THE BRIDGE

Events

AI-based health diagnosis app for plants wins AgriTech startup competition in Tokyo

SHARE:

This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. From May 23rd to 25th at Toranomon Hills in Tokyo, a series of start-up pitches were given during Japan’s Agritech Summit (AG/SUM). The event was sponsored by the Japanese financial newspaper group Nikkei, and modeled after the American version which is replete with start-up participation. It was the second AG/SUM confab held by the Japanese side following a February pitch preliminaries that saw a dozen teams selected to prepare for the Harvest finals in May…10 teams ended up pitching in May. Three AG/SUM accelerator participants also made their Green Pitch presentations. Last year, Nikkei hosted Fintech Summit, in line with the mainstay business full of start-up activity in recent years. The news outfit will this year again organize the fintech event. In 2016 Nikkei had also backed Pioneers Asia, focused on the startup ecosystem in the Asian region. Regarding agritech as a concept it covers not only agribusiness but entails applying technology and innovations to solve a variety of problems ranging from labor shortage due to the steep decline in farms, the global environment and food supply, among other pressing…

This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.


The Banana Dream team
Image credit: AG/SUM

From May 23rd to 25th at Toranomon Hills in Tokyo, a series of start-up pitches were given during Japan’s Agritech Summit (AG/SUM). The event was sponsored by the Japanese financial newspaper group Nikkei, and modeled after the American version which is replete with start-up participation.

It was the second AG/SUM confab held by the Japanese side following a February pitch preliminaries that saw a dozen teams selected to prepare for the Harvest finals in May…10 teams ended up pitching in May. Three AG/SUM accelerator participants also made their Green Pitch presentations.

AG/SUM Harvest in Tokyo, February 2017
Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

Last year, Nikkei hosted Fintech Summit, in line with the mainstay business full of start-up activity in recent years. The news outfit will this year again organize the fintech event. In 2016 Nikkei had also backed Pioneers Asia, focused on the startup ecosystem in the Asian region.

Life Sciences session at Pioneers Asia 2016
Image credit: Masaru Ikeda

Regarding agritech as a concept it covers not only agribusiness but entails applying technology and innovations to solve a variety of problems ranging from labor shortage due to the steep decline in farms, the global environment and food supply, among other pressing issues.

Automation for improved yield management, utilization of drones both apian and artificial, food safety and security, rural medicine — though as for veterinarians, Japan has a surplus of practitioners — these are fields in which biomedical and life sciences will be gaining in importance.

Banana Dream’s health diagnosis app
Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

Regarding AG/SUM pitch competitions Harvest’s top winner, with a big monetary award from the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, was GreenPlanet Biotech-led Team Banana Dream while the special award went to agriculture-use fintech start-up Plus A, which will be provided direct access to the pitch finals at Fintech Summit 2017 being held again by Nikkei in a challenge for the top award there.

The Banana Dream team has developed an AI-based health diagnosis technology for plants using images of the veins of a leaf based on a technique called “freeze-thaw awakening method”. Plus A proposes a new funding option for farmers to help their business expansion and optimization.

The Plus-A team
Image credit: AG/SUM

The Green Pitch presentation were given followed by Livin Farms, Plant Data and Vegetalia, the last outfit being led by Satoshi Koike, a well-known in the startup field. Additionally seminars and workshops as well as exhibits were held (container-based Freight Farms being a favorite for urban/weekend farmer candidates, for example) plus smaller conferences… business and press…at the mid-city venue.

The Plant Data team
Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

There was also an announcement made at AG/SUM of a joint endeavor by the City of Rikuzentakata (Mayor Futoshi Toba), Kyoto-based confectioner Salon de Royal (President Machiko Maeuchi) and the University of Tokyo’s Agriculture and Life Sciences Department as well as Institute of Industrial Science (efforts headed by Prof. Hiroyoshi Iwata, Assoc. Prof. Kazuo Oki, etc.) establishing a company and a pilot farm centered on pecan-nut production for revitalization of the rural region devastated by the March 2011 tsunami strike.

