Fukuoka

Fukuoka exists because Asia is two hours away. For two thousand years, this city on Kyushu's northern coast served as Japan's gateway to the continent—hosting Chinese envoys at the Kōrokan diplomatic center during the Heian period, trading with Korean merchants, and surviving two Mongol invasion attempts in 1274 and 1281 (repelled, legend holds, by "divine winds" or kamikaze). Geography made Fukuoka Japan's window to the world before Tokyo existed.

That geographic logic endures. Today, Fukuoka offers 90-minute flights to Seoul and 2-hour flights to Shanghai—closer than Tokyo. The port, airport, and expressway interchanges cluster within city limits, enabling same-day business trips to Seoul. Mayor Takashima recognized this advantage in 2012 and declared Fukuoka a "startup city," securing National Strategic Special Zone status with regulatory exemptions including Japan's first Startup Visa for foreign entrepreneurs.

The bet is paying off. Fukuoka ranks fourth in Japan's startup ecosystem rankings (consistently since 2021), with office rents 52% lower than Tokyo. SoftBank was born here. Amazon and Accenture have expanded operations here. The Cambridge Innovation Center opened its second Asian facility here in 2020. The city leads Japan's major cities in population growth rate and young population ratio. By 2026, Fukuoka's experiment will test whether geographic advantage in the Asian Century can challenge Tokyo's gravitational pull—2,000 years of continental gateway status suggests it can.