Disrupting Japan

Some of Japan's innovations are going to have a much bigger impact outside of Japan. Like most startups, most AgTech startups sensibly tend to focus on their own markets. While this makes things easier at first, it tends to overlook the huge challenges -- and potentially huge profits -- that exist in the developing world. Today we talk with Shunsuke Tsuboi of Sagri, and he explains how Sagri started life as a satellite -imaging startup focused on incremental innovation in Japan, but then quickly transformed itself into a disruptive FinTech startup serving India and Southeast Asia. It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it. Show Notes The truth about university startup support in Japan Why India is a better target for this Japanese startup Why selling to family farms is harder than selling to industrial farms Why sustainable business models are hard for agriculture startups The challenges for market entry in any agriculture startup Three reasons there are so few agriculture startups in Japan Why most Japanese VCs don't invest in AgTech What Japanese universities can do to improve creativity Links from the Founder Everything you ever wanted to know about Sagri Friend Shun on Facebook TV Interview about Sagri. (Japanese) Nikkei interview with Shun  (Japanese) Transcript Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan's most successful entrepreneurs. I’m Tim Romero and thanks for joining me. Today, we're going to about agricultural startups in Japan.  You know, it's interesting, with Japan's high food prices, the financial support for farmers, and the strong system of university agricultural research, I've always been a bit surprised that we don't see more AgTech startups in Japan.  Well, today's conversation goes a long way to explaining exactly why that is, it's both fascinating and a little frustrating.  Today we sit down with Shunsuke Tsuboi of Sagri, who is using satellite imaging and AI to help small-scale farmers, some in Japan but mostly in the developing world. Shunsuke explains the challenges of launching a startup from universities without specific startup support, why going global often has nothing to do with the US or Europe, and why the world is a better place when there are tens of millions of small family farms in it and why those are worth preserving.  But you know, Shunsuke tells that story much better than I can, so let's get right to the interview. Interview Tim: I'm sitting here with Shun Tsuboi of Sagri, who is using satellites and artificial intelligence to solve agricultural problems. Thanks for joining us today. Shun: Yeah, thank you very much. Thank you for this time. Tim: It's great to have you, and I mean, agriculture tech, AgTech is something that's it's interesting in Japan, and people don't talk about it enough, so I'm really glad you're on the show. So can you explain a little bit more about what Sagri does, what is the service you're offering? Shun: Sagri company is based in Japan and India. So we are using satellite data to checking the each of the farmland and also the food of farmers we get using satellite data for smartphone, such as when is the best harvesting time and also which is a good soil situation, we can check it. Tim: The soil analysis, is that done by satellite or do you have people on the ground checking? Shun: They're using satellite, yes. Tim: Really? Shun: Yeah, along the 1,000 farmland, checking just 10 farmland detail, we can spreading the satellite information. Tim: So from satellite imaging, you can tell soil composition, you can tell farmers when the ideal time to apply pesticides, when to harvest. How do your customers interact with this? Is there a smartphone app? How does it work? Shun: So using satellite data checking through the application, they can connect it that mechanical, so this machine is automatically do that. Tim: So the machines would automatically apply fertilizer?  Shun: Yes, this is more needed all over the farmland can check through the satellite. Tim: Tell me about your customers, who's using this? Is this small family farms? Is this large industrial farms? Who are your customers? Shun: So now is mainly is up to 10 hectare is a target. Tim: Okay, so still very small.  Shun: Oh, yeah. So in Japan, most of the farmers are very small, so they can get easily through satellite data. So in United States and the European is a more big farm, so this is not our target. Tim: Interesting. I want to really dig into all of the different use cases and the things you're exploring in a minute, but before we get there, I want to back up a bit and talk a bit about you. So you're currently still a grad student at Yokohama National University and you started Sagri a few years ago. So is this something you're doing with the university or something on the side? Shun: That app is three years ago we started. So I'm a space technology, I belong to in my laboratory, this one is collected our business. My laboratory doing the soil situation or mechanical situation using satellite data. So making the company, some cases we are using this technology, but otherwise we are running own self, mix it, do that. Our CTO is a other university professor, so like a collaboration as a technology and combined making the business. Tim: It's funny, when we talk about university startups in Japan, Todai and Keio seem to get all the attention. Shun: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Tim: So what kind of support did you get from Yokohama National University? Shun: Two things - I'm a mechanical engineering, and during the university, I get the chance to join the laboratory more faster. And the second thing is business issue to go to the Silicon Valley and the Boston can get the chance to be, so this two thing, Yokohama National University supported to me. Tim: But not much in terms of fundraising support or-- Shun: It is so weak compared to Tokyo University or yes, Keio University? Tim: Yeah, those two universities, they have their own venture funds so it's hard to compare. Shun: Yeah, yeah, yeah, our university don't have it.  Tim: Well, I don't know, I mean, I guess that's good for a founder, it forces you to be more resourceful. But I noticed as you've launched, you guys have done a lot of pitch contests, and has that been really useful for business development? Shun: So the first year, the second year, at first we don’t have the chance, that's the reason we pitch things on many contests, such as the Singularity University and Silicon Valley 500 acceleration program. Through this, we get a chance so nowadays, government and some big company understand our technology so using. Tim: Pitch contests are really interesting. There's so many of them now.  Shun: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.  Tim: And so it's hard to know, sometimes they seem like really valuable, sometimes they seem like a real waste of time. But you guys have generated real business from these pitch contests. Shun: Yeah. At firstly, like VC, the company people can't imagine the world like few years later, but we can. So pitch contest's value is like pitching being the contest so they can understand this technology will happen to the future. So they think they want to hear from us. So like, so business chances often happen, but a few times I win, now I can do that, because of many years business chances are coming. Tim: Okay, so that's good. You sort of graduated. Shun: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So but the first year, second years are needed, now in our third year, so I’m choosing about pitch contest, this one is I needed to apply but this one is okay. Tim: What's your advice for other founders in terms of pitch contests? Is it something you should do early on and then just graduate, go into a new phase? Shun: Now is a graduate phase, this year we are already finishing the venture capital funding, so we want to spread the business more.  Tim: That makes sense. Shun: Yeah.  Tim: And actually, let's talk about some of the different business models you're exploring and the different kind of customers you have. One of the things on your website that you're talking about is your work with Japanese government to identify abandoned agricultural land? Shun: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Tim: Why is that important? Why do they want to do that? Shun: Yeah, because most of ,cities in Japan every year by manual checking, all of the farmland, around the 30 million farmland is existed, so we can use in satellite data. Tim: So currently, they have dedicated staff looking at satellite photos, or they have dedicated staff driving around to different-- Shun: They are driving and checking by manual each of the farmland.  Tim: Oh, okay. Shun: But we can getting the satellite data and the AI distributing, so this farmland is abandoned, this one  is not abandoned. Tim: And why is that important? Is it taxed differently? Shun: Yes, about tax, abandoned farmland, not abandoned is a different tax. And also, most of the farmlands is abandoned recently, because most of the farmers is getting older and older, that is a reason. About 5% percentage is more higher, so every year must checking. Tim: That's why it seems like an interesting use of the technology, but it doesn't seem like a scalable business. I mean, how much demand is there for that kind of analysis? Shun: Yeah, so now this thing is around 1,700 cities is doing every year. Maximums is around 1.5 billion yen, so it is so small market but the next department checking what kind of foods like rice or wheat, they are checking by money also. This situation also we can change. Tim: That makes sense. So there is some room to grow by expanding the functionality within the different cities and prefectures. Shun: This technology, not only Japan, can spread the global. So we are making this technology in Japan, but spread this technology to East Asia and India.

