As part of a technology innovation program, Japanese government is sending three blockchain startup companies to the United States, CoinDesk reported.

The program, “Project for a Bridge of Innovation between Silicon Valley and Japan”, aims to foster cooperation between Japanese and US technology firms. In October 2015, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced that it will dispatch 20 people selected from across the country, which marked the first step of the program.

Earlier this month, METI said that employees from 55 startups would take part in the initiative.

“The “HIYAKU Next Enterprise” program is a part of the “Silicon Valley-Japan Bridge Project” sublet by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). This program will send 55 SMEs with cutting-edge technologies and excellent ideas (“Japan Startup Selection”) to the world’s leading innovation ecosystems such as Silicon Valley in the United States”, the announcement reads.

Among those selected for the program includes Keychain GK, Quoine and Soramitsu. According to CoinDesk, representatives from Keychain GK will go to Silicon Valley, while those from Quoine and Soramitsu will visit New York as part of the program. Another technology firm, HAW International Inc., which has developed a business line focused on blockchain, is also taking part in the program.

Keychain GK is a Japanese blockchain development company. Our concept is to easily integrate blockchain technology into an existing IT infrastructure.

QUOINE Corporation operates "QUOINE EXCHANGE", the world's most advanced virtual currency exchange platform utilizing blockchain technology and capturing the largest transaction volume in Asia.

Soramitsu Co., Ltd. developed an open source distributed ledger platform "Iroha" and submitted it to the Linux Foundation's Hyperledger Project. Iroha was accepted into the incubation program and it is the third accepted distributed ledger project along with projects created by IBM and Intel. Soramitsu's main task is to utilize Iroha to produce a platform for managing digital identities.