I’m Rattiya Mebusaya—or just call me Jane—and I’m from Thailand. The classes, Tossa Mebusaya and I are responsible for are mostly related to innovation and entrepreneurship in both Kanazawa and Hakusanroku campus. On June 8th, it was the anniversary of our being here and working for 3 years. I’m kind of a new full-time employee at ICT, but I’m not new here. I graduated from KIT studying in Nakazawa Sensei’s lab and had been temporarily working at ICT’s Kanazawa office—helping out here and there—for two and a half years. Now, I’m mostly at the Kanazawa campus but work at the Hakusanroku campus from time to time.

Tossa and I have a mission here to build an entrepreneurship program for students. In these past three years, it has been good, bad, exciting, and many other things in between. It has been a great experience and full of opportunities. We have done so many things so far—some have paid off, and some still need time and adjustment. With the startup and entrepreneur mindset, everything is an opportunity, and every failure is a lesson. We just need to move forward and act fast.

We’re really proud of our students in the startup and entrepreneur program. There will be more opportunities and learning throughout this long journey. We have not only taught students in classes—since entrepreneurship and a startup mindset need consistency and real-world, uncertain experiences—we also need to be part of a strong ecosystem to create a successful learning environment.

Even though we have not yet completely fulfilled all our goals, these are the activities we’ve built up so far at both the Kanazawa and Hakusanroku campuses. Here are some pictures of what we’ve done so far at ICT—our first and second KIT & ICT Startup Boot Camps. These boot camps were created to educate and support anyone interested in startups—not just ICT students, but also KIT students and even faculty and staff. We've been running them for about two years. This year, we will move to the next stage of startup development.

Startup Boot Camp

Next are our first and second ICT Startup Competitions. In these events, we’ve hosted a couple of interesting panels to educate and update participants on both Japanese and global startup trends. We’ve invited Japanese and international startups, investors, and other key ecosystem players such as Tech Startup HOKURIKU(TeSH), government representatives, and more. After the panels, we held a pitching competition. We’ve recruited teams from ICT, KIT (although no one from KIT has joined yet), and universities in other countries such as Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia. We hope that in the coming year, we’ll have more international teams as well as local teams from other universities, colleges, and technical colleges or KOSENs.

ICT Startup Competition 2024

ICT Startup Competition 2025

We’ve also built connections with entrepreneurs and others in the ecosystem through important events such as the Matching HUB Hokuriku, SusHi Tech Tokyo, and visits to universities in other countries. Lastly, we have been coaching our students for competitions such as the Entrepreneurship KOSEN Summit and the High School Students’ Dream Award.

Entrepreneurship KOSEN Summit

Other Entrepreneurship Events

Right now, our office is based at the ICT Kanazawa campus. If anyone is interested in Innovation, Startups, or Entrepreneurship, please feel free to swing by and see us at the Innovation Lab—we’d love for you to get to know us. Or, if you’d like to learn more about us first, you can also visit our Facebook page to see more details and activities。
https://www.facebook.com/share/g/1Gi66wGeQo/

In the future, we plan to host events that anyone can join to learn more about current entrepreneurs or share ideas—even short, casual pitches on solving real-world problems. It will be fun to share ideas without boundaries.

Play time at ICT Kanazawa after a hard day’s work. There are always opportunities for creativity and excitement.

Rattiya Mebusaya

Hello, this is Yuri Makada from the Hakusanroku Office. This time, I would like to talk about the ICT Startup Competition 2025 held on Friday, February 21st, 2025.

 In order to nurture global innovators, ICT has established maker studios on the Hakusanroku and Kanazawa campuses, where students can give shape to their business ideas. In addition, ICT also focused on fostering a business mindset by offering classes such as Fundamentals of Innovation and Fundamentals of Business Management.

 Continuing from last year , the second edition of the ICT Startup Competition 2025 was held at the KIT Innovation Hall. The entire event was conducted in English, including the Q&A sessions.

