Japanese

Tokyo - The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Citi Foundation held Youth Co:Lab activities in Japan for the sixth year this 2024 continuing the support to young social entrepreneurs, aiming to accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

The year-around activities in Japan centered on the theme "Innovation through the power of youth and co-creation,” which emphasized the importance of generating innovation through “co-creation” that involves diverse actors and highlights the role of young people as leaders in this collaborative process. With co-creation as a central focus, it fostered entrepreneurship that nurtures the next generation of social entrepreneurs in Japan.

In October, “Youth Co:Lab Japan Dialogue 2024 in Sendai” was co-hosted with Sendai City in Miyagi Prefecture (the northeast of Japan) and the Michinoku Academia Startup Platform (MASP), which is a university-based startup support platform, managed in collaboration with Japanese universities in the northeast region. In the panel talk, the panelists shared their experience on the difficulties of balancing business sustainability and solving social issues. 

Ms. Erika Nakahara, CEO of Cutest Inc, emphasized the importance of “sincerity” in her business, while Ms. Ayami Ejiri, Associate Professor of the Community Future Design Centre at Fukushima University advised building on partners and finding supporters.  Mr. Kazuhide Sekiyama, Representative Executive Officer of Spiber Inc. and Entrepreneurship Promotion Ambassador appointed by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), along with Mr. Hyuga Ando, a winner of the Social Innovation Challenge Japan 2019 and a master’s student at Tohoku University, described their entrepreneurial journeys with the keywords "belief" and "excitement." The panel discussion explored the realities and opportunities within the social entrepreneurship ecosystem in Northeast Japan, raising optimism and expectations for the region's future.

The demo day of the Social Innovation Challenge Japan 2024—an SDGs-focused business contest, was held on 5 December, where seven selected young social entrepreneurs through a screening process presented their SDGs business ideas to the expert panel and an online audience of nearly 140 people. 

The seven awardees of the Social Innovation Challenge Japan 2024:

• The Excellence Award: Reiji Kobayashi, HAKKI AFRICA, “Credit revolution in emerging economies” 
• The Scalability Award & Audience Award: Nur Adlin Bint Abu Bakar, AQVANA, “Water sustainability for all.”
• The Youth Innovator Award & CVC Award: Kotaro Yoneta, Wildlife Ventures Ltd., Beekeeping business to resolve conflicts between elephants and human
• The CVC Award: Riko Yasuda, YOMY!, Next-generation EdTech: ‘YOMY!’ an online interactive service to nurture diverse values in children
• The UNHCR Award: Eri Shimakura, Refeart Inc., Illuminate Hope in a Shifting World: The Resilience of Refugees Meets Creative Expression
• The Amazon Web Services (AWS) Award for Women IT Social Entrepreneurs: Mio Tsunoda, Darajapan, IT human resource development for women and young people in emerging countries “IMANI Hacking”
• The AWS Award: Caitlin Erin Puzzar, Guardian, kimino micata® - a child communication support system

In line with this year's theme, the contest was co-organized by the University of Tokyo and supported by the MEXT, the CVC Foundation/ CVC Capital Partners, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Representation in Japan, Amazon Web Services (AWS), ICMG and NPO ETIC. With the support of the active partners, the contest provided the Excellence Award, the Audience Award, and the Youth Innovator Award, as well as the CVC Award, the UNHCR Award, and the AWS Award to seven groups.

Mr. Reiji Kobayashi,HAKKI AFRICA, “Credit revolution in emerging economies” who won the Excellence Award comments, “I am very honoured to receive the Youth Co:Lab Excellence Award. I have been living and working with local staff for six years in Kenya. I feel that my days of sincerely serving customers and solving their problems have not been in vain. We will continue to work diligently on local issues in Africa, now and in the future. As our work has been recognized through this Challenge, we will continue our efforts to create a world where honest effort is fairly rewarded.”   

In addition to the mentoring and grant support from the partners, the winners will have the opportunity to participate in an online accelerator programme, the Springboard Programme, starting in February 2025, along with selected teams from 20 other countries and territories in the Asia-Pacific region.

On 16 December 2024, Youth Co:Lab was showcased at "Youth Driving the Future: Intergen Collaboration for the SDGs," an event held during the visit of Mr. Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator, to commemorate the 70th anniversary of ODA (Official Development Assistance) in Japan.  Mr. Hiroyuki Kurimoto, CEO of Liquitous Inc., and the Excellence Award winner of the Social Innovation Challenge Japan 2021, presented his innovative business concept while emphasizing the critical role of sustained support from ecosystem stakeholders in empowering young social entrepreneurs.

The Administrator expressed his gratitude to the Citi Foundation and stated UNDP’s intent to scale up Youth Co:Lab in collaboration with Citi, as it nurtures current and future social innovators who can contribute meaningfully to Japan’s social and economic revitalization as well as a global network of social entrepreneurs.