The Pecan team and their partners
Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

From 10th Infinity Venture Summit in Kobe: Here’s 14 teams at Launchpad pitch finals

SHARE:

See the original story in Japanese. This is a part of our coverage of Infinity Ventures Summit (IVS) 2017 Spring in Kobe. During the 10th edition of Infinity Venture Summit in Kobe, a semi-annual conference hosted by renowned startup-focused investment fund Infinity Venture Partners (IVP), the LaunchPad startup pitch competition was held on June 7th, where Tokyo-based Cluster developing the VR social room app won the top prize. here’s a quick rundown of the competition finals. Judges in the finals were as follows: Syogo Kawata (Advisor, DeNA) Takuya Kitagawa (Executive Officer, Rakuten) Yoshihiko Kinoshita (General Partner, Skyland Ventures) Hironao Kunimitsu (CEO, Gumi) Koki Sato (CEO, Septeni Holdings) Tetsuya Sanada (CEO, Klab) Ken Suzuki (CEO, SmartNews) Yoshikazu Tanaka (CEO, GREE) Kotaro Chiba (Angel Investor / CEO, The Ryokan Tokyo) Akiko Naka (CEO, Wantedly) Shinichiro Hori (CEO, YJ Capital) Ken Honda (Global CEO, FreakOut Holdings) Kotaro Yamagishi (CEO, Keio Innovation Initiative) James Riney (Head & Managing Partner, 500 Startups Japan) In addition, well-known Japanese serial entrepreneur Takafumi Horie took part as a special commentator. The prizes of this competition were: Amazon Web Services activate coupon worth $3,000 for all participants, and “True wish list” for top prize winner (provided by Amazon Web…

See the original story in Japanese.

This is a part of our coverage of Infinity Ventures Summit (IVS) 2017 Spring in Kobe.

During the 10th edition of Infinity Venture Summit in Kobe, a semi-annual conference hosted by renowned startup-focused investment fund Infinity Venture Partners (IVP), the LaunchPad startup pitch competition was held on June 7th, where Tokyo-based Cluster developing the VR social room app won the top prize.

here’s a quick rundown of the competition finals. Judges in the finals were as follows:

  • Syogo Kawata (Advisor, DeNA)
  • Takuya Kitagawa (Executive Officer, Rakuten)
  • Yoshihiko Kinoshita (General Partner, Skyland Ventures)
  • Hironao Kunimitsu (CEO, Gumi)
  • Koki Sato (CEO, Septeni Holdings)
  • Tetsuya Sanada (CEO, Klab)
  • Ken Suzuki (CEO, SmartNews)
  • Yoshikazu Tanaka (CEO, GREE)
  • Kotaro Chiba (Angel Investor / CEO, The Ryokan Tokyo)
  • Akiko Naka (CEO, Wantedly)
  • Shinichiro Hori (CEO, YJ Capital)
  • Ken Honda (Global CEO, FreakOut Holdings)
  • Kotaro Yamagishi (CEO, Keio Innovation Initiative)
  • James Riney (Head & Managing Partner, 500 Startups Japan)

In addition, well-known Japanese serial entrepreneur Takafumi Horie took part as a special commentator.

The prizes of this competition were:

  • Amazon Web Services activate coupon worth $3,000 for all participants, and “True wish list” for top prize winner (provided by Amazon Web Services)
  • One year’s worth of Yebisu Beer for top prize winner (provided by AGS Consulting)
  • Use right of Freee worth 500,000 yen for top prize winner (provided by Freee)
  • Settlement fee of PayPal worth 1 million yen (provided by PayPal)

Cluster (top prize)

Cluster CEO Naoto Kato

Cluster provides a social VR (virtual reality) service under the same name, enabling large scale event in VR space gathering many users. By sharing URL, only invited users are allowed to enter a VR room and to share the experience there. The users can view the same virtual screen as other users in the VR room. The screen can display game plays or YouTube videos, so that users can discuss or share experiences while viewing the same video contents or sports matches.

