Kagyo Innovation Lab is a community and support initiative for the next generation of family-business successors in Japan. It helps participants honor their businesses’ traditions while developing fresh ideas suited to changing times. The Lab believes innovation can begin through encounters with new people, technologies, industries, and perspectives, as well as with peers facing similar challenges.

Its activities include programs, events, seminars, and fieldwork designed to inspire successors and help them turn ideas into practice. The Lab also shares news, participant stories, and examples of family businesses pursuing new approaches, including work in manufacturing, agriculture, and sake brewing. Its online community connects successors across Japan, offering a place to discuss concerns, exchange business advice, and provide mutual mentoring through a Facebook group.

Kagyo Innovation Lab aims to spark the connections and collaboration that enable family businesses to reinvent themselves while carrying forward their founders’ intentions. The initiative is organized with support from ETIC, the Farmers’ Successor Network, and NN Life Insurance.