PR TIMES Inc., which operates the press release distribution service “PR TIMES,” signed a partnership agreement with Kumamoto City, Kumamoto Prefecture on Thursday, April 17, 2025, with the aim of supporting the dissemination of information by startups and other businesses in Kumamoto City and promoting industry by disseminating economic policies and other information from the city. This is the first time that PR TIMES has signed a partnership agreement with an organization based in Kumamoto Prefecture.
Kumamoto City supports business startups through events such as “Kumamoto City Pitch,” which aims to create innovation from Kumamoto, and “KUMAMOTO STARTUP NIGHT,” which promotes startups in the city. In addition, Kumamoto City’s business support facility “XOSS POINT.”, which reopened on April 1, 2022, aims to create a Kumamoto version of a startup ecosystem by supporting business startups in the city from startup to growth and forming a community involving mentors and support institutions (financial institutions, universities, research institutions, etc.) through acceleration programs aimed at realizing “Kumamoto City, where innovation is born sustainably .” In addition, ” KUMAMOTO Atotsugi Venture DAY 2024 ” will be held as an initiative to discover and develop successors for small and medium-sized enterprises in the city. The ” Kumamoto City Small and Medium-sized Enterprise DX Acceleration Project ” is working to improve corporate productivity and create new value by providing support such as seminars and workshops, mentoring by specialized consultants, and training on human resource development to small and medium-sized enterprises in the city that are using digital technology to transform their business operations. It is expected that support through this agreement in terms of information dissemination and public relations will accelerate new initiatives and business creation by supported businesses.
PR TIMES, a press release distribution service operated by PR TIMES, exceeded 100,000 companies in July 2024, and is used by many people, from startups to large companies, government agencies such as local governments, and individual business owners. With the mission of “creating an era in which information from those who take action moves people’s hearts,” the company continues to support startups taking action toward new challenges in disseminating information. Since 2015, the company has been offering the ” Startup Challenge , ” which allows newly established companies to use PR TIMES for free by clearing certain conditions up to two years after establishment . In 2024, of the 63 companies newly listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Growth Market, 47 companies, or 74.6%, use PR TIMES.
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More than 60% of PR TIMES users are located in Tokyo, and while they are concentrated in urban areas, mainly in the Kanto region, new registrations are gradually increasing from all over the country. In order to promote the creation of relationships that lead to business expansion by making the services and solutions that companies have available nationwide, regardless of region or company size, we have been providing support, including providing free programs, with financial institutions, media, and local governments across the country since 2017. Most recently, as an official press release evangelist of our company, we are working to spread the press release culture among businesses by holding seminars on public relations PR across the country in cooperation with PR people who are working to spread the use of press releases to those around them. In Kumamoto City, we held a seminar at “XOSS POINT.” in February 2025, explaining the key points of public relations, PR, and press release utilization.
February 2025: Public relations seminar held at “XOSS POINT.” in Kumamoto City / Yuki Hirao, PR TIMES certified press release evangelist, Fukunari Co., Ltd. And now, we have established a collaboration with Kumamoto City, a designated city and one of the leading economic hubs in Kyushu, as well as a declared core city in the government’s Core City Area Initiative, with the aim of supporting information dissemination by businesses in the city.
Kumamoto City is home to a diverse range of industries, including semiconductor-focused manufacturing, and agriculture, forestry and fisheries, which support Kyushu and the rest of the country. The city is also bustling with tourism, taking advantage of its easy access to Kumamoto Castle and the Aso area. The area around Kumamoto Station is home to the Shimotori Arcade, one of the largest in the prefecture, and Sakuramachi Kumamoto, a commercial facility that opened in Sakuramachi, close to Kumamoto Castle, in 2019. A semiconductor company that boasts the world’s largest share of contract manufacturing in the prefecture has expanded into Kikuyo Town, Kumamoto Prefecture, making a major impact on the economy of not only the prefecture but also Kyushu.
Taking advantage of this partnership, Kumamoto City and our company will work together to provide PR support to businesses in the city, and we hope that this will lead to more active information dissemination by these businesses in Kumamoto City. With the goal of promoting local industries through business support, we will hold seminar events that contribute to the business growth of startups, small and medium-sized enterprises that have supported local industries, and “Atotsugi ventures,” and will provide support for the creation of press releases.
SOURCE: PRTimes