See also:

iNAIL by BIT (2nd place)

iNAIL by BIT

iNAIL is an auto-nail art print service. The conventional nail art applying procedures at salons require the time and cost to design in handwriting by nail artists; on the other hand, this service provides smart nail art printing by the exclusive nail printer only within 15 seconds in the same method as 3D printer.

The firm plans to expand its service at hair salons, nail salons, or esthetic salons. Due to the high reputation for Japanese nail arts, the firm pursues global development eagerly as well.

Town WiFi (3rd place)

Town WiFi CEO Takehiro Ogita

Town WiFi (formerly provided with the name of WiFiShare) is a mobile app enabling smart devices to connect automatically to private and free WiFi services to reduce the data communication fee. Besides Japan, the firm provides its auto-WiFi logon service in 200 locations in the US, Korea, Taiwan, or Macau. The firm aims to monetize by the push advertising when logging on and the sales commission for charged WiFi services within the app.

See also:

One Visa by Residence (4th place)

Residence CEO Albert Okamura

Albert Okamura born in Peru, once encountered a scene where his friend was forcibly deported to Peru due to irregularities upon acquiring his visa, and that motivated Okamura to solve the problem of visa acquisition. Since Japan’s immigration inspectors are just public employees who basically only speak Japanese and the application documents are written in Japanese, it is difficult for foreigners who cannot understand Japanese to communicate using this language.

Okamura had himself worked for Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau, and been involved in visa-issuance work. Leveraging the experience obtained there, he developed Residence, now known as One Visa. The service displays questions that are required for terms utilized upon visa acquisition in the users’ native language, and outputs them as a form written in Japanese.

The firm aims to monetize by credit clearance service for foreigners based on the registered information and launched the open beta version on June 6th. The firm was born out from Tech Lab Paak 4th batch.

See also:

LION Project by Hyper8 (5th place)

Hyper8 CEO Keiji Isogimi

Hyper8, also known for services such as Mespo or Tabeniiku, offers a new internet service called LION Project.

LION Project is a Uber-like service for hostess bars, allowing girls to be called up to parties after events.

The service shows the amount purchased by each user is 27,000 yen (about $240) and the repeat ratio within 30 days is 68%, with 40% month-on-month growth ratio since its launch back this February. More than 820 girls have registered the service.

See also:

Astool by Smooz

Astool CEO Yuichi Kato

Astool developed a “chain-reaction” type web browser Smooz available for iOS. Through text extraction, morpheme analysis, ranking and related term extraction for the current web page, it recommends search terms which will be required next by the user or suggests bookmarking to him / her by recognizing and reviewing reactions on social media.

Player! by Ookami

Ookami CEO Taiyo Ogata

Player! is a sports-centric social network app which provides information of ongoing status or results of live sports matches and allows users to share the excitement with other users viewing the same match in real-time.

See also:

HoloEyes

HoloEyes CEO Naoji Taniguchi

HoloEyes aims to make an information revolution in the medical field using VR. Its technology will be helpful for the medical world by sharing information of human bodies in 3DVR form. The medical VR database will be constructed through collection of CT scan data and forming 3D human body models, then accumulating such data.

If a search on the terms “male, 60s, prostate cancer” is made, 3D images of matched cases will be output and doctors can utilize them for diagnosis references of similar cases or training upon surgical operations. The team expects a business model providing VR viewers for hospitals and selling collected data, after obtaining patients’ consent, to medical colleges or pharmaceutical companies.

See also:

APlay by NAIN

APlay by NAIN

APlay is a Bluetooth earphone having a voice assistant function capable of conveying smartphone notifications by voices. It notifies Twitter timelines or LINE messages while listening to music or telephone conversation.