The bacteria in our gut affect our lives and our health in ways we are just starting to fully realize, and mapping this biome is expected to advance medical science and pharmacology as mapping the human genome. However, our gut biota is not a mappable sequence, but a complex ecosystem, and one that may be unique to each individual. In our conversation, Shinji Fukuda, founder of Metabologenomic (aka Metagen), explains how the science is advancing, what kinds of consumer devices we are likely to see first, the importance of global expansion, and the challenges of being a deep-tech startup in Japan. It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it. Show Notes What Metagen is really trying to do Fecal transplants in Japan Japan's Gut design project - a database of poop The biggest business model challenge for Japan's deep-tech startuups Smart toilets and other consumer products Why Metagen has been turning down VC money Why global expansion is critical for both business and scientific reasons Some advice for Japanese deep-tech startups Why academics need startup founders Why Japanese startups need to stop playing defense Links from the Founder Everything you ever wanted to know about Metagen Metagen on LinkedIn Transcript Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan's most successful entrepreneurs. I’m Tim Romero and thanks for joining me. Today, we're going to talk about the future of poop, and I promise you that it is both a lot more interesting and also a lot less, well, strange than you might think.  Shinji Fukuda is the founder and CEO of Metabologenomics, a startup which is usually, and thankfully, referred to as Metagen. Shinji and Metagen are mapping out the complex biome of the human digestive tract.  Our gut biome is an incredibly complex ecosystem that exists within all of us, and it is an ecosystem. These bacteria don't share our DNA and they're not simply along for the ride. We couldn't function without them, and there's a lot of variation between cultures and between individuals.  Metagen is now working with some of Japan's largest healthcare, pharmaceutical, and chemical companies to commercialize this research. Of course, Metagen is not the only startup in this space, and Shinji and I talk a lot about when and how this tech is going to roll out to consumers, some of the scam startups that are already trying to get into this bandwagon, and we dive deep into one of the biggest problems facing deep tech startups in Japan.  But you know, Shinji tells that story much better than I can, so let's get right to the interview. Interview Tim: So, I'm sitting here with Shinji Fukuda of Metabologenomic who's researching and monetizing the gut biota, so thanks for sitting down with us. Shinji: Hi. Tim: And by the way, is it okay if we call the company Metagen the way people tend to do in Japanese? Shinji: Yeah, Metagen. Tim: Okay, good. So, listen, I think you can explain this much better than I can, so what exactly does Metagen do? Shinji: Our goal is to create the digital society, so we have a huge number of microbes in the gut and the gut microbiota has a lot of function, and maybe you know it's very important that the imbalance in the gut microbiota are related to some disorders like colon cancer, inflammatory bio-disorders, and also, the microbiota induce some systemic disorders like metabolic disorders and also meta-disease. That's why gut microbiota is really important to keep our health. Tim: It's amazing the amount of research that's being done on this right now and it's still a relatively new field. So, for Metagen, what is the main goal of the company? Are you trying to develop more targeted medicine? Is it better food? Is it a healthier population? What is it that the company is focused on? Shinji: Here, actually, everything, but we have a priority. Our goal is healthcare, to develop the technology to keep our health, healthcare, and also, last year, we established our company Metagen Therapeutics which focuses on the cure for patients with IBD, so the company is now trying to prepare that fecal microbiome juice. Do you know the fecal microbiota transplantation? Tim: Yeah, yeah, the fecal transplants. Shinji: Because our feces contain a huge number of microbes, so they can improve that sickness. Tim: I didn't even know our fecal transplants are that common in Japan, I didn't even know if that is legal and approved yet. Shinji: Not so common but in clinical trials, researchers proved the effect of the FMT in IBD patients. Tim: So, it's still, all of this technology, these treatments are sort of in the clinical trial phase? Shinji: Yeah. Not only in Japan, also in the US.  Tim: I want to get back into the research and business model in a minute. So, tell me about your customers, so how are they using your services? Shinji: Metagen is now providing R&D support service, and the main target is the food and supplement companies. Actually, our goal is to control the gut microbiota using some food or supplements because our gut microbiota is affected by our long-term food habit, but we don't know yet how we regulate the gut microbiota. Tim: So, I noticed you've put together the gut design project. It looks like about 40 very large Japanese companies in a variety of industries. What is that about? Shinji: Actually, we have to develop the gut microbiome database, we are now collaborating with many companies. Tim: So, before, you were kind of jokingly referring to this as a poop database, but well, I mean, it kind of is. Shinji: Yeah, actually, in the Japanese company, they have this yogurt supplement but yogurt cannot improve the - everyone has microbiota, we don't know yet what kind of products are good for the person, so we need a database, so that's why we collaborate with many companies to perform the clinical trial, which kinds of products are good for you? Tim: It's a range of food companies and insurance companies, and chemical companies, are they all doing research and contributing to this database, or are they customers or sponsors of the research that's being done? Shinji: Less than half of companies develop the database but the other is running about the gut microbiota. Actually, I have been working on the gut microbiota for other 20 years, and now, many people are publishing regarding gut microbiota, and the importance, so that's why they are to join our gut design project, yeah. Tim: Those sort of open corporate collaborations are funny things. They're useful but it very rarely develops into sort of a center of revenue, so how do you imagine this consortium in five or 10 years? Is it something that you think will help map out and fill put out this database, and then sort of drift apart? Do you think it's going to form the core of the technology you're bringing to market? What role do you see it playing? Shinji: The gut microbiota is really important to keep our health, so do you know your gut microbiome profile? Tim: Not a clue. Shinji: Yeah. Tim: I don’t. It's something I probably should know. Shinji: Yeah, but actually, gut microbiota is tightly affecting our health condition, so that's why our first goal is to develop a new society which everyone knows their own gut microbiome profile. Tim: One of the things I find fascinating about what you guys are doing, not just the research itself which I think is fascinating, but Metagen is an example of one of these deep tech startups that are happening in Japan. I think there is so much incredible research being done that is just now starting to get commercialized. So, you were founded about five years ago, 2015 or so, right?  Shinji: Yeah. Tim: It was a joint collaboration of Keio and Tokyo Institute of Technology? Shinji: Yeah. Tim: From a research point of view, it's clear why this is an incredibly important topic, but let's talk about the business side, let's talk about your business model. So, how do you make money? Shinji: Yeah, so at this time, we collaborate with big companies to perform the clinical trials like a CRO because we have the service to analyze the gut microbiome, but in the future, we develop B2C service to analyze your gut microbiome and we recommend some solution to improve your gut microbiome. Tim: Oh, I definitely want to talk about that in a minute, but right now, I want to back up and talk about your current model. Are you strictly doing a services model where the various companies contract the research to you or are they kind of a joint development project where you would get royalties on treatments that you jointly discover? Shinji: Both sides are there, but now, we get some money from the company to perform the clinical trial and also other R&D support services, and also, we now try to prepare the fecal microbiome juice. Tim: Selling to academics and research support, I imagine that market is fairly limited size, so you were talking about direct to consumer products or B2B2C products. What does that commercialization look like? Shinji: We developed a new kit to collect a fecal sample and actually, we had a patent, stabilization of the feces under room temperature because feces contain many bacteria and if they are room temperature, the gut microbiome will change and also metabolites are altered. Tim: That's not really a consumer product per se, that might be something hospitals will use to send out to collect samples before a physical or something like that? Shinji: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tim: Okay. Actually, I think maybe it was in an interview that you did a while ago, but you were talking about making a toilet that analyzed the feces. What happened with that? Shinji: Yeah. In the future, we will develop the smart toilet to detect health conditions. You rinse your poop, but we don't know yet what kind of index should be required to develop the smart toilet. Tim: So,

A lot of great ideas seem crazy when you first hear about them. Today Ryotaro Ako, founder of Atopiyo, explains not only why this is a great idea that is deeply valued by his users, but he also frankly talked about the difficulties in bringing it to market. We talk about the challenges of forming a long-term, core team and of developing a steady cash flow while trying to focus on a social good, and the risks involved in monetizing a community. Ryotaro also explains why extensive press coverage and shelves of startup awards don't make developing a sustainable business model any easier. It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it. Show Notes Why share photos of skin conditions? How to find a technical co-founder, and what to do if you can't The two challenges all MedTech startups face The danger of long-term plans without short-term action How to monetize a community, and why it's risky Possible competitors The myth of Japanese conservatism Links from the Founder Everything you ever wanted to know about Atopiyo Download the Atopiyo App Friend Ryotaro on Facebook Transcript Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan's most successful entrepreneurs. I’m Tim Romero and thanks for joining me. Today's conversation with Ryotaro Ako, founder of Atopiyo, is going to be a little bit different than usual.  I first met Ryotaro several years ago at a Disrupting Japan live event, when he had just launched Atopiyo, an online community in which people with atopy and related skin conditions can support each other and exchange information about treatments and progress. Since its launch, Atopiyo has gone on to build an engaged and growing user base, attract extensive and positive press attention, and win a lot of startup awards from press, government, and industry.  This is the kind of startup I really want to succeed; the kind of startup I think everyone really wants to succeed, actually. They're using startup techniques and technology to solve problems and actually make the world a little bit better.  At least in theory.  You see, Ryotaro and Atopiyo have a bit of a problem, and it's a problem that almost all social entrepreneurs run into, but very few managed to solve. If in this interview, I sound like I'm beating up on my guest a bit (by polite Japanese standards anyway) it's coming from a place of desperately wanting to see him succeed.  Everyone who has an idea for a social startup and a passion to change the world can learn a lot from Atopiyo's story and this discussion. But you know, Ryotaro tells that story much better than I can, so let's get right to the interview. Interview Tim: So I'm sitting here with Ryotaro Ako of Atopiyo, which helps people with atopy understand the disease and connect with each other, so thanks for sitting down with me. Ryotaro: Thank you very much, Tim. I'm very glad to talk with you. Tim: And we're glad to have you. I gave a really brief description of Atopiyo but I think you can explain it much better than I can. So what exactly does Atopiyo do? How does it work? Ryotaro: Atopiyo is Japan's first visual SNS for atopic dermatitis. It's like Instagram specializing in atopic dermatitis. Tim: Okay, I mean, at first reaction, sharing pictures of atopy and skin conditions does not sound that appealing. Ryotaro: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tim: So I mean, tell me about your users. Who uses this? Why do they find it valuable? Ryotaro: Yes, yes, our images can be this. So I think it is not so photogenic or happy images but patients want to know the other patients, their skin disease, how are getting better or how getting worse because of these drugs or other drugs, and they want to know their process of the skin disease. So it's useful for the patients, and what's more, they want to choose their images into their private mode. So if you set it to the private mode, this image is only for users. Tim: Okay, so the main benefit the users get is they can compare their treatment and their progress with other people that are having similar treatments and things like that. I can certainly see why that would be valuable, and I guess we got to point out emphatically this is not for medical diagnostics or treatment, right? It's just a social community. Ryotaro: Yes, it's not a medical treatment or a diagnosis, yes. Tim: And we'll dive into that a bit later when we talk about the business model. Ryotaro: Okay, yeah. Tim: But before that, let's talk a bit about you. Ryotaro: Okay, yes. Tim: Yeah, before you started this, I mean, you had atopy yourself and you'd volunteered at a number of patient support groups, right? Ryotaro: Yes. I'm a recovered patient of atopic dermatitis. I recovered, but there are other patients are suffering every day, so I interviewed and I researched their troubles and I decided to develop this app. Tim: When you decided to do this, you didn't have a technical co-founder? Ryotaro: Yeah, yeah. At first, I tried to find programmers for three months, yes, but I gave up because — Tim: It's really hard.  