 In the morning, a panel discussion was held, featuring Fumihiko Uchida sensei, Research Professor, Headquarters for Promotion of Future Innovation at Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), Mr. Matas Danielevicius from Knowledge Exchange, a startup support organization in Thailand, Mr. Kittinand Pithayapriechagul, Vice President (Head of Crowdfunding) Thailand Securities Finance Corporation (TSFC) Securities Public Company Limited, and Mr. Daiki Masui, Promotion Association Startup Weekend Kanazawa Lead Organizer. They took the stage for a lively discussion on the startup scene in Japan and abroad.

 Compared to other countries, the startup industry in Japan is still in its early stages. Recently, the Japanese government has introduced a five-year plan and has actively promoted the creation of startups within the country, including substantial financial support.

 In the afternoon session, a pitching event was held featuring students from universities and technical colleges in Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and Japan. This event brought together students from across the Asia region and was conducted in a hybrid format, combining both online and in-person participation.
 During the pitching session, each team gave a three-minute presentation followed by a nine-minute Q&A session. The presenters faced sharp questions from the panelists, and although some appeared momentarily taken aback, they responded with sincerity and determination, creating a truly inspiring atmosphere.
 Three teams from ICT participated, delivering confident and impressive presentations despite their initial nervousness. Their efforts were highly praised by the judges.

 The second edition of this event marked the first international gathering with participation from overseas students. Many of the student teams from different countries introduced business ideas aimed at solving social issues faced by their respective nations, showcasing a variety of compelling pitches.

 For the students, participating in such a pitching event provided an opportunity to reflect on how their ideas could create societal value and offered a new, real-world perspective on thinking about issues they may not have considered before.

 ICT will continue to foster global innovators who not only acquire advanced technical skills but also develop a business mindset, enabling them to apply their expertise to benefit society.

間加田 侑里

　こんにちは、白山麓高専事務室の間加田 侑里です。今回は、2024年２月21日（水）に開催された「ICT Startup Competition 2024」について紹介します。

　本校では、高等専門学校スタートアップ^※１教育環境整備事業に選定され、昨年より様々な環境整備並びにスタートアップ人材育成のための取り組みを実施しています。具体的には、本校の白山麓キャンパス及び金沢キャンパス両キャンパスにおいて、本事業の目的の一つである各種モノづくり推進のための環境整備を整え、ビジネスマインドの醸成と共に、実際のモノづくりに結び付ける取り組みがスタートしています。
　更には、環境整備に留まらず、その場の活用のために必要なスタートアップイベントの開催においても、昨年9月に「スタートアップ・ブートキャップ」を開催し、スタートアップへの理解促進と、学生達への興味関心を高める取り組みを実施しました。
　これら昨年の取り組みを通じて得た知見も生かしつつ、白山麓キャンパスにおいて、初めての「ICT Startup Competition 2024」を開催となりました。国内外の有識者を迎えて、海外や日本といったマクロの視点だけではなく、地方におけるスタートアップの現状と課題に関し、専門家によるパネルディスカッションの他、学生によるピッチングイベント（学生のビジネスアイディアを4分～5分間の短い時間で発表）が行われ、スタートアップとは何か、今何が起こっているのか、そしてこれから何をすべきかについて考える良い機会となりました。
　当日のパネルディスカッションでは、タイ王国にあるKnowledge Xchange（ナレッジ・エクスチェンジ社）から、2名を講師として招聘し、同社での取り組みの他、今スタートアップに熱い視線が注がれている現状について話があり、日本との現状の差を感じる機会となりました。更には、国内や地域でスタートアップ人材育成に携わる専門家もお呼びして、国内の現状と課題についても率直な意見交換が行われました。そこでは、海外と日本の文化の違いや教育の違いからくる、スタートアップ人材育成への難しさやハードルの高さが垣間見える場面もありました。一方で、2022年はスタートアップ元年と呼ばれるほど、国からの様々な補助金や助成金が出され、各地域でスタートアップ環境整備が進んだ時期でもあり、“スタートアップ育成５か年計画^※２”が示されるなど、2023年の盛り上がりを経て、日本ではこれからの取り組みが注目されます。
　高専教育では、実務実践型の教育による即戦力人材育成のための教育課程に加え、スタートアップ人材に欠かせないビジネスマインドの醸成を踏まえた、教育環境整備を進めることで、高専からのスタートアップ人材創出に期待が高まる中、本校ではエンジニアリングデザイン教育を柱とした、ビジネスマインドの醸成や、デザインシンキング手法を用いた顧客思考を学ぶ取り組みが既に進んでいることもあり、スタートアップ教育環境整備事業の選定によって、これまでの教育基盤を更に深化させるものとなりました。
　今回初めての試みであった「ICT Startup Competition 2024」も、今後さらに充実させていくとともに、今後も本校からのスタートアップ人材の創生に努めていきます。