Cansell

Cansell CEO Kyohei Yamashita

Cansell is a P2P (peer-to-peer) commerce platform for non-refundable accommodation reservation rights between guest users. In Cansell, exhibitor users who want to cancel reservations can sell accommodation rights for users who look for hotels.

The exhibitor users receive reselling money after deducting the commission for Cansell and can save the cancellation cost compared with paying the cancellation cost to travel agents or hotels; on the other hand, the purchaser users can make reservations in comparatively cheaper price.

See also:

Matcher

Matcher CEO Kohei Nishikawa

Matcher is an “alumni visit” matching service for Japanese job hunting activities. With the watchword “do me a favor in return for advising about job hunting?”, the service connects students who want to consult about job hunting and businesspeople who have favor to ask on the web only by one-click.

For students, there is a merit that they can easily visit employees currently working at intended companies other than graduates of the university. For companies, they can use the service as an effective method for approaching incoming employees. Matcher, launched last February, acquired 10,000 users as of this April and has been adopted by more than 100 companies.

Scouty

Scouty

Scouty is a AI-powered human resource matching service, especially focused on engineers. Monitoring engineers’ information on social media and crawling open data on the web, the service integrates personal information about 800,000 engineers. It predicts the probability of retirement utilizing AI analysis for corrected data and matches them for the best companies.

For people potentially changing jobs, Scouty offers his / her profile email based on the template.

Receptionist by Delighted

Receptionist by Delighted

Receptionist provided by Delighted is a visitor reception service available for iPad. With this app, users can handle visitors using chat tool such as Chatwork or Slack. The app can also link with schedule / customer management system or labor management platform.

When a visitor is going to be late for an appointment, he / she can easily contact the intended person in charge via the app in a single operation. At a reception desk, any meeting procedure can be automated just by waving smartphone over the Receptionist app on iPad. Delighted plans to launch the app for smartphones in the future.

Translated by Taijoro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

From Monozukuri Hub Meetup in Kyoto: Entrepreneurship for Youth and Students in Japan

SHARE:

This is a guest post by Sabrina Sasaki, a marketing representative of Kyoto-based hardware startup accelerator Makers Boot Camp. The accelerator holds the Monozukuri Hub Meetup event in Kyoto on a monthly basis. Additionally, all photos in this article were taken by professional photographer Taiga Tamura of Tamura Shashinkan. February was a busy time for Makers Boot Camp. Just one day after HackOsaka, when we supported Monozukuri Hardware Cup 2017, the first pitch contest for hardware startups in Japan, we also had the opportunity to invite special guest speakers from three different hubs of the world. After a very busy schedule in Osaka, some of them had the chance to stop by and bring their personal insights to our Monozukuri Hub in Kyoto. I was in charge of introducing the meetup topic and its relevance for students – a considerable amount of the population in Kyoto and the highest concentration in Japan – to engage in startup communities, share their ideas, learn about experiences and question the status quo. There were many new faces in the audience, as the idea was to focus on young people considering their next life choices. The first question I raised at the event was…

sabrina-sasaki-150x150
Sabrina Sasaki

This is a guest post by Sabrina Sasaki, a marketing representative of Kyoto-based hardware startup accelerator Makers Boot Camp. The accelerator holds the Monozukuri Hub Meetup event in Kyoto on a monthly basis.

Additionally, all photos in this article were taken by professional photographer Taiga Tamura of Tamura Shashinkan.


February was a busy time for Makers Boot Camp. Just one day after HackOsaka, when we supported Monozukuri Hardware Cup 2017, the first pitch contest for hardware startups in Japan, we also had the opportunity to invite special guest speakers from three different hubs of the world. After a very busy schedule in Osaka, some of them had the chance to stop by and bring their personal insights to our Monozukuri Hub in Kyoto.