Ryotaro: Yeah, I gave up four or five years ago.  Tim: I understand. I get contacted by probably, I don't know, four or five people every month, who have this great ideas and say, "Well, I'm looking for a technical co-founder." It's like, man, that's hard.  Ryotaro: Yeah, very hard for me. And so, yes, so I participated in a lot of events such as Disrupting Japan Site Anniversary or — Tim: Thank you. Ryotaro: Yeah, yeah, yeah, a lot of events I participated, but it's difficult. Tim: So you finally took matters into your own hands? Ryotaro: Yes, I entered the programming school, an online programming school in Japan. It's called Tech Academy. I studied there for five months. Tim: And that was enough to launch back in 2018, right? Ryotaro: Yes, 2018 is the first launch. Tim: I think this is a story a lot of founders are trying to figure out, you know, they're one person with an idea of how to make something that's worthwhile, but you managed to learn enough to launch the app in five months. Ryotaro: Actually, programming school is five months and after that, I developed myself two months, maybe seven months and more. Tim: But that's great. I mean, I think a lot of people are interested in just how do you go from one person with an idea on how to help people build the app, and how do you turn that into a business.  Ryotaro: Yes, yes, yes.  Tim: Which is what we want to talk about next. And actually, you've just established a godo gaisha recently, right? Ryotaro: Yeah, last week I founded Atopiyo LLC.  Tim: And I'm curious, why a GK instead of a KK?  Ryotaro: Because GK is very easy to found and really easy to manage so I chose it. Tim: And I mean, a GK is very easy to convert into a KK later on if you decide to. Okay, so let's talk about the business model. So what's the plan? How is Atopiyo going to make money? Ryotaro: Atopiyo is largest database for atopic dermatitis patients. So now, many pharmaceutical company develop new medicine. Atopiyo provides information about their patients to the pharmaceutical company without their personal information. Tim: At the moment it's just photographs, are you planning on collecting more deeper and detailed information about the users? Ryotaro: Yes, yes. Now, we had profiles like sex or age or atopic period. In the future, we would like to have more deeper information.  Tim: Looking back over the past couple of years, you guys won actually a lot of awards from both universities, government programs, incubators, pitch contests, the string of awards for an interesting idea. And I'm curious did those awards help you land the business connections? Did those awards help you get the business or was that almost a separate — Ryotaro: These awards helped me to spread this Atopiyo app, because Atopiyo app is just a volunteer for me so we don't have any budget. So I would like to spread it to atopic patients in Japan so this will help me to efficient spreading in Japan. It’s been shown in more than 100 media.  Tim: So the pitch contest was mostly about more of a marketing strategy than a business model development.  Ryotaro: Yes. Tim: But I mean, you mentioned you have been working with pharma companies and medical institutions for some time now. So getting them data on atopy patients, it's one of those things that sounds worthwhile as a first step, but let's dig into that a little more. So, you know, the pharmaceutical companies, they already have lots and lots of pictures of atopy and different types of skin diseases. So what are they getting here that's really unique? What is the value they find in this community? Ryotaro: A pharmaceutical company have a data from doctors or a hospital but they don't have the data from patients. Direct patients' data, that's kind of the data called the "real world data". They are thinking -- they are about data and they want to know their suffering, and they want to use it for the new medicine. Yes, that is a new trend for the company. Tim: So for example, the pharmaceutical companies could follow the progress of individuals that are going through a certain kind of treatment or that are taking a certain medication? Ryotaro: A pharmaceutical company, they want to find female situation or a male situation, and children situation or some situation. Tim: One of the challenges in med tech across the board, it kicks in from small one person startups to, you know, very well-funded. Medical technology and medical information is really highly regulated, which is good for the most part. Do you run into any problems with Japan's law on personal privacy and on storing medical information with this app? Ryotaro: Yes, right now, we don't encourage such medical information or medical treatment but in the future, we want to collaborate with hospital or pharmaceutical company. So now,

Disruption comes slowly to medicine.  And that's a good thing. Since the ethos of the profession is "First, do no harm", it makes sense that safety and efficacy are prioritized over rapid innovation. But innovation does happen, and the Japanese government is working to make sure it happens faster. Today we sit down with Taro Ueno of Susmed and talk about the challenges and tradeoffs in innovative medicine. We talk about why he left medical research for entrepreneurship, and how iPhone apps and blockchain are being used clinically in Japan. And in both cases, I assure you, it's not what you think. It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it. Show Notes Why leave medical practice to start a startup Why Japan just can't fall asleep Why Japan over-prescribes sleeping pills and other drugs Why it's very hard to get apps approved as medical devices in Japan The reason so few medical apps have been approved in Japan The importance ofJapan's regulatory sandbox How blockchain is actually helpful in clinical trials What kinds of medical apps are we most likely to see first on mobile phones? Why so few apps have been approved and why that might be changing Links from the Founder Everything you ever wanted to know about Susmed Connect with Taro on LinkedIn Transcript Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan's most successful entrepreneurs.  I'm Tim Romero and thanks for joining me. Today, you're going to learn about how to make money in blockchain. No, no, no, it's not like that, it's not what you think. Today, we're going to sit down with Taro Ueno of Susmed, and we'll talk about how Japan's new regulatory sandbox has enabled his startup to get approval for their blockchain-based platform for clinical trials. The platform prevents trial results from being changed after they've been recorded, which as Taro will explain, has been a real problem in Japan. Taro is also a medical doctor and a PhD, and he's developed an insomnia app that he is in the process of getting approved as a medical device. We talk about the challenges of getting mobile apps approved for clinical use in Japan, why this technology is so frustratingly slowed to come to market, and why people in Japan just can't seem to fall asleep. But you know, Taro tells that story much better than I can, so let's get right to the interview. Interview Tim: So, I'm sitting here with Taro Ueno of Susmed, and thanks for sitting down with me today. Taro: Thank you. Tim: Now, Susmed is an app-based solution for insomnia and you also make a platform to improve clinical trials, but you can probably explain Susmed much better than I can, so tell me a bit about the company. Taro: Susmed stands for 'Sustainable Medicine.' This is our vision and we are developing digital therapeutics using smartphone apps, and we are now developing several apps for diseases like insomnia and cancer, and so on. Tim: Tell me a bit about your customers, so are these apps designed for doctors to use in a clinical setting? Are they designed for consumers to use on their own? Taro: Doctors prescribe this app for insomnia patients. This is alternative for treating patients Tim: Before we dive into everything that's going on with medical technology in Japan, I want to ask a little bit about you. You got your MD and then your PhD, what drove you to startup after that? I mean, you put a tremendous amount of work into becoming a doctor. Taro: Yeah, I agree. Yes, as you mentioned, I have a background of medical doctor and especially in psychiatry. I got PhD in basic research over sleep medicine. I have seen so many patients with overprescription with sleeping pills. That's why I try to develop DTx for insomnia patients. Tim: I mean, I find that fascinating, the ability to develop software for an app gave you greater ability to help people than practicing medicine or research? Taro: Our company is developing software as a medical device, and we are trying to get approval from a regulatory agency in Japan. Tim: You're still practicing medicine now, right?  Taro: Yes. Tim: You're using this device in your own practice? Taro: Now, we are running clinic trials, and so after getting approval, I hope I can use our app in clinical practice. Tim: So, how big a problem is insomnia or lack of sleep in Japan? Taro: The prevalence of insomnia is very high in Japan, about 18,000,000 people in Japan, and most of them are treated using sleeping pills, but no pharmacological treatment was recommended by guideline, but the treatment is labor-intensive. Tim: Without the pills, what is the other insomnia treatment? Taro: It's called cognitive behavioral therapy. Tim: Okay, and so that requires the doctor and the patient to work together and your app reproduces or reinforces that sort of interaction? Taro: Right. Tim: Japan, especially, but I guess everywhere really kind of has a bad attitude about sleep in general. It's almost like people are ashamed of themselves if they get enough sleep, and everyone brags about how little sleep they have and how tired they are at work. Do you think there's a cultural component? Taro: Yes, some components, basically, biological but there's a cultural component; the prevalence of insomnia is high in Japan or Korea. I think there's a cultural component. I think Japanese are diligent and they tend to overwork. It can be cultural pressure. Tim: You seem pretty busy. How much sleep do you get a night? Taro: I usually have more than six hours. Tim: So, you usually get enough sleep? Taro: I think so. Tim: Well, actually, getting back to the app itself, I think it's great to treat insomnia without pills, but who would pay for this? Would this be something that the patient would pay for or is this something that eventually would be covered by the national health insurance? Taro: In Japan, medical treatment is covered by national insurance, so DTx should also be covered by national insurance. Tim: And, you've been running various clinical trials on this since 2016. Can you explain what's involved in bringing that to market? It seems like something that's well beyond what most startups can consider doing. Taro: To check the effectiveness and also safety of our app, we are running clinical trials. Because this app is a medical device, it must get approval from the regulatory agency, so we have discussed with the regulatory agency several times about what kind of clinical trial we should run. Usually, it takes several years to get approval to run clinical trial. Tim: So, the fact that these apps are running on iPhones or on Android phones, does that make it harder to get them approved as a medical device since you can't really completely control the hardware? Taro: Smartphone apps for medical devices are very new, so for regulatory agencies, it's hard to explain because we must update for new type of OS or smartphone. Tim: Does that mean that for example, when Apple or Google, or Samsung release a new OS or new hardware, do you have to get this approved again? Taro: No. Tim: Well, that makes things easier, I guess. Are there apps being used now as medical devices? Are there apps that have already been approved in Japan? Taro: Yes, there is one smartphone app approved by the regulator agency, it's for smoking cessation. Tim: Is that also cognitive behavioral therapy? It seems like it would be a good fit. Taro: I don't know exactly, but I think the device tries to change the behavior of the patient. Tim: Susmed and several other medical startups are really benefiting from Japan's regulatory sandbox. Can you tell me a little bit about what is the regulatory sandbox and who gets to play in the sandbox? Taro: Regulatory sandbox is a system for trial using the new technology to challenge regulation. Cabinet of Japan approved regulatory sandbox for each company. We have submitted our trial to cabinet office and we got approval to run the clinical trial using blockchain system. Tim: And what's the advantage of using the regulatory sandbox framework? Taro: Based on the result of regulatory sandbox, we can challenge regulation. Tim: Does it give you an exemption for certain regulations or is this a way that the government can look at new technology and maybe change regulations? Taro: For example, clinical trials have a regulation called GCP and pharmaceutical companies under medical device companies must run clinical trial based on this GCP rule. Based on the result of the regulatory sandbox, we can challenge the regulation, and the clinical trial was classically conducted by human resources. For example, data from clinical trial must be checked by human resources, but using blockchain technology, we can improve the quality of the data, so based on those results, the government approves the way of learning the clinical trial using new technology. Tim: Okay, well, actually, let's talk a little bit about this blockchain platform for clinical trials. So, as you mentioned, usually, all of the information is taken in, checked by people, documented by people, but your blockchain solution, you're saying, can eliminate a lot of the human oversight? Taro: Right. Based on our results, government has approved our way of learning clinical trial. Tim: And, what is the main advantage of using a blockchain-based system in clinical trials? Taro: Using blockchain technology, we can secure the consistency of the data without human resources. Tim: So, blockchain, of course, it doesn't mean that the data being put in is any more accurate than a regular database, but blockchain makes it very, very hard for anyone to change the data once it's been put in the database. Taro: Yes. Tim: Is this a problem in clinical research? Has data been changed in the past? Taro: Yes, there can be a conflict of interest between pharmaceutical companies and the result of clinical trials.

