Promoting "Regionally-Rooted Digital Exports" in Linkage with Local Governments

Japan Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) is formally supporting overseas expansion of small and medium-sized IT companies in the digital field. This policy is closely linked with local governments and regional banks, focusing on enabling companies outside the metropolitan area to enter the global market. According to the MIC, until May 23, it is soliciting applications for the "Support Project for Overseas Deployment of Digital Infrastructure with Secured Safety and Reliability" targeting locally-rooted ICT small and medium enterprises implementing overseas expansion of digital technology. Eligibility: companies headquartered outside Tokyo with capital of 100 million yen or less. This is interpreted as a strategy to simultaneously reduce metropolitan concentration and promote digital transformation and globalization of regional economies. The Korea lesson: Korea has similar regional-to-global digital export ambitions but lacks the coordinated municipal-central government support structure Japan is implementing; Japan approach (local banks as co-supporters, prefectural government as facilitators, central government as funder) creates a distributed support network that smaller companies can access without needing Seoul connections; Korea could consider similar structures connecting Busan, Daegu, and Daejeon tech companies to global markets through regional support networks rather than requiring Seoul office presence for international market access support.