About Tsuruoka Science Park

Tsuruoka Science Park is located in Shonai Plain, a well known rich rice-producing areas in Japan. The world's most advanced biotechnology research has been conducted through a partnership between Yamagata Prefecture with 14 municipalities in the Shonai area including Tsuruoka City and Keio University’s Institute of Advanced Biosciences which was established in 2001. Many biotech venture companies have emerged from the institute and a cluster of highly advanced related institutions has developed, attracting from Japan, then abroad as a successful site for creative regional revitalization with university at its core.

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Shonai Plain continues to be a rice-producing region not only because of its favorable environment. People of the region have continued to pass on their techniques to improve the seedlings and prepare the soil so that they continue to be a rice plant. In other words, this rice field is a historic place for the biotechnology of rice cultivation. During the days of castle town, "Chidokan" school of the Shonai domain has been a place where efforts have been made to carefully nurture people, and the regions had a culture of respect for learning.

Tsuruoka City, has three rich nature and traditional culture Japanese Heritage sites. The three mountains of Dewa, commonly known as Mt. Haguro, Mt. Gassan, and Mt. Yudono, were visited by people from all over Japan since the Edo period as a place of pilgrimage to be reborn as a new soul while living. Tsuruoka is a land where one can feel the breath of life and its depths.

The main research conducted at the Tsuruoka Science Park is biotechnology, a field that is closely related to many things, including living organisms, food, and the natural environment. The cycles of living organisms, looking at the finite, and reconstructing our being together. It is perhaps inevitable that forefront biotechnological research is being conducted at the site of the Dewa Sanzan pilgrimage, where life, death, and rebirth are faced.

Spiber is a leading bio-venture company in the Tsuruoka Science Park, and one of the few unicorn companies in Japan. It engages in the production and industrialization of Brewed Protein™, which is a structural protein material using microorganisms that do not rely on depleted resources for their raw materials. Spiber aims to provide key materials for the next generation and to create a sustainable future for nature, people, and humanity as a whole.

In Tsuruoka Science Park, there are leisure facilities like, SUIDEN TERRASSE which is a hotel, and an all-weather playground for children to develop their talents called KIDS DOME SORAI. The hotel exists as if it were floating in the rice fields, and is the place where children can nurture their ability to think and create while playing.

Tsuruoka Science Park develops forefront research and business while being watched over by a landscape and culture that have been cherished since ancient times. To foster new communities and possibilities through connections within and outside the region, and to create a better future with forefront, superior science and technology and a sense of mission.

Local community, academic institutions, and private companies will work together to leap forward with a strong sense of mission to create new values for the future in the blessed environment of Tsuruoka. We hope that discoveries and business cycles will be created through co-creation with people inside and outside the region who share our commitment.