Artificial Intelligence makes a lot of people nervous. That's understandable. Today we sit down with Ken Fujiwara of Hacarus to discuss why that is, and what this startup is doing to fix it. As in so many other fields, when comparing AI in Japan and the West, we find that the technology is fundamentally the same, but the social attitudes and business strategies are very different. Ken is a serial entrepreneur, but running an AI startup was never part of his original plan. He had bigger goals in mind, and we talk about how he plans to pivot back to them someday. We also discuss Kyoto's booming startup ecosystem and why one CEO has publically stated he wants to destroy it. It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it. Show Notes The problem with Deep Learning and how Hacarus is unique The importance of founder's hidden failures Why Ken left Sony to start a startup How to know when you need to pivot Why pivoting is hard in Japan The integrator business model and why it works in Japan Pivoting a startup to back to your dreams The importance of explainable AI Why you need to know about Kyoto startups Why one company wants to destroy Kyoto's startup ecosystem The reason you see so many interesting IoT startups coming out of Japan now Links from the Founder Everything you ever wanted to know about Hacarus Follow them on Facebook Connect on LinkedIn Get in touch by email: inquiry@hacarus.com Transcript Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan's most successful entrepreneurs. I'm Tim Romero and thanks for joining me. As you can imagine, I get asked a lot about how the Japanese startup ecosystem is different from others and I love that question. The problem is that people usually aren't really happy with my answers. It seems that everyone wants to hear stories about anime or strange gadgets, or cool trends in gaming, and yeah, there's plenty of that in Japan too, but the things that are really unique and interesting like evocative machines and the integrator model, and the role enterprise has to play in supporting startups, those things take a lot of time to explain to anyone who doesn't already understand Japan, at least a little bit, but they're important.  Today, we sit down with Ken Fujiwara of Hacarus and we're going to look at how Hacarus is using the integrator model to jointly develop AI products with large enterprises. Ken also explains how he had to pivot Hacarus away from his original vision and how he might be able to pivot back to it in the future. We talk about the challenges of pivoting and staying true to your mission, cover a few very good reasons why people don't trust AI, and we talk about one CEO who has made it his mission to destroy a startup ecosystem. Oh, and near the end of the show, we have a really interesting discussion about the startup ecosystem in Kyoto. There really are some amazing things going on in Kansai, but you know, Ken tells that story much better than I can, so let's get right to the interview. Interview Tim: So, I'm sitting here with Ken Fujiwara of Hacarus, and thanks for sitting down with me today. Ken: Thanks for having me. Tim: Hacarus is a collection of AI platforms that's targeted both at medical and industrial use but you can probably explain this a lot better than I can, so what exactly does Hacarus do? Ken: Alright, so Hacarus is basically AI startups and provide AI desk applications for medical, such as AI-enabled diagnosis solutions and for manufacturing industry, we provide digital inspection services, and one of the core differences of our company is that we don't use a mainstream AI technology called deep learning. We use something else. Tim: I've noticed that, so you've talked a lot about your ability to create AI models based on very small data sets. How does that work? I mean, what exactly are you guys doing, if you don't mind me asking what the "secret sauce" is. Ken: Sure, yeah, I don't mind talking about the "secret sauces." So, in machine learning, in general, the basic assumption is that you need a lot of data or what we call training data, and these days, people, they use technology called deep learning. How deep learning works is that basically, you feed it tons of data and it can abstract the futures from that data set and it can create the model. Our technology called the sparse modeling is quite different, so it can do the same thing but it's from small data sets. It's been a while in academia run, like, year 2000, we had the one person who incorporated that technology and commercialized it, so that's our core strength. Tim: Okay, I can see how being able to operate on smaller data sets really opens up a lot of broader commercial possibilities because a lot of people just don't have that much data. So, tell me about your customers. It seems like you're dealing with quite a few different applications. Ken: We focus on two industries, medical and manufacturing, and most of the time, as you said, they don't have access to a big amount of data. For applications like autonomous driving, there's an infinite amount of data because you let the car drive in the city. However, for applications like AI-based diagnosis for rare disease, basically, you don't have a lot of data. For certain diseases, there are only 100-plus unique data, that's it, that's all we're talking about. So, our customers are pharmaceutical companies who want to make AI-based diagnosis solutions using this small data set. For the manufacturing industry, most manufacturing companies, they do have a lot of data for non-defective products. However, it comes down to defective data, they don't have access to a lot of data, so 1/10,000 production units, there's only one defective, so again, if you want to do defect detection, you need a lot of defect data or non-okay images. Tim: So, Hacarus is not creating a specific product. It's mainly consulting and helping your clients use this sparse modeling to solve their problems? Ken: At the moment, yes, so the majority of our revenue is based on what we call contract work or consulting work. So, we come in and we listen to the particular problem that the customer has and we provide a tailor-made solution to that customer. We've been doing more than 100 projects that we are trying to productize our knowledge and package them as sort of a license, so that we can sell it to another customer. Tim: I think it's interesting looking at Hacarus over the last six years and actually, I want to talk about some of your really interesting pivots you've done, but before that, I want to talk a little bit about you. You founded Hacarus more than six years ago now in 2014, but before that, you've been involved with quite a few startups before, haven't you? Ken: Yeah, actually, Hacarus is my fourth startup, that's why I look so old right now, so yeah, so before this, I've launched three tech startups. This is not the first time doing a startup thing in my life. Tim: It's your fourth real startup, but you've also had a lot of other projects you've worked on that never quite got traction, right? Ken: Yeah. I mean, like, my win rate is almost like 10%, so only one win out of 10 failures, that's my success rate. Tim: No, see, I don't think people really appreciate that, so I've started four companies as well, but the thing is, I've also had probably 12 other projects that never quite got to financing and full-time employees, and I don't know, I think people overlook the importance of having those. Ken: Yeah, I mean, there's a known saying that failure is a good teacher to success without failure. You don't get success. Tim: Yeah, I mean, that's the only way you learn. Ken: Yeah, of course. Tim: So, what led you to start founding companies? Because before, you were at Sony and apparently thriving as a productive member of society, so why leave to start a startup? Ken: To be honest, I never wanted to be an entrepreneur in my life. I was a computer geek when I was a teenager, but luckily, my father was a computer engineer as well, and basically, I was trained by him, so by the time I became 18 years old, I was pretty good at writing code or programming, so I decided not to join Japanese university, and instead, I went to the United States and I stayed in the US from 1995 until 1999. That was the dotcom bubble and everyone's talking about starting their own company, like the next Google or next Yahoo, or next ~ Tim: What city were you in? Ken: In Los Angeles. You understand the crazy atmosphere back then, and none of my classmates were actually trying to get a job at a big corporation, I was the only exception. I felt sane because I was the only person getting a nice job at a big corporation like Sony and I was considered a complete failure from their perspective. Tim: I mean, but after you get into Sony, Sony is a great company to work for. Was it just sort of missing that college atmosphere and made you decide now, I want to go back and start a company after all? Ken: Yeah, so I knew that I was going to launch my own startup in 20s but I had no idea how to run a company, just like everyone else, so I joined a big corporation with the only purpose to learn how to run a company, so yeah, so I stayed there for three years how a big company is operated. Tim: Then went out on your own. Ken: Yeah, exactly. Tim: Your first couple of startups were B2B software, they didn't have anything to do with AI, so what drew you to AI? Ken: Let me say, AI in the early 2000s wasn't usable. Before deep learning, there were two prior waves but they didn't work successfully, so deep learning is a successful application of AI into the industry. Tim: It's interesting you say that because I mean, you were kind of hinting at this before but there's very little in AI that's genuinely new in terms of the algorithms and the research, right?

