About Otsu
The bustling heart of inland water transportation since ancient times, Otsu is the main port of Lake Biwa, which is the largest lake in the whole of Japan. The history buff will love it here as there are numerous historical sites to gawk at plus temples and shrines for a bit of divine intervention if required. Incorporated as a town in 1889, the city has a population of around the 341,187 mark. A satellite town of bustling Kyoto, the city's area ranges from densely populated areas along the shores of the lake to hilly and mountainous regions in the Hire Mountains and Mount Hiei in the south of the city. It is home to the production of edible chrysanthemums used in Japanese cuisine in tempura and to decorate the sashimi you like to devour. Otsu now has coworking venues springing up in its' streets for its' inventive youth.
Japan is changing its' view on entrepreneurship and its' tech savvy souls are not afraid of the stigma of failure any more, thanks to the media hype surrounding startups. The stability of corporate or public-sector jobs does not hold the same allure and the youth who were once risk-averse, are now taking entrepreneurship to another level. Many successful founders are now investing in new companies and young people are becoming more attracted to what the startup world can offer, such as freedom in the way they wish to work. For many with big ideas, it appears that health care, agritech, Internet of Things, enterprise software and artificial intelligence are the popular niche markets.
Japanese startups tend to focus on their own domestic market due to the language barrier, which is actually the world's 3rd biggest market giving them a distinct home-ground advantage. Foreign competitors have trouble attempting to infiltrate the Japanese market, as it is relatively closed off to outsiders. Today coworking venues are awash in local innovative tech gurus, unlike ever before.