Toyama Prefecture ― Basel-Stadt / Basel-Landschaft (2009)

Kanto | Toyama Prefecture

City Partnerships

How did Switzerland and Japan’s leading regions in pharmaceutics find themselves closely working together for the greater good?

Craftsmen and engineers

Situated in northernmost Chubu, between the Sea of Japan, the Noto Peninsula, and the Tateyama Mountain Range, Toyama Prefecture hosts a little over one million inhabitants. As a result, it is largely made up of spectacular forests, glaciers (almost all of Japan’s), and waterways, as symbolized by the breathtaking Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route. The area also boasts historical sites, such as the UNESCO World Heritage Gokayama villages, as well as centuries-old traditions, from craftsmanship (glassware, wood carvings, bronzeware) to seafood cuisine (firefly squids).

Beyond appearances, however, the region does not solely rely on tourism. In fact, as far as manufacturing is concerned, its pharmaceutical industry is among the most dynamic of all. Toyama Prefecture’s history in that field stretches back to the Edo period, and it is now a nationwide leader in terms of the production value of pharmaceuticals. As the prefecture uses the latest technologies available to develop high quality drugs, Toyama-produced pharmaceuticals enjoy an excellent reputation and can be found in medical facilities and stores both in Japan and overseas. And Switzerland happens to have played an important role in that success.

Exchanges through pharmaceuticals

The exchange between the prefecture’s pharmaceutical industry and Switzerland began in the summer of 2006, when the Toyama Pharmaceutical Association started to dispatch a "Basel inspection group" to the northern Swiss city of Basel on a yearly basis to conduct visits to pharmaceutical companies, attend corporate seminars, and hold business talks.

Such exchanges being vital in today’s accelerating global pharmaceutical market, Toyama Prefecture officials decided to formalize the partnership with the Swiss region in 2009. That year, in October, Toyama Governor Takakazu Ishii crossed the world to sign Switzerland and Japan’s very first cantonal/prefectural cooperation agreement with the presidents of the Governments of the Cantons of Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft. All parties formally pledged to promote exchanges related to pharmaceutical technologies and economic activities, as well as information and technology exchanges in the fields of arts and culture. Needless to say, given the expertise of the Basel region in these fields, Toyama made an excellent strategic choice.

The “world’s medicinal capital”

Bordering the German-French boundary, the Basel Region is in fact made of two small northern neighboring cantons: Basel-Landschaft and Basel-Stadt. While the former is usually known for its pristine nature and forested hills, it is also a prosperous economic area in which numerous SMEs, global corporations, and top research institutes are actively encouraged to innovate in crucial sectors such as life science, precision, and logistics.

The second, on the other hand, is a truly multilingual city with one of Switzerland’s most dynamic economic ecosystems and a unique cultural offer - as symbolized by its renowned Fondation Beyeler and Kunstmuseum Basel. This spatial configuration has enabled the Basel region to offer one of the world’s highest quality of life to its workers, who can live, work, and transit between two completely different environments.

The city has been a commercial hub and an important cultural center since the Renaissance (thanks to its 600 year-old university), and has emerged as a hub for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry in the 20th century. Dubbed as “the world’s medicinal capital” by some, Basel currently hosts numerous pharmaceuticals, chemistry, bio-related companies and laboratories. Among them, the headquarters of Roche and Novartis, two of the biggest pharmaceutical manufacturers on the planet.

Ever-expanding

Since 2010, the Toyama-Basel Joint Symposium on Pharmaceutical Research and Drug Development has been held every two years, and Toyama-based companies have had countless opportunities to conduct business negotiations, to set up technical alliances, and to collaborate on the development of new drugs with local Swiss partners.

Most recently, in 2018, the Toyama Prefectural University, the Toyama University and the University of Basel agreed to offer new possibilities of academic exchanges to each other’s students. The 2009 agreement between Governor Ishii and the two Swiss Cantons was also renewed, and was updated to include biotech and inter-university exchanges as additional fields for cooperation. In the signing ceremony organized in Toyama Prefecture, Basel-Stadt Councillor Conradin Cramer and Governor Ishii signed the agreement, foretelling not only strengthening of the relations between Toyama Prefecture and Basel, but also further groundbreaking medical progress and innovation for all Japanese and Swiss people to benefit from!