Today we are going to look at a different kind of innovation. It's not technology. It's not patentable, and I'm not sure it's scalable. But it is important. It turns out that the story behind a Japanese viral video can teach us a lot about the future of work. It's an example of Japanese innovation at it's best I think you'll enjoy it. Links The Seven-Minute Miracle video Leave a comment Transcript Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan's most successful entrepreneurs. I'm Tim Romero and thanks for joining me. I have a special story for you today.  No guests. No playful banter. Today it’s just you and me and a story about Japanese innovation at its very best. And it’s also the real story behind a famous video about Japan that you’ve probably seen a dozen times on the internet and on western news shows. But like so many stories about Japan, the media gets this one wrong; or at least get it incomplete. They leave out the part of the story that actually teaches us something important about Japan. But there is something pretty amazing going on once you dig into it, and so that’s what we are going to do. The story I’m talking about is the so-called “seven-minute miracle” of the Shinkansen cleaning crew. If you live in Japan, you’ve probably witnessed this personally, and I’ll put a link to the video in the show notes for any listeners who have not already watched it.   The Seven Minute Miracle The Shinkansen is both an engineering and an operational marvel. There are times when JR East is running trains three minutes behind each other at 320 kilometers per hour. To make this work requires an insane commitment to schedule. A departure is only considered to be on-time if happens within fifteen seconds of its scheduled time; no earlier, no later than 15 seconds. And most trains arrive within six seconds of their scheduled time.  Part of making this work means that at Tokyo station, each train has only a 12-minute turnaround-time. It takes about five minutes to get the current passengers off and the new passengers on, which leaves seven minutes for cleaning.  In those seven minutes, a crew of 22 people clean 1,000 seats, wipes down all the tray tables, exchanges seat and headrest covers, turns the seats 180-degrees to face the new direction, cleans the floors and bathrooms, empties all the wastebaskets, collects any forgotten articles from under the seats or in the overhead racks to turn into the lost and found, adjusts the window blinds, and generally makes sure everything on the train is neat and tidy. In seven minutes. And the cleaners do it all with an efficiency and grace that seems more like the mastery of a craft than the execution of a duty. When they are done, usually with time to spare, they assemble on the platform at the front of the train and bow in unison to the passengers who are about to board.  Sometimes the passengers even clap.  And a few minutes later, a new train arrives, and this is repeated for each of the 120 to 170 Shinkansen trains that depart Tokyo every single day.  It’s amazing to watch, and a few years ago CNN picked up the story, and the whole world was, quite rightly. impressed. However, the CNN story focused on how Japanese employees are so efficient and take pride in their work. And that’s not quite true. I mean, these employees clearly are, and Japanese workers certainly can be dedicated and efficient, but anyone who tells you that Japanese employees are just naturally dutiful and efficient has clearly never had to manage Japanese staff.  In fact, even in this celebrated case, it was not always so. This is a relatively recent development, and looking at the innovations that began in 2005 can also tell us a bit about where the gig-economy is headed and the kind of innovation that Japan can bring to the world.    The Making of a Miracle The company responsible for the seven-minute miracle is Tessei, and in terms of corporate culture, they are about as far away from a startup as you can get. They were founded in 1952 as a cleaning subsidiary to the JR rail-monopoly and were handed over to JR East when JR was broken up in 1987.  Back in 2005, both the Japanese character, and the Shinkansen schedules were very much the same as they are today, but things were not well at Tessei or in their cleaning crews. The job was considered dirty, dangerous, and dead-end, so it was hard to both recruit and retain employees. Morale was low. Performance was poor. Delays were frequent.   Tessei management responded to this the way managers worldwide tend to respond to these situations. They increased training and supervision and upped the number of checks and inspections. Unsurprisingly, this had the effect of pushing morale down even further. The delays increased, and so did accidents and customer complaints.  At this point, JR East sent in Teruo Yabe to take over business planning at Tessei and he began to change things. In fact, he began doing things that seemed to go against the very concept of efficiency.  The previous goal was to make the cleaning crews almost invisible. To the passengers, this rapid cleaning was to happen almost magically. Yabe turned this idea on its head.  He began a program that he called “Shinkansen Theater”  He changed the uniforms from the pastel tones designed to blend in with the trains’ interior to a bright red that ensured that the cleaners would stand out. The passengers could clearly see that the cleaners were there and what they were doing. Which is the first step to appreciating what they are doing. Waiting to board is much less annoying when you understand why you are waiting, and hey when you think about it, cleaning 1,000 seats in seven minutes and doing a good job of it, well that is pretty impressive.  Yabe made other changes as well. For example, he allowed the cleaners to speak with the passengers, where before they had been prohibited, in the name of both efficiency and lack of training. Most of the questions passengers ask cleaning crews turn out to be related to cleaning or the station layout, and the ones they can’t answer? Well, no one seemed too bothered by an honest “I’m sorry, I don’t know.” Importantly, however. it turned out that allowing this communication not only did not distract the cleaners from their job, but It increased the passengers’ understanding of and appreciation for the job they were doing.  In fact, about this time, something rather remarkable began to happen. As the Shinkansen passengers began to see what an amazing job the cleaners were doing, the passengers began picking up after themselves, and the amount of trash left behind for the cleaners to clean up began to drop.  Yabe also made important cultural changes. He encouraged employees to report the best things about their coworkers to their managers. He took suggestions from the employees and developed a career path by which part-time cleaners had a clear path to a full-time job and the full-time cleaners could enter the management ranks.  Efficiency improved. Training costs dropped. Employee morale and retention skyrocketed. And within a few years, Japan’s seven-minute miracle came to be.  And Yabe-san, Tessei, and the cleaning crews have received well-deserved international recognition for what they achieved. Rail operators from all over the world come to study these cleaning crews, and Harvard Business School has developed case studies to document and understand this incredible turnaround.    The Story Behind the Miracle And that’s great.  But there is something very important and innovative here that tends to get overlooked.  On one hand, this is the kind of just-so story about Japan that the foreign media loves. It’s positive and uplifting, and at first glance it seems to be one of those stories of diligence and efficiency that only happens in Japan.  But it doesn’t have to be.  It’s easy and somehow satisfying to attribute the diligence of the cleaning crews and the tidiness of the passengers to something uniquely Japanese. But it’s not. This was a change in behavior.  Neither the Shinkansen cleaners nor the passengers were doing this in 2005 but they were in 2010, and they still are today. So what really changed? The real innovation here did not involve introducing efficiency. It involved introducing multiple inefficiencies that enabled greater, sincere human connections, and those connections are what lead to greater efficiencies. OK. That’s a lot to unpack so let’s step through it. Almost every change Yabe-san introduced risked decreased efficiency and quality of service in the short term. Having the cleaners distracted from their jobs by talking with passengers, decreasing measurement and oversight. Even making the cleaning crews more visible to the customers went against the hospitality and travel best practices which hold that this kind of work is to take place out of sight and all friction for the customer is to be removed.  But everything Yabe-san did increased the possibilities for human connection. Not the usual, scripted staff-customer communication or the usual manager-staff meetings, but inefficient, unnecessary communication not directly related to completing the task at hand.  Rather than managing for control and compliance, he was managing for transparency and connection. Internally this not only resulted in a skyrocketing of morale but an outpouring of creative ideas. The Tessei staff not only came up with innovations that improved their own jobs, but helped design the shape of the bins on the new Hokuriku Shinkansen Line, and they came up with the idea for the nursery and baby areas in Tokyo Station. And, of course, it was this feeling of human connection that resulted in passengers cleaning up after themselves because they did not want to create extra work for someone they had just seen working so hard.

