Japanese port city wants to become the country's Web3 hub

Thanks to a new collaboration with Astar Japan Labs, the city of Fukuoka aims to become the country's Web3 hub, like the Silicon Valley.< /p> New

In Japan, the city of Fukuoka is looking to the future of Web3 in its latest partnership with Astar Japan Labs, the company behind Japan's leading blockchain, the Astar Network.< /p>

Fukuoka is the second largest port city in the country and has been officially designated a National Special Strategic Area. Now, it also plans to become the nation's hub for all things Web3 and crypto.

The partnership with Astar Japan Labs will allow the two entities to work together on new use cases for Web3 technologies. Fukuoka joins more than 45 companies working with Astar, including Microsoft Japan and Amazon Japan.

According to the announcement, the city wants to attract competitive international companies to the region. Representatives from Astar will visit the city regularly to provide training and new use cases both locally and nationwide in conjunction with local governments.

Fukuoka Mayor Soichiro Takashima also supported the city's new Web3 aspirations:

"We need to do in the context of Web3 what big business did for the world when Japan was strong."

Astar Network founder Sota Watanabe compared the city's attitude towards crypto to those leading the crypto scene overseas. “In the United States, some cities like Maimi and New York have positive attitudes towards Web3 and crypto. We will work closely with the city of Fukuoka to attract more developers and more entrepreneurs. »

Related: Which countries are the worst when it comes to taxing crypto? A new study lists the top five

This new development comes after a wave of changes in Japan regarding the crypto and Web3 scene.

The country has been touted as one of the strictest in terms of crypto regulations, which has the potential to deter its appeal. On the other hand, he also recently