I was in charge of introducing the meetup topic and its relevance for students – a considerable amount of the population in Kyoto and the highest concentration in Japan – to engage in startup communities, share their ideas, learn about experiences and question the status quo. There were many new faces in the audience, as the idea was to focus on young people considering their next life choices.

The first question I raised at the event was “Why Kyoto?”. There’re so many unique things about the city that it’s hard to define its industry in a few words, specially considering the diversity in terms of Art, Design and Architecture. Kyoto is a dynamic spot where innovation and creativity have been part of all sectors, and we’re lucky to be able to benefit from all those ventures that still impact our daily life.

A city where modern & famous companies like Nintendo, Kyocera and Omron coexist with an intensive and traditional craftsmanship activity, reference in industrialized countries for best practices, as in pottery, textile and culinary. Kyoto yearly hosts many visitors and Foreign Exchange students interested to get inspired and collaborate with the local ecosystem for creation and renovation. In that sense, connecting students from different universities to outsiders can facilitate our dialogues to promote alternative ways of making new things.

Sam Lai, Taiwan-based Managing Director of Yushan Ventures joined the audience as our special guest.

Our city has been a great environment for us! Makers Boot Camp shares the Japanese worldwide know-how with industrial best practices that come from this background, as our Co-Founders met thanks to this ecosystem. With our mentors and manufacturers, we provide startups the support they need to build the basis for a new business.We also have young professionals as part of our network and we’d like to get to know more student’s projects. We can start helping with some basic advise for the ones considering building a new product.

But in terms of requirements, how could we define a “right” person to become a maker or join a startup? There’s no such thing as the “right personality” or a specific expertise needed to join a startup, as you can always improve your skills. First of all, makers are all about discovering, trying new things and finding what they’re passionate about. In the end, what makes the difference is not an individual skill but the team work results, so sharing is part of our routine as a startup.

Looking at the steps of a hardware startup, represented as in a videogame with different stages, in order to move to the next one, you must achieve a certain level in the current one. In this sense, the part where most makers struggle to continue “playing the game” is when they have to make  a professional prototype, a stage we call “Design for Manufacturing” (DFM). That’s the part we can support startups with our prototype experts and we’d like to invite all students to experiment new things within our hub.

Ajay Revels, Polite Machines

Our first guest speaker was Ajay Revels (Polite Machines– NYC), who introduced her current work at as a researcher trained in design thinking, helping different teams uncover and develop products and services that people will love. She’s an anthropologist for business, daily analysing systems like universities, homes, offices, and even hospitals, observing and interviewing people to understand and validate possible problems. Then she maps all problems (like in a subway map) and provides insights for entire teams to see a holistic picture of a specific problem, as an example. She pointed out they’re three key questions to start with, when you have an idea for a new project:

  • Do I have a real problem to solve?
  • Can I make a product to solve this problem?
  • If so, what kind of value does my product add? (Proposition)

With startups, Ajay runs experiments to test if there is a product solving a real problem, and if people are willing to pay for this product. She applied some of her recent examples after observing people interacting in Kyoto.

Some startups work for traditional charity, just solving a problem without making money out of it. Others are part of a professional business, so there must be a profit to be given in return to investors. And there’s also the area of social entrepreneurship, that is a hybrid right in between the other two, when both making money and supporting the community are part of the core goals.

There’re many models that can be used to measure a startup achievement –  a broad concept of success could be applied in different ways, depending on the specific purpose defined by its stakeholders.

Jeffrey McDaniel, Innovation Works

The second speaker was Jeffrey McDaniel  (Innovation Works) who came from Pittsburgh (PA, US) to take part in Monozukuri Hardware Cup as the head of the Judges. He represents one of the main hardware startup ecosystems in the world, part of Alphalab Gear Hardware Cup. His role as Executive in Residence consists of spending a lot of time with early stage companies, as a mentor for founders and entrepreneurs.

Like Ajay, Jeff clarified the two basic things you need to start a company: a good idea that is able to solve a problem and find out who’s willing to pay for it.

