Toru Tanigawa

Toru Tanigawa is a distinguished figure in the field of entrepreneurship education and university-industry collaboration. After earning a Bachelor of Law degree from Kyoto University in 1973, he spent 27 years at the Development Bank of Japan, holding various managerial positions and gaining expertise in project-based finance and business liaison between central government agencies. In 2002, he became a professor and the leader for university-industry collaboration (UIC) at Kyushu University, where he established the Robert T. Huang Entrepreneurship Center (QREC) in 2010. QREC gained a high reputation as a top-level entrepreneurship education center in Japan under his directorship. In 2017, he started his own company, e.lab (Entrepreneurship Laboratory), which focuses on supporting UIC, entrepreneurship education, and regional innovation. Tanigawa's professional experience and expertise have made him one of the top leaders of entrepreneurship education in Japan.