On Friday, July 7, an event for entrepreneurs called Rocket Pitch Night Kansai was held at Yasuhiro Wakebayashi International Exchange Center on the Osaka Ibaraki Campus (OIC). This pitch event, one of the largest of its kind in Japan, was co-hosted by Ritsumeikan and Venture Café Tokyo (Minato-ku, Tokyo). It was held to commemorate the first anniversary of the launch of OIC CONNÉCT, a series of monthly programs at OIC, and it was the first time it was held in Kansai.

Rocket Pitch Night, a signature event of Venture Café Tokyo, was launched to stimulate entrepreneurship in Japan based on the pitch format developed by Babson College in the United States. Each participant has three minutes to present their business ideas, after which they receive feedback from the commentators and the audience, thereby allowing them to take the first step toward starting their own business. The aim of Rocket Pitch Night Kansai was to invigorate the startup community not only at Ritsumeikan but throughout the Kansai region.

The event was held as a hybrid face-to-face/online session in the Noh Theater inside Yasuhiro Wakebayashi International Exchange Center. Divided into 10 groups over four topic areas, a total of 40 groups of entrepreneurs took the stage, and each had three minutes to make their pitch. After the pitches, the commentators provided feedback, and the audience voted for their favorite pitch, with the winning team receiving a People's Choice Award.

The main venue was packed, with about 300 of the 500 audience members attending in person. Outside of the Noh Theater as well, others enjoyed the event by watching the pitch at the public viewing space and in interacting with other attendees in the exchange space.

People's Choice Award winners for each category

（1）Medical/Healthcare: PLEN Robotics Inc.
（2） Lifestyle/Education: Kachibin, Gurukai Co., Ltd. (tie)
（3）Food/Environment/Energy/Social: Veggy Connect
（4）IT/AI/IoT/AR&VR: MatchHat, Wearphone (tie)