Pittsburgh used to be known as the “Steel City”: 80% of the total amount of the metal in US used to be from the region, but nowadays it represents only 5%. The area has been an important hub for the American industry and the city managed to survive thanks to its qualities of reinventing itself. Combining natural resources with people’s talents and technologies, Pittsburgh could complete a triangle that allows ways to redefine success in its own way. Locals had to learn how to adapt to the economic changes and develop innovative skills with available resources, a survival skill very similar to what happened in Japan.

There are also many universities in Pittsburgh, thanks to its prosper history  – and a lot of money stayed there, helping new entrepreneurs to get support in order to take risks and start new projects. In this sense, the local ecosystem played a key role in the development of innovative initiatives, and the city is now a strategic hub for high tech companies like Google and Uber, who’s testing its self-drive pilot cars there.

Adrien Sedaka, Timescope

As the main purpose of our events is always giving visibility to startups, we also had two French entrepeneurs representing the diversity of one of the main global hubs for IoT startups.

Adrien Sedaka (Timescope) from Paris, studied business at ESCP Europe, where he began his career in consulting. During 5 years, he assisted C-level managers of SMEs and large groups on business and marketing issues.

In 2010, he visited Pompeii with Basile Segalen, his childhood friend. The tour took place in the high season, when the historical place becomes full of crowds, and they couldn’t have an experience  as they had dreamt about. They ended up frustrated, realizing the difficulties of projecting themselves into the magic of such a historical place. The idea of developing an immersive tool designed for outdoor public places was born there, after their own frustration.

In 2014, after the new progress of VR technologies, they decided to develop Timescope: the first self-service virtual reality terminal. After a year of development, the time machine was tested at the Bastille, one the most powerful historical sites in French history. Adrien and his team are now scaling-up the company, preparing new installations in 2017, and considering how they could implement this new service into Japanese historical sites.

Adrian wrote a few notes to share with the students interested to join a startup:

  • Choose careful who you want to work with, as a partnership is like a wedding.
  • Work with people who are really motivated and do care for them.
  • Try to execute your idea as fast as possible.
  • Don’t minimize the skills you don’t have: either work on those skills or partner with someone who can assist you with what you need.
Régis Duhot, Parkisseo

Régis DuhotParkisseo Founder & CEO, defines himself as a “fifty years old « young » start-upper”, who started his company after 25 years in finance and accounting areas, working for several multinationals, mostly in electronics.

As most of urban citizens in the world, Régis wastes a significant part of his days looking for a place to park his car. This is how he decided to focus on this issue with a new solution: a clever car system that helps drivers to find available parking spots easily, without wasting time.

Parkisseo offers a complete solution, with a connected device that will allow cities to be smarter, facilitating the routine of its citizens. Easy to use, simple to instal (wireless), the startup offers advantages for both drivers and car park owners.

Sushi Suzuki, Associate Professor at Kyoto D-Lab and Makers Boot Camp Adviser

Sushi Suzuki, Associate Professor at Kyoto D-Lab and Makers Boot Camp Adviser, invited students & startups to join Kyoto Startup Summer School.

We invited Eiji Takahashi to present his student startup project: Untilet.

Eiji studies polymeric glass transition at Kyoto Institute of Technology, and at the same time he is also interested in data science. Leading the development as a CTO, from early stage into the IoT device development team, he recently helped to create an entrepreneurial department within his university.

His first project, Untiled, consists of a device that can recognize unpleasant odor and recommend users who suffer from stuffy nose to change their daily habits. Connected to the mobile app, the sensors can capture specific substances in the air.

Eiji gave a demo trial about his device, which was under development.

In the end, he joined a panel discussion with other students and professors who explained the challenges to develop a startup project as a university student.

Ajay also invited the International guests, both startups and Jeff, for a panel discussion about their next steps and insights.

We had a Q&A session when the audience had the chance to ask questions to students, startups and experts.