The automotive industry is closed and proprietary. But Shinpei Kato, founder and CTO of Tier IV, thinks they are going to be forced to change. Teir IV has brought together a global community of programmers and corporate partners to create the Autoware project. Tier IV's goal to develop a completely open-source software platform to drive autonomous vehicles is ambitious, and they have already completed some of the most advanced road-tests of driverless cars in Japan. Today we explore the business bottlenecks in rolling out autonomous vehicles, why open-source makes the automotive industry nervous, and why the first successful driverless car won't be what you think it will. It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it. Show Notes Introducing Autoware and Tier IV What keeps the auto industry from adopting open source The only way a college professor can actually run a startup The challenges in building an industrial open source community How to road test driverless cars in Japan Japan’s first fully-autonomous taxi service When we will  see driverless taxies as part of our everyday life The bottleneck that keeps robot-taxis from going mainstream Which autonomous vehicles we are going to see first. Tier IV's business model How open-source might be Japan's secret weapon in global AI Links from the Founder Everything you ever wanted to know about Tier IV YouTube Twitter LinkedIn Check out Shinpei's personal home page Friend him on Facebook Follow him on Twitter @ShinpeiKato Connect with him on LinkedIn Learn about the Autoware Foundation The Tier IV safety report Some other media coverage of Tier IV Forbes The Japan Times Valuer Leave a comment Transcript Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan's most successful entrepreneurs. I'm Tim Romero and thanks for joining me. Open-source software has completely changed how we think about operating systems, networking, and databases. The whole Internet basically runs on open-source software, but can a 100% open-source software power an autonomous car? Well, one Japanese founder not only thinks it can, but he's betting his company on it, and that startup has already conducted some of the most advanced road tests in Japan. Today, we sit down with Shinpei Kato, founder of autonomous driving startup Tier IV, and Shinpei is also the chairman of the Autoware Foundation, Autoware, being the open-source project to develop software for fully autonomous vehicles. With so much driverless car news coming out of the US, you might not know about what's happening in Japan, but it's pretty amazing. We talk about what's involved in road testing driverless cars in Japan some frightening things people are doing to their cars, the challenges of building an open-source platform in an industry that has historically been fiercely secretive and proprietary and why Japan's first driverless cars are not going to look anything like what you think they will. But you know, Shinpei tells that story much better than I can, so let's get right to the interview. Interview So I'm sitting here with Shinpei Kato of Tier IV who is developing an autonomous driving software, so thanks so much for sitting down with us. Shinpei: Thank you very much for inviting me to this fantastic show. Tim: Oh, it's our pleasure. Listen, before we get into the details, can you explain the relationship between Tier IV and Autoware, because the two different entities are really closely connected and like, together, they form Tier IV's business strategy. Shinpei: So I used to be at Nagoya University and I had led a project of autonomous driving where we started developing software for autonomous vehicles, so I had a lot of attention from industries that made me decide I should do startup rather than the university research. Tier IV was founded to facilitate RND of this open-source software called Autoware. Two years later, it became much more which made me decide founding Autoware community rather than using Tier IV as just one Japanese startup. The Autoware community can be composed of worldwide industry and academia, Tier IV handed over Autoware to the community. Tim: So Tier IV is started before Autoware? Shinpei: When you say Autoware, it means one is Autoware as a software project which started before Tier IV, but when you say Autoware, it can also mean Autoware Foundation as a community. This Autoware Foundation was founded after Tier IV was founded. Tim: So my understanding is that Autoware is a complete open-source platform for autonomous vehicles, but how do I put it? That's an incredibly complex set of technologies, so is Autoware really, is it a complete platform now or how much does it actually do? Shinpei: When you consider the building blocks of autonomous vehicles, it's huge, yes, as you mentioned, it's complex. Autoware stands for open-source software. I would say it's a small piece but still, it's just a piece of building blocks, so what I wanted to do was to publish Autoware as a basic platform on top of which other commercial building blocks can build. You need hardware, you need cloud, there are many, many other pieces in the building blocks, but Autoware can underlie these building blocks. Tim: Wow, the automotive industry from the very beginning has been this extremely proprietary and closed set of technologies. I mean, it's always run that way, so what has been the reaction of the auto makers to the idea of building on top of an open-source platform? Shinpei: I think that there are several points of view but in general, open-source software must be useful for the automotive industry whether they use it or not for the commercial products because when you have open-source software, you would have your people educated using autonomous software or your broad-type RND systems can also use this open-source software. Now, it's up to you if you want to keep using this open-source software for your commercial products, or of course, you can switch. Tim: Okay, that makes sense. Listen, before we dive into the business side of things, I want to back up and talk for a minute about you. So you mentioned before, this started originally when you were an associate professor at Nagoya University, and so far, your career has been entirely in academia, at Nagoya University, University of Tokyo, so are you still involved with academia? Do you kind of balance between running a startup and being an assistant professor now? Shinpei: I'm still deeply involved in academia but I want to make a kind of new career. For me, I don't really see in the past that university professors actually really do the business, I don't know why, but to me, why not? So I could be kind of a pioneer to show professors can actually do the business. Tim: How do you balance your time? Because like, being a startup founder, it's more than a full-time job. Shinpei: Yeah, that's a good question, so Tier IV is deep tech. If Tier IV is not deep tech, I think it was very difficult for me to balance between startup and university, but given that Tier IV is deep tech, what I do in university can actually underlie what we do in a startup. Tim: So your academic research is also really tied into Autoware and Tier IV? Shinpei: Exactly, that's why I love open-source. If you don't use open-source, then you may see some legal problems if you just use your university outcome to your private company, but here, we search outcome from the university can go to open-source, then my startup uses this open-source of their business, that's the strategy. Tim: Yeah, I love the concept of that. I mean, I'm a fan of almost anything that is open-source. The more open and sharing, and collaboration we have in the world, the better. Well, actually, tell me a bit about the Autoware community? Who's supporting and who's building the platform? Shinpei: So Autoware Foundation is three years old. Including Tier IV, more than half of the community, they actually come from startups, but now, we're getting more large companies in the community, but still the core actually startup. Tim: Yeah, I mean, I think, yeah, I mean, large company participation is always a great sign for open-source projects of any kind, but most, like, really successful open-source projects have, oh, you know, this core group of individual-like people who are contributing and the companies kind of form around them, and so are there also, like, individuals that are also contributing to this open-source platform? Shinpei: You're right, the core group of Autoware Foundation, the startup too, wants to jump into the automatic driving market but they believe that they cannot do it by themselves, right? You want to make an alliance with the partner companies in order to compete with or cooperate with automotive makers or big tech giants. They want to build a system not by themselves but by using this alliance, that's the core group of the foundation. Tim: Yeah, well, I mean, it makes sense. It kind of levels that playing field so that small startups can tackle a small piece of the program and together build something great. Shinpei: It's something very large scale. Tim: Yeah, but, so this would be, like, a simple basic question but for open-source software, if you're looking at something like Linux or mySQL or something, developers can install it on their own laptops and play with it, and experiment and see how they like it, but how do you do that with self-driving car technology? How do, like, individual startups and contributors booted up to try it out? Shinpei: In practice, they actually play it on the cars, seriously. They download Autoware and they have their car, make it modified in order to accommodate software stack like bi-wire modification, so if you have a car with bi-wire modification, you can play around the cars, but yes,

Startups exist to develop new solutions to problems. But many of society's biggest problems fall outside traditional startup business models. Today we explore why that is, and how it might be changed as we sit down with Robin Lewis, co-founder of Mymizu, a startup focused on reducing plastic waste by encouraging reuse. We take a deep dive into possible monetization strategies, why startups should be better at solving social problems than non-profits, and we discuss a possible roadmap for a middle path between startups and non-profits. It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it. Show Notes The Japanese middle-ground between NGOs and for-profit startups The hidden strategy behind beach cleanup programs Mymizu’s current business model The challenge of mixing environmental and social sustainability When Tim became “The Destroyer of Dreams” The unexpected (positive ) impacts of COVID-19 Why startups  should be able to do more social good than NGOs How bottled water breaks economic theory What happened to Japanese water fountains One common recycling scam in Japan A roadmap for the middle path between NGO and startup   Links from the Founder Everything you ever wanted to know about Mymizu Follow Mymizu on Instagram Check out Robin's personal home page Follow his blog on social sustainability Follow him on Twitter @robintlewis Connect with him on LinkedIn More about sustainability in Japan 7 Surprising Facts About Plastic in Japan Sanpo Yoshi: the Japanese business principle of success through responsibility 25 Opportunities For Volunteering and Social Good in Japan Milton Friedman's landmark NYT article on corporate responsibility Leave a comment Transcript Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs. I’m Tim Romero and thanks for joining me. Water, it’s one of the most common molecules in the universe and you personally are made up of about 60% water. There are a number of significant problems today that revolve around water but water is rarely the focus for startups, and today, we’re going to explore why that is and why that might be changing. Today, we sit down in a properly socially distanced matter and talk with Robin Lewis, co-founder of Mymizu. The Mymizu app enables you to find places to refill your water bottles all over Japan, and the company itself exists in a very interesting space between nonprofit and a regular for profit company. Robin and his team are already making an impact in Japan, and we have a deep dive into how startups can be a force to achieve meaningful social change. The challenges of balancing the need for revenues with staying true to your social mission, and we brainstorm about possible monetization strategies that could enable that, and also, you’ll learn something that will probably really piss you off about how recycling is done in Japan. But you know, Robin tells that story much better than I can, so let’s get right to the interview. Interview Tim: So I’m sitting here with Robin Lewis, the co-founder of Mymizu, a water refilling app. Thanks for sitting down with me. Robin Lewis: Thanks so much for having me, Tim, I’m excited to be here. Tim: Actually, you can explain Mymizu much better than I can, so what is Mymizu exactly? Robin: Mymizu, what we’re doing is we’re on a mission to help people live more sustainably, starting with plastic bottles. We accomplish that in, I’d say, four main ways. First, we have the app which you mentioned and it’s essentially a tool where you can find 200,000 locations around the world where you can take your reusable bottle and refill that for free, and so this includes public water fountains like in train station, in parks, and so on, but also, we have this network of what we call ‘refill partners,’ this is cafes, shops, hotels, and other businesses where you can walk in, you can get your water, and then walk out. It’s that simple. Tim: So tell me about your customers on both sides, so what kind of shops are acting as these free refill stations and who are your users? Are they a particular demographic or particular age? Robin: The main businesses that are passerby refill network as we call it, it really ranges from tiny mom-and-pop stores all the way to really big brands, so it really depends, as I say, we have everything from cafés, restaurants, hotels, fitness centers, tourist information places, so there is a huge range. Tim: For the refill partners, why are they on the app? Are they hoping to get additional traffic or they're concerned about single used plastics and they want to contribute to a solution? Why are they signing up? Robin: So our pitch to the refill network partners is that it's a really simple way to contribute to the environment. It also, as you say, brings in foot traffic. It's a great way to get people through the door smelling the coffee, seeing the products, whatever it is, and that's the first step to building a new relationship with potential