to sell its stake in LINE and Yahoo, domestic venture companies and startups are looking to expand into Japan.
The Japanese government has significantly increased its investment in startup companies, and private exchanges between the two countries have also become more active. However, since the LINE Yahoo! robbery affair, there has been a sense of uncertainty about the Japanese market.
According to the investment industry, the Korean and Japanese governments are working to improve the startup ecosystems of both countries.
In order to revitalize the industry, a joint venture fund of $100 million (approximately 15.6 billion yen) was established. The joint venture fund was made up of a Korean fund, the Japan Investment Corporation (JIC), an investment arm of the Japanese government, and private investors.
The fund, which was established with investments from these two parties, is significant in that it is the first venture fund jointly established by government agencies of the two countries.
The fund is required to invest at least $5 million in Korean companies.
Investments are expected to be focused on areas with particularly high investment demand, such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, e-commerce, and software as a service (SaaS).
This is expected to be a great help to domestic startup companies. In addition to cooperation at the government level, exchanges between private venture capital firms and startup companies are also becoming more active.
Korean startup companies will participate in events such as "SusHi Tech Tokyo 2024," the largest Japanese startup conference, and "D-DAY," and meet with Japanese companies.
SusHi Tech Tokyo 2024 was held in 47 cities around the world with the participation of 429 companies. Lotte Ventures, Sinan Venture Investment, Sopoong Venture Capital,
Venture capitalists such as VCs and VCs from Korea and Japan Venture Capital have also participated and begun market research in Japan.
In particular, global big tech companies such as OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft have set up bases in Japan and are planning trillions of yen worth of investments.
Naturally, startup companies and venture capitalists are also flocking to Japan. In 2022, he announced the generative AI chatbot "Chat GPT," and quickly became known as "the leading figure in AI."
OpenAI, which became the world's largest AI company, opened its first office in Tokyo in April. Microsoft plans to invest $2.9 billion (about 453 billion yen) in Japan's AI sector.
The rapid rise of Japan's venture market is due to the Japanese government's plan to increase investment in startups by 10 times the current level by 2027.
This is related to the decision to increase the investment to 1 trillion yen. Japanese venture companies have grown through innovation.
According to the report, titled "Policies and Market Opportunities," the amount of fundraising is expected to increase more than tenfold from 87.7 billion yen in 2013 to 1.1386 trillion yen in 2022.
As the slump in the domestic venture market in Korea continues, more and more companies are considering the Japanese market as an opportunity, and are concerned about future technology theft, etc.
There are growing voices calling for caution. Recently, the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications issued administrative guidance demanding that LINE and Yahoo improve their management structure, including a review of their capital relationship, and has asked Naver to take over LINE and Yahoo.
A source in the investment industry said, "At a time when domestic start-ups are looking to the Japanese market to survive, this series of events has led to a series of events that have put pressure on investment.
"There are concerns that this could have a negative impact on attracting companies," he said. Oh Yeon-ju, Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises and Startups, also said on the 10th,
During his visit to Tokyo to attend the 2024 Investment Summit, he told Korean reporters, "It must never be the case that Korean startups that advance overseas are treated unfairly.
"We will take appropriate measures to prevent such incidents from occurring."