Mitsubishi Estate is promoting the "Marunouchi as a Single Integrated Workplace” Concept, involving multiple companies in the area in what would be too challenging an undertaking for an individual firm. This fiscal year, Mitsubishi Estate launched "Citywide Demonstration Experiment by TMIP" an initiative centered on its open innovation platform “TMIP” to plan and advance PoC(proof-of-concept) experiments through co-creation among multiple companies. We explored the vision behind the project.

Currently, Mitsubishi Estate is promoting "Marunouchi as a Single Integrated Workplace” concept, which views the entire Marunouchi area (Otemachi, Marunouchi, Yurakucho) as a platform for delivering services and solutions that would be difficult for any single company to achieve on its own.

One defining characteristic of Marunouchi area is its “convenience and concentration” , built over more than 135 years of urban development by Mitsubishi Estate in collaboration with numerous stakeholders. With this advantage, the whole-area platform will support tenant companies in attaining what their own offices alone cannot and what individual corporate initiatives would struggle to accomplish. By functioning as a platform for the entire area, it will provide essential office functions—such as coworking spaces, lounges and break areas—while also fostering interaction, sparking innovation, improving work styles and supporting business growth.

Mitsubishi Estate is advancing open innovation with diverse players, including startups, aiming to create change and innovate its business model to realize value for the next generation. It is building an innovation ecosystem through investments in domestic and international startups and venture capital firms, supporting startup growth and promoting collaboration and business co-creation using the company group’s assets, and supporting new business creation by large corporations. Ayuri Ofuchi of the TMIP Secretariat, Promotion and Ecosystem Building Unit, Innovative Communities Department, explains as follows:

"As new work styles and values are emerging across the Marunouchi area, we must reconsider what we can offer. From the perspective of ensuring the city’s long-term vitality, we want to bring together diverse players-not only large corporations but also startups, venture capital firms and academia. By facilitating an innovation ecosystem, we want to transform Marunouchi into an urban area that fosters a culture of challenge, where people interact across corporate boundaries, creating new value."

In the "Marunouchi as a Single Integrated Workplace," the “Innovation Field and Growth” aspect has been driven forward by TMIP (Tokyo Marunouchi Innovation Platform), an open innovation platform designed to support large corporations in creating new businesses and foster collaboration between large corporations and startups, as well as industry, government, academia, to generate new businesses.

To build an innovation ecosystem in Marunouchi area, TMIP now counts over 350 participating organizations, including members and partners. Participation is on a corporate basis, with many representatives coming from new business divisions of large companies. Membership is not limited to tenant companies or Mitsubishi Group firms but open to startups seeking opportunities for joint projects with large corporations.

"We launched this initiative in 2019 to create organic connections within Marunouchi area." Ofuchi follows "It is a rare community where so many new business leaders from large corporations gather at this scale in Japan. Consequently, it has attracted strong interest from both large corporations and startups."

The foundation of business creation at TMIP lies in its community, able to access the expertise of 350 organizations. TMIP consists of ”Members,” primarily large corporations and startups, ”Partners” including community development groups, venture capital firms, academia, and government agencies, and “Mentors” who provide business creation support, and an "Advisory Board" composed of experts possessing cutting-edge knowledge and insights.
Starting with member-exclusive networking events, the TMIP secretariat provides continuous, hands-on support, working alongside members throughout the entire process of creating, testing and bringing new ventures to market.

As part of the TMIP program, an initiative called "Citywide Demonstration Experiment by TMIP" is currently underway, in which promotes demonstration experiments projects through co-creation among multiple companies in the Marunouchi area. Under TMIP coordination, by using the area’s workplace infrastructure and its dense concentration of businesses, the program aims to validate new business ideas and advance them toward social implementation.

“We quickly bring multiple companies on track, assemble the necessary players to form teams, and build the framework for PoC. A key feature of our initiative is providing a real-world testing ground set here in Marunouchi area,” says Ofuchi.

As the first project of the initiative, a co-creation project with coordimate Co., Ltd. (Shibuya-ku, Tokyo), a startup spun out from NTT DOCOMO Group's new business creation program "docomo STARTUP®," launched in September 2025. This demonstration experiment is being conducted in Mitsubishi Estate’s business-support shared office spaces (EGG, 0 Club, Inspired.Lab) and is designed to support customers, with the aim of making outfit selection in business settings smarter and more efficient. Using coordinate's fashion app based on "Professional Stylists × Technology" concept, the project will carry out verifications over approximately three months.

TMIP also implements numerous co-creation projects. For example, there are new-business PoC projects by large corporations, such as AGC’s market exploration for new products utilizing the Shin-Marunouchi Building. It also facilitates verification projects involving large corporations, startups, and local governments, such as spatial VR tourism and immersive commerce, as well as verification utilizing the latest technologies. Moreover, a road demonstration project in which electric kickboards ran on the public street was implemented under the new business special exemption system, the first such case in Japan.

Kana Nakagawa, in the Promotion and Ecosystem Building Unit in the Innovative Communities Department and a member of the TMIP Secretariat says: "Many TMIP members express strong demand for access to real-world testing environments, and they often tell us that conducting trials in an actual city has helped them uncover both challenges and new value. We hope that "Citywide Demonstration Experiment by TMIP" will help businesspeople from diverse fields to go beyond boundaries of their own organizations and work together to address societal issues through co-creation.

Moving forward, the initiative will focus on themes such as "Work Styles," "Health," "Mobility," and "Sustainability" and further leverage the area as a field for business growth. By organically linking workplaces, corporate clusters, and TMIP's expertise and assets in the Marunouchi area, the program will accelerate co-creation projects aimed at achieving social implementation.

Based on insights from PoC, Mitsubishi Estate will further strengthen collaboration among participating organizations, placing even greater emphasis on promoting open innovation and generating new co-creation success stories in the Marunouchi area. Through these efforts, it aims to foster a city where diverse stakeholders work together to create new value.

"There are 350,000 workers and 5,000 businesses concentrated in the Marunouchi area, combined with the 350-organization TMIP initiative that aims to create new ventures, we see limitless potential" says Nakagawa. "Precisely because there is no single right answer for new business development, TMIP aspires to be a platform that connects people to new business ideas and insights by introducing co-creation examples and methodologies. We will continue to accompany companies’ efforts and offer support throughout the process, fostering collaboration and co-creation among diverse players. And through the “Citywide Demonstration Experiment by TMIP" initiative, we hope to take on new challenges together and accelerates business growth."