※１：「スタートアップ」とは、今までになかったビジネスや市場を新たに切り開き、短期間で成長が見込める企業やビジネスを指す。
※２：「スタートアップ5か年計画」とは、日本国内のスタートアップを大幅に増やすための戦略とロードマップを示したもの。スタートアップへの投資額を現在の10倍とし、将来的に10万社のスタートアップ企業創出を目指す。

間加田 侑里

Holding the very first ICT Startup*1 Competition 2024

 Hello, this is Yuri Makada from the Hakusanroku office. This time, I would like to write about the ICT Startup Competition 2024 held on Wednesday, February 21st 2024.

 International College of Technology, Kanazawa was selected as a technical college startup educational environment improvement project last year, and since then we have been implementing various environmental improvements and initiatives to develop human resources for startups. Specifically, at both the Hakusanroku Campus and the Kanazawa Campus, efforts have been made to start to create a startup environment and to foster a business mindset and link it to actual products or services, which is one of the objectives of this project.
 Furthermore, in addition to improving the environment, we also held a startup boot camp in September last year to promote understanding of startups and raise interest among students.
 While making use of the knowledge gained through these initiatives last year, the first "ICT Startup Competition 2024" was held at the Hakusanroku Campus. Panel discussions and student pitching competitions were held. In the panel discussion, we discussed the current conditions and challenges of startups overseas, in Japan, and in local areas with honorary guests from Japan and overseas. In addition to a panel discussion by guest speakers, the event also featured a pitching event (presentation of students' business ideas in a short period of 4-5 minutes), which was a good opportunity to think about what a startup is, what is happening now, and what should be done in the future.
 In the panel discussion on the day, two guests from Knowledge Xchange in the Kingdom of Thailand were invited to talk about the startup ecosystem and the current conditions where startups are growing in Thailand, and it was an opportunity to feel the difference between the current conditions in other countries and Japan. In addition, experts involved in startup human resource development within Japan and within various regions were invited to have a frank exchange of opinions on the current conditions and issues in Japan. There were also scenes where we could glimpse the difficulties and high hurdles of developing human resources for startups due to cultural and educational differences. On the other hand, in 2022, the government issued various subsidies to the extent that 2022 has been called “the first year of startups”, and the development of the startup environment has progressed in each region. After the excitement of 2023, including the announcement of the "Five-Year Plan for Startup Development^*2", future initiatives are attracting attention in Japan.
 In technical college education, in addition to the curriculum for developing work-ready human resources through practical education, we are promoting the development of the educational environment based on developing a business mindset that is indispensable for startup human resources. Efforts to learn customer thinking using design thinking methods are already underway, and being selected as a startup education environment improvement project has further deepened the educational foundation so far.
 This year’s ICT Startup Competition 2024, which was the first attempt, will be further enhanced in the future, and we will continue to strive to create startup human resources from our school.

*1: "Startup" refers to a company or business that is expected to grow in a short time by opening up new businesses and markets that have never existed before.
*2: The "Five-Year Startup Plan" is a strategy and roadmap for significantly increasing the number of startups in Japan. The company aims to increase the amount of investment in startups by 10 times the current amount and create 100,000 startups in the future.

Yuri Makada

@ictkanazawa

2024年2月21日（水）、白山麓キャンパスでは「ICT STARTUP COMPETITION 2024」が開催されました。国内外からゲストをお招きし、「What is Startup」や「Where are we」、「What’s next」をテーマにパネルディスカッションや質疑応答、学生と教員によるPitching Competition、最後には表彰式が行われました🏅✨ #国際高専 #白山麓キャンパス #スタートアップ #startup #高専 #国際理工学科 #tiktok #英語

♬ Traveling - TonsTone