FOCUS: Japan Eyes Public Money to Boost Startup Investment

Tokyo, Aug. 29 (Jiji Press)--The administration of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is eyeing the use of public money to lead investments in domestic startups, as it aims for the number of startups in Japan to rise tenfold in five years under Kishida's "new capitalism" initiative.

The government is pinning hopes on public-private funds and the Government Pension Investment Fund, among others.

"We will seek to expand the government's supply of money to venture capitalists," Kishida told a general meeting of the Japan Venture Capital Association in Tokyo last month.

"We will create flows of long-term funds, including from the GPIF, into venture capitalists and startups," the prime minister noted.

The public-private Japan Investment Corp. hopes to invite investments by major foreign venture capitalists, as well as pension funds in and outside Japan, through its investment in funds managed by private-sector venture capital firms.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]