Remembering Reiri: Visionary investor who championed Japan’s biotech sector 

Reiri Miura helped build venture firms, companies and networks that strengthened Japan’s biotech industry

When trailblazing Japanese investor Reiri Miura co-founded SIIF Impact Capital in 2022, the move was the natural extension of her 20-plus years in the life sciences industry. The fund, created with Kazuhiro Umeda to invest at the intersection of innovation and societal well-being, reflected her belief that value extends beyond financial returns.

“It was her sincere wish to give back to society, and I believe that her involvement with SIIF Impact Capital was a true realization of that goal,” Umeda, representative director of SIIF Impact Capital Co., told BioCentury.

Miura was an investor, a builder of venture firms and companies, and a lifelong student. But most of all, she was a matchmaker extraordinaire, connecting people from all walks of life.

“I witnessed, day after day, how she took it upon herself to bring joy to others — treating every person, regardless of background or industry, with genuine warmth and affection,” Umeda said as he eulogized Miura last month at St. Ignatius Church on the Sophia University Yotsuya Campus. “That, I came to understand, was the true source of her extraordinary ability to bring people together.”

She would host weekend retreats with a who’s who of biopharma, bringing together pharma and biotech executives, VCs, bankers, and representatives of foreign companies at locations such as hot springs in the mountains of Nagano.

She co-organized a Japan-China Biotech Industry Forum, arriving at the venue early to meet with participants and offer “small but smart ideas that made the whole session better,” fellow organizer Jimmy Wei, CEO of Chime Biologics Ltd., told BioCentury. “She didn’t seek the spotlight, but her presence made everything around her run more smoothly.”

In a “quiet, steady way she made the world a little better, one small gesture at a time,” Wei said. It infused every aspect of her life.

A business dinner with Miura would transform a Western visitor’s trip to Tokyo into an unforgettable experience. Delivery drivers would leave her office with ice-cold drinks and expressions of gratitude on a sweltering summer day. She befriended a volunteer cleaning the streets on her short walk to work, a new friend who would give her sweets to take to the office.

“These quiet, natural acts of warmth — the kind most people never even think to do — she carried out every day, without fanfare,” Umeda said.

BioCentury Global Strategic Account Manager Matt Krebs considered “Miura-san” a mentor. “Whether she was introducing you to a kid running a postdoc study on some pie-in-the-sky idea or introducing you to the CEO and CSO of Taiho Pharma — she did it with an insatiable matchmaking appetite,” said Krebs.

She also had a global mindset that Japan desperately needed, Krebs said.

With a background in developmental biology, molecular embryology, and health policy, Miura began her professional journey in the chemical group of Mitsubishi Corp., where she worked in China, Europe and the U.S. 

At Mitsubishi, she participated in a Burrill & Co. program that seconded investors to the Silicon Valley VC firm for hands-on venture capital experience.

“When I asked how much she had invested, she said that since her true purpose was the secondment itself, she had negotiated the investment down to the absolute minimum,” Umeda said. “My first impression of her was of someone who pursues her goals with remarkable tenacity and clear-eyed logic.”

She helped launch multiple Japanese corporate VCs in the West, including Taiho Ventures, which she established with Sakae Asanuma, the firm’s president & CEO.

“She only sleeps for a couple of hours and reads one entire book or studies new things every single night to broaden her knowledge for achieving her goals,” Asanuma recalled. “I have never seen such a superwoman, with unlimited energy.”

Remiges Ventures’ Taro Inaba calls Miura the “mother” of the venture firm he founded and leads as managing partner.

“Without her, we would not have been able to create this fund,” said Inaba, who saw Miura as a visionary who was instrumental in growing Japan’s biotech sector.

“She had a vision that she could create a very strong biotech industry in Japan,” Inaba said, noting that while Japan boasts a strong pharma legacy, its biotech sector has lagged the West. “Her vision inspired many people that they could start something new here.”

Miura’s vision will have a lasting impact as Japan’s life sciences looks toward the future.

“Her legacy will move on in all that Japanese pharma accomplishes,” Krebs said. “Her impact on the industry is profound. We are all moving in a better direction because of her.”

Miura never stopped moving forward, even as her health waned during her fight with cancer, Umeda said. Plans were made for SIIF Impact Capital’s sixth investment, in a company developing a therapy to regenerate teeth, mere days before she passed.

“Even in the depths of this grief, the days we shared walking together with Reiri were an irreplaceable blessing — one that will continue to be a great source of strength in my own life,” Umeda said.