Before the end, there was a special closing message from our first supporter Allen Minner, Chairman and Group CEO of Sunbridge. He is a serial-entrepreneur, known for being a mentor and also angel investor for Japan-based startups, including Makers Boot Camp.

Makers Boot Camp’s Narimasa Makino (left), Sunbridge’s Allen Miner (right)

Allen highlighted the potential of our local community and Monozukuri Hub current achievements lead by a generation of new entrepreneurs like our CEO Narimasa Makino, encouraging more students to learn English and try new projects.

ConnectFree’s Chris Tate (front left), FabFoundry’s Nobuhiro Seki (front right)

There was a networking session, where attendees & speakers could interact and test the startups devices.

L to R: Sushi Suzuki, Tatsuya Tsubuki, Shohei Nakamura

Associate Professors Sushi Suzuki and Tatsuya Tsubuki from Kyoto Institute of Technology joined Researcher Shohei Nakamura from Osaka University.

Korea’s Dot, Braille smartwatch and tablet startup, wins Slush Tokyo 2017 pitch finals

SHARE:

See the original story in Japanese. This is a part of our on-site coverage of Slush Tokyo 2017. Slush Tokyo 2017, one of the largest startup and technology events in Japan, was held at Tokyo Big Sight last week. In the pitch competition within the event, Korean startup Dot which is behind the Braille smart watch / tablet was chosen for first place from among four teams which survived the qualifying round contested by the 80 nominated teams over two days. Event contestant made a five-minute pitch followed by a Q&A session with judges. The followings were the four finalists. First Place: Dot (Korea) Supplemental prize: 5 million yen (about $45,000) from Recruit Holdings, 5 million yen investment from investors Dot developed a smartwatch capable of expressing Braille descriptions named Dot Watch, in addition to other Braille devices. Dot Watch enables the visually-impaired to exchange messages or to understand posts on social network services by touching the display. It will be welcomed as a gift item since costing only $290 which is much cheaper than conventional Braille keyboards costing about $5,000. The team succeeded in downsizing of the display on the face utilizing its 18 patents. This technology is applicable…

See the original story in Japanese.
This is a part of our on-site coverage of Slush Tokyo 2017.

Slush Tokyo 2017, one of the largest startup and technology events in Japan, was held at Tokyo Big Sight last week. In the pitch competition within the event, Korean startup Dot which is behind the Braille smart watch / tablet was chosen for first place from among four teams which survived the qualifying round contested by the 80 nominated teams over two days.

Event contestant made a five-minute pitch followed by a Q&A session with judges. The followings were the four finalists.

First Place: Dot (Korea)

Supplemental prize: 5 million yen (about $45,000) from Recruit Holdings, 5 million yen investment from investors

Dot developed a smartwatch capable of expressing Braille descriptions named Dot Watch, in addition to other Braille devices. Dot Watch enables the visually-impaired to exchange messages or to understand posts on social network services by touching the display. It will be welcomed as a gift item since costing only $290 which is much cheaper than conventional Braille keyboards costing about $5,000. The team succeeded in downsizing of the display on the face utilizing its 18 patents. This technology is applicable to the guide display boards at subway stations, bank or bus stops.


It currently supports 35 languages and will do more by performing each scaling. Furthermore, the team has been developing the Braille tablet Dot Pad as its new step supported by Google. Dot Mini, the simplified version of Dot Pad for educational use, was distributed in Kenya as a trial operation and received favorable feedback. Since there are also more than 10 million visually-impaired people in India, the team expects a huge market.

JAL Award Inzpire.me (Norway)

Supplemental prize: complimentary mileage worth 275,000 miles from Japan Airlines

Norway-based Inzpire.me is a marketplace for connecting influencers and product brands. Under the current influence marketing environment, 10% of top influencers earn 90% of the total marketing budget demand. The team explains that this imbalance is caused by a lack of transparency and reliability as to influencer marketing.