customers, so it's really simple. It's free and it's a great way to get new customers as well. Tim: Yeah, actually, I want to really dig into the business model in just a minute, but just quickly, you guys, you're not quite an NGO, you're not quite a for-profit, you are sort of a uniquely Japanese corporate structure, right? Robin: So in terms of how we work, we consider ourselves a full purpose organization and as you said, we are not a for-profit kabushikigaisha structure. we operate under what's called a general Incorporated Association which is closer to the nonprofit side and in terms of philosophy, we are really trying to ensure that we can continue our work and scale up to a social business model, so we don't necessarily rely on donations, we really have these kind of various projects that bring in revenue to ensure that we can continue what we do. Tim: Okay, and I want to dig into the business model specifically in just a minute, but before that, I want to back up. You and your co-founder Mariko founded Mymizu pretty recently, you just launched it last year, and I heard that it was based on a trip you took to Okinawa, like the year before or something like that, right? Robin: That's right, so the story of Mymizu began in April 2018 and my co-founder Mariko and I were on a trip to Okinawa, just one of my favorite places in the world, and we are taking a walk along the beach one day and when we discovered this quite significant pile of rubbish that had floated in from the ocean - fishing gear, flip-flops, cosmetics, packages, all kinds of stuff, but the biggest culprit we found was actually pet bottles, and so kind of the pin dropped because we thought, hang on, there are so many pet bottles, many of them bottles of water in a country where we can drink the water around us. We are so fortunate to be in this extremely good situation with safe and drinkable water, so we thought, okay, we gotta fix this problem at the source. Tim: Was that the startup or part of the open loop initiative where you were doing a lot of beach cleanups and things? Robin: Yeah, I mean, at that point, we thought, okay, we have got to do at least two things. One is tackle the issue at the source, let's ensure that we replace the current system in terms of buying bottled water, and then secondly, let's get people together, build community, and for example, do beach cleans where we can actually remove the litter from the rivers, from the oceans, and also educate people, engage people, and create movement. Tim: I mean, that's awesome, but cleaning the beaches with the trash, it's like Sisyphus rolling the stone up the hill, I mean, the trash washes in with every tide from God knows where. Robin: No, I agree. I am under no impression that we could clean up the entire world, that's a huge task and that's why our main focus is really this reduction component, let's fundamentally reduce the usage of plastic, but I think the power of, for example, of beach cleans is that it's a great way to engage people and for people to see the impact with their own eyes, and that helps shift the behavior on a daily basis. I think if you sit in a classroom and you watch videos and you hear people talk, it's one thing, but if you go to the beach, the river and you see all this crap in the oceans, then it really hits you, and after you spend an hour bending over getting sweaty and picking up these bits of cigarette butts and whatnot, you remember that, and it has an impact. Tim: Okay, so the purpose of getting 30 people together to go clean up the beach is not so much just to clean up that particular beach but to motivate people to change and support environmentally friendly policies and vote for politicians who are supporting environmentally friendly policies as well? Robin: I would say that, for me, is kind of the bigger goal, but I think the picking up of trash is a great way of visualizing the impact of people working together . Tim: Awesome. Well, let's dig into the business model. I mean, it's easy to see why Mymizu is getting so much attention and you've been earning a lot of really well-deserved awards, but what is the business model? I mean, the app is free, the stores don't pay for the foot traffic and the water is free, so how are you making money on this? Robin: You know, it's funny, I think I get asked this question every single day. Tim: It's not obvious. Robin: No, and I think if you Google Mymizu in Japanese, the first thing that comes up is Mymizu, and then business model, so I think they’re really curious. So to break it down, and I should be perfectly honest from the beginning, we've had to shift many times and we were kind of making things up as we go, but I think we have finally found a number of ways to generate revenue to continue what we are doing. So firstly, it's our work with corporates.

Personal aviation is awesome! Aviation has been a source of inspiration and a symbol of innovation since the Wright brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk, to Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon, to today's dreams of colonizing Mars. Unfortunately, it's been very hard for startups to make money in aviation. Even the Wright brothers did not do particularly well in business. But things might be changing. Today we sit down and talk with Tasuku Nakai, co-founder of Tetra Aviation, and we discuss how public research incentives, support from the aerospace giants, and the changing infrastructure needs might have just tipped the balance to startups. It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it. Show Notes How Tetra's eVTOL aircraft came to be and what it might become The steps needed to bring a new aircraft to market Why it's so difficult to innovate in aviation The main hurdle in expanding the personal aviation market Fundraising strategies and exist options for aviation startups When investing is considered "evil" in Japan Links from the Founder Everything you ever wanted to know about Tetra Aviation Friend Tasuku on Facebook Connect with him on LinkedIn Follow Tetra on Twitter @Tetra_Aviation Check out a video of their prototype VTOL aircraft Leave a comment Transcript Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan's most successful entrepreneurs. I'm Tim Romero and thanks for joining me. Today, we’re going to talk about flying cars. That’s right, flying cars. We sit down with Tasuku Nakai, co-founder of Tetra Aviation and we talk about what it takes to bring a new aircraft, especially a new personal aircraft to market, and it’s not easy. The Tetra Aircraft is an electric vertical take-off and landing, or VTOL aircraft, which they believe will form the backbone of a new aerial intercity transport system. You know, I have a real soft spot for these kinds of startups. I have a private pilot’s license and I love the idea that the age of affordable personal aircraft might almost be here. But as I mentioned, it’s hard, and as Tasuku explains, these kinds of companies don’t fit the traditional VC model for a number of reasons. We also talk about the possible business models open to aircraft startups, the release of Tetra’s new prototype, and the crazy world of experimental aircraft pilots who fly newly designed aircraft as a hobby. But you know, Tasuku tells that story much better than I can, so let’s get right to the interview. Interview Tim: So, I’m sitting here with Tasuku Nakai of Tetra Aviation who makes personal electric aircraft, so thanks for sitting down with me. Tasuku: Thanks for inviting me, Tim, and this is a really great moment to introduce myself and introduce my business. Tim: No, the pleasure’s all mine. I think what you guys are doing is really interesting and I’ve had a passion for, like, aerospace startups for a long time, so actually, I mean, you can probably explain what Tetra Aviation is and what the product is better than I can. So basically, what are you building? Tasuku: We are building personal electrical VTOL aircraft, so vertical take-off and landing, so wherever you want to come, just simply ride on it and fly to the air and arrive on your destination exactly. Tim: And we’ll talk about the history later. This is kind of like the flying cars that startups have been teasing us about since the 1950s, but what you’ve built, is it considered an airplane or a helicopter, or a drone, or how is it classified? Tasuku: Well, a really difficult question about that. There’s no category anymore. There’s a lot of class, almost 50 or 60 classifications, but basically, you think it’s similar for helicopter and the drone, to combine the helicopter and drone, so I mean, the people can ride on it and also, it has a distributed propulsion system as a drone has. Tim: Actually, just today, you guys released this really cool video of the prototype. Tasuku: Mm-hmm, yes. Tim: Yeah, and we’ll put a link of that up on the site cause it’s really cool, but I’ve noticed like the prototype, the video you released still has unmanned piloting. Are you still doing unmanned or have people been able to ride it and fly it yet? Tasuku: Oh, yes, we are still doing unmanned flight for this model, and we’re building up a manned flight aircraft for next model. Tim: Okay, well, actually, let’s back up a bit. Developing a new aircraft is a lot more complex than developing a new HR system or developing new business SaaS. Tasuku: Yeah, that’s right. Tim: So what is the process? I mean, where are you in development? You’ve won several awards already for the work but where are you now and what steps do you have to take until we have people able to ride these? Tasuku: What we have to do is make a culture or some custom about riding on those kinds of aircraft, eVTOL for next transportation network, but first, what we have to do is building an actual product that people can actually onboard. To do that, we mitigate the risk of people’s fear about riding on it or flying over your head, so we have to build some trust about making fine things in the market. So what we do is first of all, there’s no injury is most important parcel. Starting from the unmanned flight basically and also the development is continue to no person onboard, so with that credit, we can put on some test pilot on our aircraft who are willing to collaborate with this experiment, not a special test pilot, but they are willing to collaborate with our aircraft in a more general way. So we are focusing on experimental aircraft market. Tim: In terms of like the time frame, you guys started Tetra Aviation three years ago? Tasuku: About two year ago, two years and three months. Tim: Oh, okay, so it took like a little over two years to get from concept design to an experimental aircraft. From this stage, how long will it take before we can get, like you’re saying, people piloting it as an experimental aircraft? Is that happening next month or is that a year away? Tasuku: Oh, we are planning to introduce our aircraft next year, showing off in the experimental market, get interest from test pilots, so we’re planning to put our aircraft into the exhibition at Oshkosh AirVenture next year, and there’s lots of people who have a similar spirit of ourselves and they are aviator and the airmen out there, so I have to introduce myself and introduce our product and introduce the feeling of what our aircraft does. Someone said yes, someone says no about our product, but those critics help, I think. Tim: Yeah, I mean, that makes sense. I mean, it’s a much slower process but it’s basically the same user feedback process that all startups go through. One thing that’s surprising to me, so taking a little over two years to go from concept to prototype, and then another, let’s call it a year from a prototype to beta users, the experimental users, that’s not that long of a product cycle. That’s pretty fast, and yet innovation in aircrafts seems to happen very, very slowly. We talked before about flying cars and how, like, startups have been teasing us about flying cars for the last 70 years. Why is it so difficult to innovate in aerospace or in aircraft in particular? Tasuku: I think it’s very difficult to think things integrated into one piece which is flying. Also, there is lots of restriction about getting certified to say this is safe. Other products, even mobility, for example, e-bikes or the electric car is a bit different from those white restrictions, safety restrictions are much more harder than those products. Tim: So there’s two things in there you mentioned. I’m curious because you mentioned, like, the real technical challenges of all the pieces that have to work together and kind of the regulatory challenges. So actually, when we think of, like, satellites and aerospace startups, there’s a lot of innovation going on in satellites, a lot of startups doing that, but you would think that aircraft would be simpler to make than spacecraft. Is that the case or is the aircraft actually more difficult? Tasuku: It’s a very difficult question about that. I think that satellite has, there’s a lot of methods out there. Recently, even in the university, there is CAN-SAT that is a sophisticated structure product that the university students can learn how to develop those kinds of things into a real product, and also, there is actual know-how connected to the actual products in this commercial market, in the satellites market, but there’s lots of people involved in aircraft, it’s not connected to the prototype in the university, I think, and also, it’s not connected to the actual product in the general aviation market because lots of big companies are building their product but there’s no experimental things that people or young men or others can learn about, well, aircraft things more easily. Tim: So it’s just harder to get started with it? Tasuku: Yes, yes, this are very few opportunities to get started with making a new aircraft, but the experimental aircraft culture can learn to follow this and learn about new things, but that’s not so much has a market. For now, the drones and eVTOLs are more closely connected to the Internet, involving lots of people. So recently, it’s more friendly and there is more chance to connect to the commercials. That allows people to get into it, so there’s lots of startups data recently building eVTOLs. Tim: Oh, so I haven’t really thought of it, so it’s not necessarily the technical challenge, it’s just that the ecosystem for satellites and aerospace is much better developed than the ecosystem for aircraft? Tasuku: I believe so. Tim: We were talking about the experimental aircraft market, the pilots who fly experimental aircraft. How big is that worldwide? Tasuku: That market is basically based in the United States only.

