At a glance
| Booth | H0040 |
| Country | JP |
| Website | yipf.or.jp |
Company profile
Yamaguchi Industrial Promotion Foundation supports small and medium-sized enterprises in Yamaguchi Prefecture through consulting, advice, marketing, business development, and other forms of business support. It describes Yamaguchi Prefecture as being at the western end of Japan's main island and notes that Fukuoka International Airport is about 30 to 40 minutes away by super-express train, providing access for business visitors. The foundation also organizes an aerospace cluster and works with aerospace companies around the world, while seeking deeper collaboration that connects Taiwanese and Japanese companies and supports the development of precious-metal processing for the semiconductor industry. As a public support organization for companies in the prefecture, it works with national institutions, universities in Yamaguchi, government bodies, and other support organizations to provide programs aimed at industrial promotion. Its support website addresses business improvement, sales-channel development, product development, and entry into new fields through consultation services, introductions to support measures, and the provision of company and human-resource information. As of April 2026, the foundation lists 97 staff members, including 19 regular or equivalent employees, and is designated as a core support organization and as the Yamaguchi Prefecture Small and Medium Enterprise Support Center. Its organizational history includes the 1979 reorganization into the Yamaguchi Prefecture Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion Association, the establishment of the Yamaguchi Prefecture Industrial Technology Development Organization in 1983, and the 2000 integration of the two organizations to form the Yamaguchi Industrial Promotion Foundation. The organization transitioned to a public interest incorporated foundation in 2012 and relocated its office within Yamaguchi City in 2021. The foundation states that it comprehensively supports industrial technology enhancement and the promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises, supports the development and creation of new industries in Yamaguchi, and undertakes activities that promote the appeal of local communities. For overseas expansion, it supports prefectural SMEs from basic-policy formulation through later implementation stages by using exhibitions and business meetings to develop markets, and it also directs aerospace-related activity through the Yamaguchi aerospace cluster.
Exhibits
The foundation supports Yamaguchi Eco Market members in developing sales channels, including participation in exhibitions for environmental products. It also conducts research on facilities, equipment, and methods that use advanced technology when that work can improve location conditions for companies developing advanced technology or applying it to product development and production. For SMEs adopting technology in step with technological innovation, it provides support for using such technology in product development, production, and related business activities. Its support scope includes transferring or leasing equipment, providing program-use rights, lending funds for equipment or software installation and license acquisition, and offering guidance intended to facilitate loan repayment. Supporting members can receive early support information, priority access to seminars and training, website-based member introductions, and preferential participation in factory tours; members with two or more units of membership also receive specified coworking and parking benefits. The Yamaguchi Prefecture Small and Medium Enterprise Support Center operates a comprehensive management consultation desk where foundation staff and managers coordinate measures for business planning, working-capital and equipment finance, commercialization of new technologies, new-product development, internal IT environments, and business-alliance contracts. These consultations are described as free of charge and confidential for SMEs and prospective entrepreneurs seeking startup support or management innovation. Through its management and technology diagnosis and advisory program, the foundation dispatches specialists to SMEs pursuing startups, management innovation, new-product development, or new-business expansion, providing support, diagnosis, and advice for problem solving. Eligibility is tied to having a principal business office in Yamaguchi Prefecture, a clear intention and objective for management improvement, and a situation in which specialist dispatch is expected to have an effect; the program also includes specified SME size limits by industry and can include qualifying voluntary groups and people planning to start a business within one year. For dispatched specialists, the participating company bears one half of the combined specialist honorarium of 35,000 yen per day before tax and travel costs calculated under the foundation's rules, while travel outside the prefecture is excluded from foundation support. The program provides up to 10 dispatch days per user during the usage period, targets approximately 16 companies, and lists a usage period through February 28, 2027 subject to available budget capacity. When a company needs help selecting a specialist, the foundation can introduce and match an appropriate expert after understanding the company's needs, but the specialist provides support, diagnosis, and advice rather than performing the company's own operational work. Online support can be conducted through web-conference systems when the arrangement allows a foundation representative to participate, and the program uses specified request, implementation-plan, change, completion-report, and follow-up forms for participating companies and registered experts. The Yamaguchi Prefecture SME Revitalization Council provides consultation, revitalization-plan support, and business-improvement-plan support, including assistance with business conversion, sales-channel development, cost reduction through rationalization, early treatment of unprofitable operations, and subsidies for costs related to improvement-plan preparation by certified support organizations. A