Deadline: 15-Nov-2025
The Tokyo Global Innovation Challenge (TGIC) 2025 is an entrepreneurship contest supported by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Grant-in-aid that invites university students worldwide to unleash their creativity and develop business ideas that can change the world.
Focus: Go Beyond Boundaries—Break through your limits, transcend disciplines, and cross borders.
This event serves as a platform where curiosity meets the power of entrepreneurship, providing opportunities for students to transform innovative ideas into business models that matter. Organized by the Tokyo Global Innovation Challenge Executive Committee Secretariat, TGIC offers over ¥1,000,000 in prizes to encourage participants to push beyond conventional thinking and create meaningful impact. The contest welcomes teams of three to six undergraduate or graduate students, including international students from universities in Japan or abroad. Teams may be composed of mixed international and Japanese members, Japanese-only, or international-only groups. All business ideas must be student-led, and participants must be able to present their pitches in English, as both the symposium and the contest are conducted entirely in English.
Applications are open from October 6 (Monday) to November 15 (Saturday), with results to be announced on November 22 (Saturday). The final round will take place on December 13–14 at Tokyo Innovation Base near Yurakucho Station, where December 13 will host the symposium, and December 14 will feature the final round and awards ceremony. The evaluation criteria include Passion & Leadership, Originality, Market Competitiveness, Growth Potential, Profitability, and Feasibility, ensuring that selected projects demonstrate enthusiasm, creativity, market viability, and sustainable potential.
To apply, teams must fill out the official application form and submit it along with a pitch video of up to five minutes. The video should be uploaded to a cloud storage platform such as Google Drive, with the URL provided in the form. TGIC also features pre-events, including an entrepreneur lecture, business idea generation seminar, business development camp, English pitch workshop, and briefing sessions to help participants strengthen their skills and proposals.
The initiative is supported by a network of leading universities such as Aoyama Gakuin University, Waseda University, Sophia University, Tokyo University of Science, and Chuo University, alongside partner organizations including the Japan Finance Corporation, Deloitte Tohmatsu, Tokyo New Business Conference, and Startup Lady Association.
For more information, visit Tokyo Global Innovation Challenge.