Disrupting Japan is six years old and ready to party! Unfortunately, we can't. Like so much else in 2020, this year's big, live show has been canceled, but I hope you'll make it next year. It's not all bad news, of course. There are a lot of great things happening for both Disrupting Japan and for Japanese startups. So looking back on these six years, I'd like to share some of the most important changes that are happening in Japan. Please enjoy. Leave a comment Transcript Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan's most successful entrepreneurs. I'm Tim Romero and thanks for joining me. This is our sixth-anniversary episode. Over the past six years, it’s been a Disrupting Japan tradition to have our big Disrupting Japan Live and Unleashed show on our anniversary. We get three of Japan’s startup thought-leaders on stage and invite a few hundred of our closest friends over for an evening of drinks, conversation, and just hanging out with a lot of cool people. Unfortunately, this year the coronavirus makes this impossible. So we’ll pick up that tradition again next year.  What I had planned for this year’s anniversary episode was to tell you a special story about innovation at it’s best in Japan. The real story behind a video you’ve seen a dozen times on the internet and Western news media. But before that, I wanted to talk briefly about three critical things that have changed for startups in Japan and as those introductory notes became longer and more interesting, I realized I was going to have to split the show, so I’ll tell you all about that video in a future episode. Today, there is something else you should know. But before we get to that, I want to thank you.  When I started Disrupting Japan six years ago, I really could not have imagined what it would become. At first, Disrupting Japan was just me sitting down and talking with my founder friends, and I guess in all the important ways, it still is just me sitting down with my friends. But Disrupting Japan has grown with Japan’s startup community. We now have around 10,000 listeners all over the world, and we’ve ranked as Japan’s #1 entrepreneurship podcast and occasionally break into the top five Japanese business podcasts as well. So after six years, I want to thank all the amazing founders who have come on the show to tell us their stories so honestly, the fans who have spread the word about the podcast in a way that online marketing never could, and to thank you, for listening. I appreciate you choosing to spend your time with me, and I work incredibly hard to make sure this show is worth your time. Looking back on six years, I want to share with you the three most important ways that Disrupting Japan has changed, and what that tells us about how things are changing for Japanese startups. Now, these aren’t the big data-driven headline numbers that you already know about. These trends are more personal, more human, and maybe in a way, more important. 1) Origin Stories During the first two years of Disrupting Japan, I would almost always ask founders about how they started their startup. Many had pretty dramatic stories. Many telling of how their wife or parents were opposed and tried to talk them out of it or force them out of it, or how they had to give up their apartment to save money meet payroll. Many founders had a family role model. A non-conformist relative who was maybe an entrepreneur themselves, or perhaps an artist or musician. Someone who believed in them when everyone else doubted. One of our founders even sold his wife’s jewelry to make payroll.  Although his parting advice to me on that matter was “Tim, your startup is very important, but there are some things you should just never do.” But as long-time listeners have probably noticed, we don’t hear those kinds of origin stories anymore. When I bother to ask the question these days, the most common reply is something like “Well, I really wanted to do it, and my friends and family thought it was a good idea, so we pitched some VCs and got funding.” Which is awesome! But it does not exactly make for compelling storytelling.  But that’s great, it shows the ecosystem is working, both socially and financially things are getting easier for Japanese founders. And hey, I don’t mind skipping that question. As any founder will tell you, all the real drama comes after you've raised the money. But over the past six years, the social shift has been more sweeping and important than the financial changes. Not only do we see more and more students from Japan’s top universities, Today, Keio, Waseda, founding startups, but we also see university professors starting startups, something that 20 years ago was basically forbidden for a professor to even work as an advisor to a startup. Headlines tend to focus on investment numbers, because, well, investment is important and because huge amounts of money in headlines make us pay attention. But money doesn’t create innovation. Innovators do. And the fact that more and more Japanese are willing to challenge the status quo and that more and more people are cheering them on is perhaps the most encouraging development over the past six years. You can always find the money somewhere, but true innovative spirit? That’s almost magical. 2) Female Founders Women founders make up around 9% of founders in Japan, but a much higher percentage of Disrupting Japan guests. I don’t know exactly why that is. My circle of friends and acquaintances is pretty wide, and our guests come from all over Japan, so it’s not obvious selection bias. People have suggested that maybe, on average, women founders speak better English or are more willing to take a chance and be interviewed in English. Maybe? But I haven’t noticed that to be the case, and I’ve certainly not seen any data that would back it up. In any event, women founders are still relatively rare in Japan, even by Asian standards, and we’ve had the pleasure of sitting down with quite a few of them. I get asked about what it’s like for female founders in Japan a lot, both when I speak in Japan and overseas.  It’s a hard question to address and one, that as a white American man, is kind of strange to be answering. Actually, I hate the question “What’s it like to be a women founder in Japan?” and I never ask it. It’s a lazy question and one that’s almost impossible to answer. Look, it’s like I am asked all the time, “What’s it like to be a foreign entrepreneur in Japan? What’s was it like being a foreigner working at TEPCO?”  The first problem is that it’s too big a question. There is far too much surface area for me to get my arms comfortably around a question like that. Where do I start? But more importantly, how would I know?  Yes, it’s true, I have founded startups as a foreigner in Japan, and I have worked at large Japanese companies as a gaijin, but I’ve never done any of those things as a Japanese person. What I am supposed to be comparing my experience to? And of course, my experience as a foreign founder has been very different from that of other foreign founders.  And as a fan of Disrupting Japan, you know that the women founders who have come on the show have had very, very different experiences. Trying to answer A “what’s it like” question directly requires that we assume a huge number of stereotypes and facts not in evidence. So I put aside the lazy questions, so we can get to the interesting stuff. Because it is only when we talk with dozens of women founders and compare their lived experiences do we see commonalities emerge. We start to see patterns that we can explore, and that’s what we’ve been doing for the past six years on Disrupting Japan. When I’m asked about “Japanese female founders” I try to answer with specific things women founders have told me, with actual data, or with trends I’ve noticed in talking to a lot of women founders. But if you really want to know what it’s “like”, then you really need to go listen to the interviews and hear these women explain it in their own words. It’s pretty amazing. But one interesting thing I have noticed over the past six years is that early on I was interviewing a lot of single women who had started companies, a number of divorced women, and a lot of incredibly driven and focused single moms. But it was pretty rare to find a happily married women founder with a supportive husband. That seems to be changing. I don’t think there is any hard data available on this, but from talking to literally hundreds of people about this topic over the years, it seems that the idea of someone being a wife, a mom, and a founder is becoming more and more acceptable in Japan. Now, I don’t mean to imply that it’s easy. Many of these women are making sacrifices similar to those we talked about during the early origin stories. It’s not that it’s become easy, but it’s become … possible.  Accepted. Respected. And watching how attitudes have changed this much over the past six years has been astounding, and incredibly encouraging. Both for women in Japan in general, and startups in Japan in general. But for women starting startups in Japan, in particular. 3) The Overseas Perspective Maybe this is the simplest change to explain, but in a way, it’s the most significant one; at least in terms of how Japan is viewed internationally. And it shows that both Japanese startups and Disrupting Japan are succeeding. In the early days of Disrupting Japan, by far the most frequent question I would get about the show was “How do you find enough founders to interview? Startups are really rare in Japan, right?” This question drove me nuts, and I got it from everyone. Foreigners living overseas, foreigners living in Japan, and even from Japanese people here in Japan.  And the answer was, is, and always has been “No! It’s not hard at all. There are a lot of interesting startup founders in Japan.