5xRuby Signs Memorandum of Understanding with Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture, Japan to Advance Taiwan–Japan IT Talent Exchange
Taipei, August 9, 2025 — 5xRuby signed a memorandum of understanding on the promotion of exchange with Matsue City, Shimane Prefecture, Japan, at COSCUP × RubyConf Taiwan 2025. Mayor Akihito Uesada of Matsue City traveled to Taiwan to sign the MOU in person with 5xRuby CEO Mu-Fan Teng.
Matsue City is the birthplace of the Ruby programming language and home to its creator, Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto. For years the city has run its “Ruby City MATSUE” project, using Ruby to drive local industry and talent development, which is rare among cities anywhere in the world. Since its founding, 5xRuby has built its work on Ruby and Ruby on Rails and has long taken part in and supported community events such as RubyConf Taiwan. This signing turns years of community friendship between the two parties into a formal partnership.
Areas of Cooperation
Under the MOU, the two parties will cooperate in the following areas:
- Developing the next generation of IT talent: jointly fostering young engineers in Taiwan and Japan.
- Community, conference and industry exchange: promoting people-to-people and technical exchange between IT communities, technical conferences and IT companies in both regions.
- Other matters that help achieve the purpose of the cooperation.
The Mayor’s Remarks Before the Matz Keynote
On the day of the signing, Mayor Uesada took the stage before Matz’s keynote to introduce Matsue to Taiwan’s developers. He noted that the city’s leading industry is IT, and that “so many IT companies are gathering in our city because of Ruby.” Matsue has run the Matsue Open Source Lab in front of Matsue Station since 2006, has hosted RubyWorld Conference every year since 2009 (drawing close to 1,000 attendee-visits over two days in past years), and awards the Ruby Prize, while Shimane Prefecture holds the Ruby biz Grand prix. In education, every municipal junior high school in Matsue teaches Ruby programming, and the city has also piloted Ruby-based lessons in elementary schools. In ten or twenty years, the mayor said, Matsue will have produced many great Ruby engineers.
The mayor also pointed out that since May there have been direct flights from Taoyuan Airport to Yonago Airport, next to Matsue, taking just two and a half hours, so Taiwan and Matsue are closer than many people think. He closed with:
“We would like to make use of the worldwide Ruby network and community, exchange ideas with you, and make the world better by using Ruby.”
About Matsue City
Matsue City is the capital of Shimane Prefecture, Japan. It faces the Sea of Japan, has a population of about 190,000, and is the birthplace of Ruby. Through its “Ruby City MATSUE” project, the city has long promoted Ruby talent development and the growth of a local IT industry cluster.
About the Company
Founded in 2014, 5xRuby Co., Ltd. is one of the most representative companies in Taiwan specializing in the Ruby programming language, offering web services built mainly on the Ruby on Rails framework. Its brand clients are located across Taiwan, Singapore, Japan and beyond. The company has helped an overseas startup develop a cross-border e-commerce service that went on to successfully raise a Series A round, and has developed apps and web services for many publicly listed Taiwanese companies. Through technical consulting and corporate technology advisory services, it helps brands lay a solid foundation for web development and provides professional web solutions.
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