Tokyo Global Innovation Challenge 2025 Now Accepting Applications
Applications opened today for the Tokyo Global Innovation Challenge (TGIC) 2025, a contest designed to foster entrepreneurship among university students worldwide.
The TGIC 2025 is open to teams of 3 to 6 undergraduate and graduate students, including international students, from universities both in Japan and abroad. Teams can be comprised of mixed international and Japanese members, be entirely Japanese, or entirely international. The challenge encourages student-led business ideas, excluding those based on faculty-led research or existing incorporated companies. Participants must be prepared to present their pitches in English, as the entire symposium and contest will be conducted in the language.
The winning team will receive a prize of ¥1,000,000, with additional awards available for all finalist teams. Judging will focus on passion and leadership, originality, market competitiveness, growth potential, profitability, and feasibility. Applicants are required to submit a pitch video of up to five minutes in length, hosted on a cloud storage platform like Google Drive. This competition aims to cultivate the next generation of global business leaders and address pressing challenges through innovative solutions – a crucial element in today’s rapidly evolving economic landscape.
The deadline for applications is November 15, 2025. Further information about the challenge, including detailed evaluation criteria and the application form, can be found at TGIC. Organizers stated that they are looking for ideas that “go beyond boundaries” and “break through limits.”
