KAWASAKI: ASIA'S SILICONE VALLEY FOR ADVANCE MEDICINE

“The Kawasaki INnovation Gateway SKYFRONT is the first important step in establishing the Tonomachi area of Kawasaki City as Asia’s Silicon Valley".

The area is the flagship science and technology innovation hub of Kawasaki City. KING SKYFRONT is a 40 hectare area located in the Tonomachi area of the Keihin Industrial Region that spans Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture and Tokyo International Airport (also often referred to as Haneda Airport). KING SKYFRONT was launched in 2013 as a base for scholars, industrialists and government administrators to work together to devise real life solutions to global issues in the life sciences and environment. Kawasaki KING SKYFRONT is a global innovation hub attracting the world’s leading corporations and laboratories in the areas of health, medicine, welfare and environment. Also designated as a special zone under the country’s new growth strategy, various privileges are offered to those operating at Kawasaki KING SKYFRONT.

Taking advantage of its exceptional access on land, sea and air, Kawasaki KING SKYFRONT is pursuing the goal of becoming the world’s highest-standard R&D hub. Specifically, methods to cure Alzheimer’s disease, cancer and spinal cord injury are being studied and developed, together with the development and manufacturing of innovative drugs and medical equipment, such as the design and production of state-of-the-art medical robots.

These actions are progressing steadily at Kawasaki KING SKYFRONT, in order to overcome issues faced by the modern world to create a healthy society, while promoting sustainable growth of the global economy. Internationally speaking, Japan is one of the few countries in the world that lead the movement to create new drugs. Together with the U.S. and Europe, Japan possesses all elements required to nurture knowledge-intensive industries, and the country demonstrates leadership over other Asian countries in this area. Furthermore, Japan has a rapidly aging population and a declining birth-rate, faster than many other countries. As such, products and services that respond to the medical and consumer needs of the elderly society are expected to create many new business opportunities.

Concentration of Expertise In addition, Kawasaki City’s action of matching personnel, technology and industrial platforms in eco-tech areas is likely to bring birth to many more new products, service and technologies at Kawasaki KING SKYFRONT. The City looks forward to such movements to improve the global environment and incubate numerous large-scale business opportunities. New business opportunities for product and service development, as well as the need for advanced medical care are generated by the 37 million population of the greater Tokyo area where Kawasaki KING SKYFRONT is located. As of 2012, the area housed 4,933 corporations and 1,165 research institutions, as well as 35 universities and graduate schools with science and engineering departments, and 46,000 people employed in R&D work. All of this combined suggests the great potential of Kawasaki KING SKYFRONT to respond to constantly changing, advanced market needs. Since many leading corporations locate their headquarters in the greater Tokyo area, Kawasaki KING SKYFRONT’s geographical position also serves as an ideal front for the R&D facilities to work closely with their sales / business divisions.

The areas surrounding Kawasaki KING SKYFRONT are unique for accumulating numerous global corporations, joint venture businesses, new businesses, medium and small-sized businesses with advanced manufacturing skills, as well as petrochemical factories and raw material industries. Since manufacturing and R&D are ideally conducted in close proximity, Kawasaki KING SKYFRONT serves as an optimal location with a high global potential for bringing birth to new technologies.

Green As the nucleus of the Keihin Industrial Zone, Kawasaki supported the rapid economic growth era of the nation. The flip side of rapid industrialization, however, was the degradation of the environment, including air and water pollution on a massive scale. In order to overcome this problem, Kawasaki City jointly worked with corporations to recover clean air and water. Consequently, much knowledge and human resources in pollution control is now recognized in this coastal area. Taking advantage of this, Kawasaki City is currently focusing on the utilization of hydrogen energy as a prime technology in “green innovation.” Such action of the City is very timely and likely to become an advanced model, since the industrial area adjacent to Kawasaki KING SKYFRONT has a massive hydrogen demand, and the area serves home to numerous fuel cell-related corporations.

Location - Advantages Kawasaki KING SKYFRONT is the Tonomachi development area of Kawasaki City, situated on the opposite shore of Tama River. Facing the Haneda International Airport and covering an area of approximately 40 hectares, concentrated here are the world’s forerunner corporations and research institutes in the areas of health, medicine, welfare and environment. Here, industry, government and academia collaborate dynamically beyond various barriers and restrictions.

​Halfway between Tokyo and Yokohama, the city of Kawasaki belongs to the greater Tokyo district: the largest political, social and economic hub of Japan. Kawasaki is a lively city, with excellent traffic access and a comfortable living environment. As such, Kawasaki’s population has been growing steadily over the past decade, marking the highest growth rate among the 20 government- designated cities of Japan, and exceeded 1.5 million in April 2017.

Located right in the heart of greater Tokyo, many important cities of Japan are within the 30 kilometer radius of Kawasaki KING SKYFRONT. Furthermore, Kawasaki KING SKYFRONT offers a logistical advantage by sea as it is in the center of Keihin Port. In addition, it is at the interchanges of numerous expressways that extend north to south, east and west.

Kawasaki KING SKYFRONT is also just 600 meters away from the Haneda International Airport, the hub of numerous flights to and from Asia and the world. Taking full advantage of this aerial gateway, as well as other available excellent transport infrastructure by sea, road and railway, day trips from Kawasaki KING SKYFRONT can be made throughout Japan and some Asian countries. This will be enabled further with the construction of a bridge that directly links the Kawasaki KING SKYFRONT with the Haneda International Airport, to be completed in 2020.

Furthermore, located at Haneda International Airport is the Tokyo International Air Cargo Terminal (TIACT), an exclusive facility for medical drugs (medical gateway), where drugs for clinical test purposes are preserved at the proper temperature, and are maintained under strict security control. This medical gateway also assists Kawasaki KING SKYFRONT’s corporations and research facilities by allowing swift and efficient transport of their drugs to any medical institution within or outside Japan. Furthermore, a direct link road will be completed by 2020, connecting Kawasaki KING SKYFRONT to Haneda International Airport, Japan’s main aerial gateway to the world. Close to Kawasaki KING SKYFRONT are numerous attractive natural settings and cultural facilities that can be reached within minutes.

For more information: www.king-skyfront.jp