[FIRST-HAND Local.] A day to grow new business seeds from real, on-the-ground regional challenges

FIRST-HAND Local. is a project that travels across Japan to gather real, on-the-ground regional challenges and bring them directly to entrepreneurs and business professionals. This event runs an ideathon based on issues the team has actually verified on site, ranging from measuring wagyu stress, to bamboo industry labor economics, to fisher shortages threatening daily operations. Participants first learn a basic framework for turning problems into solutions, then pick one real challenge (problem, customer, existing alternative) from a curated list, and shape it into a lean canvas with mentor feedback. The goal is a simple business model you can take home, structurally going beyond how the issue is solved today. The session is aimed at people who want to build a business around social or regional issues, founders with ideas but no field exposure, and those considering pilots or startups in regional Japan. No prior knowledge required. Free, capacity around 30, held at Tokyo Innovation Base 1F in Marunouchi.