professional-talent return program identifies personnel needs among growth-oriented SMEs, matches professional talent considering UJI-turn employment in Yamaguchi with local companies, supports side-job and concurrent-job arrangements, and can subsidize matching fees when recruitment agencies are used to bring workers from outside the prefecture. For digitalization and DX, the foundation offers staged support that includes grants for DX tools, information-processing systems, advanced projects, robotics, and cybersecurity, with listed subsidy ceilings ranging from 500 thousand yen for cybersecurity measures to 10,000 thousand yen for the pioneering robotics category. DX support also includes mentoring by specialists, matching with IT vendors, management-level DX training, subsidies for short-term private training in technologies such as IoT and AI, and seminars or IT workshops for digital-technology adoption. Startup and business-succession support combines programs for prospective entrepreneurs and SMEs, the Yamaguchi startup portal, a startup grant, and women-focused initiatives such as growth seminars, networking meetings, a business-plan contest, and a website that introduces women entrepreneurs and their products or areas of expertise. Science and technology outreach includes a summer junior science class for students from fifth grade of elementary school through second grade of junior high school, support for a council of seven youth invention clubs, and the Yamaguchi Industry website for learning about local manufacturing and industrial careers. Management-awareness training for SMEs and supporting members includes visits to advanced factories in the prefecture, intended to raise management awareness and improve management and technical levels. Management and technical training supports human-resource development for entry into advanced industries and for company upgrading, with past seminar themes including BCP planning, introductory DX, top management for reform, digital marketing, and presentation skills. Under the equipment-leasing program, the foundation purchases equipment requested by small businesses and then provides it to companies through installment sales or leasing. The program covers companies pursuing management innovation and entrepreneurs, and a separate new-business activity framework includes businesses expanding into information and communications, environment and energy, or medical fields, with employee-size rules that differ between the small-business and new-business schemes. Eligible equipment includes new equipment needed for management innovation or startup activity, with the innovation scheme requiring projected increases in both added value and total payroll, including thresholds of at least 15% added value and 7.5% payroll over five years, 12% and 6.0% over four years, or 9% and 4.5% over three years. The listed equipment-financing amount ranges from 1 million yen to 100 million yen and the listed term is generally three to ten years, while installment-sale variants can require deposits of 10% or 5% of the financed amount and lease variants list no deposit. As of April 1, 2026, listed fixed installment-loss rates include 2.30%, 2.40%, and 2.50% depending on credit risk for the small-business scheme and 2.30% for the new-business scheme; monthly lease-rate tables vary by legal useful life and lease term. The application window is listed from April 1, 2026 through January 22, 2027 unless the lending budget is exhausted earlier, and required materials include an equipment application, quotation, catalog or drawing and specifications, financial statements, tax and fixed-asset documents, and other documents that apply to the applicant's circumstances. Transaction-intermediation and sales-channel support helps prefectural SMEs develop new customers, expand channels, improve technical and management capabilities, and connect with higher-value buyers; fiscal-year 2025 results list 179 concluded matches with an initial concluded value of 1,947,694 thousand yen. The same program organizes business meetings between buyers and suppliers, supports joint participation in large domestic exhibitions, provides product and technology improvement and sales-expansion support through metropolitan-area coordinators, and offers consultation on unfair trading practices. For overseas expansion, the foundation provides comprehensive support from basic-policy formulation through implementation and operates the Yamaguchi Prefecture Overseas Business Support Desk in Singapore for consultation, advice, market research, business matching, and follow-up focused on ASEAN markets. Its overseas programs also include joint participation with prefectural companies in overseas machinery and food-processing exhibitions, grants for travel, interpretation, translation, and exhibition expenses needed for overseas market development, and individualized support matched to different stages of international expansion. The Yamaguchi Prefecture Mechatronics Technology Center was opened in April 1987 in Ube City to support research and development and technical exchange for SMEs working on mechatronics and related technologies, in an environment close to industrial-technology and academic institutions. The center provides research rooms and shared facilities that include a meeting room for about ten people, fiber-optic internet access, air conditioning, and kitchen cabinets with water service.
Capabilities and products
- SME consulting, marketing and business-development support
- aerospace cluster organization and international collaboration
- sales-channel support through environmental-product exhibitions
- comprehensive SME management consultation
- SME expert dispatch, diagnosis and advisory support
- SME revitalization and improvement-plan support
- professional-talent matching including side/concurrent jobs
- SME DX and robotics adoption subsidies
- DX expert mentoring and IT-vendor matching
- startup and business-succession support
- equipment installment sales and leasing
- financing support for equipment/software installation
- business matching and sales-channel development
- overseas expansion consulting, market research and business matching
- mechatronics R&D and technical-exchange support