Driving Innovation Together in the Kyoto Industrial Leading Zone and Post-Expo City at Keihanna Science City

Based on the bilateral agreement signed in May 2025 between Kyoto Prefecture and the Government of Catalonia in Spain, both regions are working to further strengthen their collaboration, focusing on the following three key areas:

1. Exchange in administrative and institutional practices

2. Cooperation in economic and industrial sectors

3. Collaboration in innovation and decarbonization technologies

An effective platform to promote and expand this collaboration is the Kyoto Industrial Creation Leading Zone Initiative, which is actively led by Kyoto Prefecture.
This initiative aims to establish hubs for next-generation industries by fully leveraging the unique regional resources of Kyoto—including its rich history and diverse industrial clusters—under globally relevant themes. It encourages the concentration of innovative companies, startups, and highly skilled talent from both Japan and abroad.

Here, we will focus on three of the initiative’s eight core themes: Content (such as games and animation), Agri-Food, and Health & Sports.

In addition, Keihanna Science City, where ATR is located, is taking on a central role as a Post-Expo City, tasked with effectively and efficiently implementing the innovative technologies and achievements (legacies) generated through Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai and Keihanna Expo 2025 into society.

We define the concept of the Post-Expo City as the realization of a “Seamless Society”, and we have established the following three pillars to achieve this vision for realizing a human-centered society:

1. Seamlessly creating innovation through advanced science and technology

2. Seamlessly fostering and producing globally active innovation talent

3. Seamlessly generating diverse innovations

We are actively seeking the participation of startups with innovative solutions that can contribute to these initiatives and help shape the future.