Face-to-face community
Expanding new business

The year is 2025. What does the workplace mean for companies and office workers?
"We want to grow the company through new businesses while generating cash from our core business. When we want to do something new, face-to-face meetings are extremely important."
These were the words of Hiroshi Wakatsuki, Executive Officer and Head of Business Development at AGC, the world's leading glass manufacturer.
As AGC promotes "ambidextrous management" (deepening existing businesses and exploring new businesses), Wakatsuki, who leads new business development, has come to recognize the value of face-to-face communication.

"You can't communicate remotely, but by using facial expressions and making eye contact, you can have a lively discussion," he said. He said that face-to-face interaction is particularly important in new business development.

"If executives like us had tried to do this, we probably would have had to make appointments, discuss who would go, who would accompany us, and so on, and it might not have been possible to make it happen."
These were the words of Haruhiko Sato, a director and executive managing director at Mitsubishi HC Capital, a company that provides asset finance services, primarily leasing.

As a specific example, Sato cited a new digital signage advertising business being developed by AGC, Mitsubishi HC Capital, and JR East Japan Planning (jeki).
AGC's display-integrated mirror, named "Miraria®," is an innovative technology that combines the reflectivity of a mirror with the visibility of a display with high quality. Based on this technology, a new business was born, combining Mitsubishi HC Capital's customer base and Jeki's advertising knowledge.

Creating spaces for co-creation for the past 20 years.
TMIP was born

TMIP is a co-creation community operated by Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd., centered around the Marunouchi area. Its origins date back to Marunouchi Frontier, a venture support organization launched in 2000.

"Nowadays there are many such co-creation communities, but for the past 20 years we have been creating spaces where companies in the Marunouchi area can interact," said Haruhiko Araki, executive vice president of Mitsubishi Estate.

TMIP, which was launched in 2019 as an extension of this, functions as a platform to support large companies in creating new businesses and promote open innovation between large companies and startups, and between industry, government, academia, and cities.

TMIP has been used as a forum where new business managers gather to exchange information and share their views on the challenges each company faces.
This exchange serves as a starting point for large companies to form partnerships and quickly move forward with business verification, supporting the creation of businesses through co-creation.

There are numerous open innovation hubs and communities in the Tokyo metropolitan area alone, but what is it about Marunouchi that makes it unique?
"The location of Tokyo Station has great value from a global perspective. It provides good access for customers and partners from overseas, which naturally leads to active communication. This leads to accelerating innovation," said AGC's Wakatsuki.


While these interactions and co-creation events now occur spontaneously, they were in fact the result of long-standing efforts by the city.

The area, which was once filled with business people in suits, is now visited by a wide range of people, including families with strollers. Tug-Naka-dori Ave. war competitions between companies are held on Nakadori Street, and this has become a popular event that brings together employees of companies that do not usually have contact with each other.
Currently, it is home to approximately 5,000 business establishments and 350,000 employees, evolving into an "urban community" where offices, commerce, and culture coexist. As AGC's Wakatsuki says, "We are introduced to new startups through our relationships with banks and securities companies, and we receive ideas for ways to use the space that we would never have thought of on our own," the encounters in this town open up new possibilities.

The system involves purchasing rice from producers all over Japan, such as Sosa City, Chiba Prefecture and Kofu Town, Tottori Prefecture, polishing it on demand for each order, and delivering it to each store in the area. This was made possible in collaboration with Mitsubishi HC Capital.
"We have a strength in our customer base, which includes production areas including local governments.We would like to utilize this network to contribute to regional revitalization," said Sato.
"It may be the rice mill with the highest rent in Japan, but it should be worth more than the rent," said Araki. This experiment is also a challenge to connect urban restaurants with rural producers and create a new value cycle.