Director, Kochi Prefecture; Director, Center for Industry-Academia-Government-Private Partnership
Hirochika Sawada
Joined the Kochi Prefectural Government in 1987. After joining the government, he completed the Regional Policy Course at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies. After serving as Director of the Planning and Promotion Division, Director of the Cultural Promotion Division, and Director of the Human Resources Division, he became Deputy Director of the Industrial Development and Promotion Division in 2016, in charge of population issues, comprehensive strategies, and regional development. He is also in charge of the management of the Industry-Academia-Government-Private Cooperation Center (commonly known as Kokopura) and various other measures to enable industry, academia, and government to work together to promote industry and solve regional problems.

Regional Development Division, LIVANES, Inc.
Masayuki Kishimoto
Born in Kochi Prefecture. M.S. (Science), Graduate School of Comprehensive Human and Natural Sciences, Kochi University. Joined LIBANES with the aim of realizing a society in which mathematicians play an active role. While communicating the fun of mathematics and science through the development of educational CSR programs in collaboration with companies, the development of math research experience classes, and the production of "someone", an introductory science booklet for junior high and high school students, he is also responsible for creating new businesses in Miyagi, Shiga, Osaka, and other regions.

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Representative Director, Vice President CTO, Liverness, Inc.
Jyo Inoue
D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences. He is a founding member of LIVERNESS. After completing the doctoral program, he worked as an assistant professor and lecturer at the Faculty of Science, Kitasato University, and an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University before being appointed as a specially-appointed associate professor at the Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University in 2015. While conducting research and development, he is a researcher involved in launching joint research projects with universities and research institutions and supporting the establishment of research institutes.

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Kochi Sake Brewers Association
board chairman
Akihiko Takemura
Born in 1962 in Sagawa-cho, Takaoka-gun, Kochi Prefecture. After graduating from Gakushuin University, Faculty of Economics, Department of Business Administration, he joined a fashion goods and food company in Tokyo, where he worked as a sales representative for 5 years. Ltd. in 1990. He became President and Representative Director of the company in 1999. In 2006, he became President of the Tosa Gakkai (Tosa Sake Brewers Association), and in 2015, he became President of the Kochi Prefecture Sake Brewers Association.

Yanmar Holdings Co.
General Manager, Produce Department, Food Business Promotion Office
Koji Hashimoto
Born in Oita Prefecture, Japan, he is a mandarin orange and rice farmer. Graduated from Kagoshima University in 1989 and joined Yanmar Diesel. Experienced a wide range of business operations from the Marine Development Group of the Business Development Office to the Distribution Equipment Department, Marine System Division, and sales companies. In 2010, he was appointed as Representative Director of Yanmar Agri-Innovation Co. （Ltd. Currently, he is also in charge of the Food Business Promotion Office of Yanmar Holdings Co.

Director Founder, Agri Holdings, Inc.
Representative Director, DXHR Corporation
Issei Maeda
Since 2006, he has been launching startups and venture companies and angel investing in dozens of business development projects, including data center-related projects in 2006, IT in the sports industry in 2009, and business development in agriculture and food in 2013 (Agri Holdings, Inc.), He has been operating businesses in Japan, the U.S., China, Singapore, and Hong Kong. 2020, he started DXHR Inc. to promote the transformation of work, business, and social systems through people and robots.

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Executive Officer, LIVERNESS Co. 
Shuhei Tsukada
D. in Applied Biotechnology, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo. D. in Agriculture. Participated in the management of RIVERNESS since 2003, when the company was in its early stages of establishment. After accumulating practical experience in experimental classes and various types of writing, developed and introduced advanced technologies in the agri-field and launched a project to build an ecosystem for regional startups. Committed to technology and business development in collaboration with large and medium-sized companies, venture companies, researchers, etc. on a field-oriented basis.

Session 3 Panel Discussion
New ways to utilize local resources created through interdisciplinary cooperation

It is not easy for a single company to perform all functions on its own, and it is important to build alliances in different fields by incorporating each other's knowledge and know-how through external collaboration. It is not easy for a single company to perform all functions alone, and it will be important to form alliances in different fields by incorporating each other's knowledge and know-how through external collaboration. In this session, Mr. Asakura of Asahi Shokuhin, who is engaged in the sixth industrialization as a distributor, Mr. Suzuki of Euglena, who has succeeded in mass cultivation and commercialization of microalgae, and Mr. Koyama of Wellnas, which develops supplements utilizing the functionality of eggplant grown in Kochi Prefecture, will join the discussion.

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General Manager, Sixth Industry Promotion Department, Corporate Planning Division, Asahi Shokuhin Co.
Kazuya Asakura
After graduating from the Department of Industrial Engineering at Wakayama University, he joined an IT company and worked as a programmer and system engineer designing and creating corporate backbone systems (sales management, payroll management, MRP systems) for the manufacturing and apparel industries. Later, as a private business, he contracted with a logistics company to design and create a logistics system (WMS) and worked as a project manager. 2009, he joined Asahi Shokuhin and was in charge of logistics system-related activities within Asahi Shokuhin (updating equipment and implementing logistics systems at Asahi Shokuhin's distribution sites). After that, he was assigned to the Corporate Planning Department, where he was involved in overall company profit management, M&A, etc. From there, he was assigned to his current department (Six Tier Industries). From there, he was put in charge of new businesses other than Asahi Shokuhin's wholesale business, as well as the development of the sixth industry for the purpose of regional revitalization, in his current department (the Sixth Industry Promotion Department).

Executive Officer, in charge of Research and Development, Euglena Co.
Kengo Suzuki
While a student at the University of Tokyo in 2005, he was involved in the establishment of Euglena Co. and as one of the co-founders, he is responsible for research and development up to the present. Focusing on the development of technology centered on the mass cultivation of Euglena, a type of microalgae, he received his PhD (Agriculture) from the University of Tokyo in 2016 and his PhD (Medicine) from Kitasato University in 2019. Currently, he is a research director of the microalgae production control technology research team at RIKEN, a visiting professor at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, and a specially appointed professor at Tohoku University.

President and Representative Director, WELNAS Corporation
Masahiro Koyama
After entering the master's course at Shinshu University Graduate School in 2008, he was involved in the discovery that eggplant contains a large amount of choline ester, a new food functional ingredient that regulates autonomic nervous system balance, and that choline ester improves hypertension and sleep disorders, which are his own problems. After completing a doctoral course at Shinshu University, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the same university and established Wernus, a Shinshu University venture company, in order to implement the results of his research in society. He aims to realize the health that each individual desires through a personalized diet that combines functional foods.

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Representative Director, Vice President CTO, Liverness, Inc.
Jyo Inoue
D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences. He is a founding member of LIVERNESS. After completing the doctoral program, he worked as an assistant professor and lecturer at the Faculty of Science, Kitasato University, and an assistant professor at the Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University before being appointed as a specially-appointed associate professor at the Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University in 2015. While conducting research and development, he is a researcher involved in launching joint research projects with universities and research institutions and supporting the establishment of research institutes.