Achieving Regional Innovation Development and UIG linkage in Japan: A Case Study in Toyohashi Region

In this paper, we investigate a case of regional innovation development in Toyohashi region and Aichi prefecture in Japan. Moreover, we describe lessons learned from regional development experiences in Aichi prefecture and Toyohashi city. The Toyohashi's experiences we would refer to in this paper would include; Backgrounds of the regional development in Toyohashi area, the roles of national government and regional (i.e., prefectural and municipal) governments to support regional initiatives toward innovation, and the regional entities initiatives there. We will also describe how the local government can achieve regional innovation by establishing a knowledge cluster. The usages of governmental funds and participation of university and banks at the region will also be described. In this paper, we discuss different players' roles and their interaction in achieving regional innovation in Toyohashi city based on a conceptual model.\nThe case of Toyohashi has indicated us that in developing new STPs, we need to understand existing cases with various viewpoints, including the roles of core (supporting) organization, a regional manager, and so on. Though with this one example we cannot obtain an absolute and universal answer to these viewpoints, we have understood we have obtained new points to consider in regional innovation development. As a final discussion in this paper, we want to discuss the differences and advantages of a STP acting as a core entity of regional innovation eco-system, acting as a single window for a regional new business development, and so on.