Since launch of its beta version last year, Inzpire.me has gathered 6,500 influencers and the number of total followers for these reaches 300 million worldwide. Partnering with 60 brand companies, the team has been focusing at this time on business in Europe and US but also aims to expand into Asia in the future.

PR Times Award: MacroSpace (Japan)

Supplemental prize: one-year PR support

Macrospace is a Japanese startup developing system for tele-existence. Putting sensors on a controller’s body and sending acquired motion data via the Internet, it can control a remote robot with the same motion. The technological advantage of the team is being able to markedly suppress the communication delay between controller and robot by utilizing UDP (User Datagram Protocol) and Deep Learning. Thus it is possible to virtually “exist” in a different location simultaneously.

The existence of avatars in different places may realize “teleportation”; tele-diagnosis or tele-education will become technically possible by setting avatars in depopulated areas that lack doctors or teachers. Since the robot sizes are independent of the human body, larger robots can be controlled by users so that they can also be utilized for disaster rescues. By the way, CEO Sho Nakanose was chosen as a participant for a program at Singularity University which will be held this summer.

Elsius Bilmedical (Canada)

ECMO (Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation) is a life-saving technology used in ICUs (Intensive Care Units) or emergency rooms; it pumps and oxygenates for circulation of a patient’s blood from outside the body. The availability of conventional ECMO equipment was limited due to the need for power supply or blood dilution.

Elsius Biomedical developed compact and portable circulatory support system pCAS for easy-use ECMO. It incorporates blood pump and oxygen supplier, and is expected to save more lives.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Kyoto’s Makers Boot Camp partners with La French Tech to help more IoT startups grow

SHARE:

This is a guest post by Sabrina Sasaki, a marketing representative of Kyoto-based hardware startup accelerator Makers Boot Camp. The accelerator holds the Monozukuri Hub Meetup event in Kyoto on a monthly basis. Additionally, all photos in this article were taken by Kyoto-based systems biologist Tugi Guenes. Last week we took part of the closing event of France Japan Innovation year: a special forum when an official mission from France visited Japan to validate bilateral business opportunities. The event happened on December 6th and 7th at Knowledge Capital – Grand Front Osaka (Umeda) , as the outcome of two years of collaboration, when the parts involved had the chance to showcase, all in the same space, their next steps and also new opportunities in innovation between both countries. Makers Boot Camp had a booth area together with KSN (Kyoto Shisaku Net), our prototype experts, a network of SMEs who support small lot production for startups creating a new product. KSN has already clients from France, and they also count on some French team members to support French startups. We shared our area side by side with Kyoto VR, a brand new startup working on combining both arts and technology for…

sabrina-sasaki-150x150This is a guest post by Sabrina Sasaki, a marketing representative of Kyoto-based hardware startup accelerator Makers Boot Camp. The accelerator holds the Monozukuri Hub Meetup event in Kyoto on a monthly basis.

Additionally, all photos in this article were taken by Kyoto-based systems biologist Tugi Guenes.


L to R: Olivier Ginepro, Economic Counselor for the French Embassy of Japan,
Narimasa Makino, Makers Boot Camp CEO

Last week we took part of the closing event of France Japan Innovation year: a special forum when an official mission from France visited Japan to validate bilateral business opportunities. The event happened on December 6th and 7th at Knowledge Capital – Grand Front Osaka (Umeda) , as the outcome of two years of collaboration, when the parts involved had the chance to showcase, all in the same space, their next steps and also new opportunities in innovation between both countries.

Our team had a prototype expert support from Emery Delmotte, French team member of KSN,
part of Saijo Inx Sales Team.
Thierry Dana, French Ambassador to Japan, visited our booth,
when Emery highlighted all the close ties between France and KSN.

Makers Boot Camp had a booth area together with KSN (Kyoto Shisaku Net), our prototype experts, a network of SMEs who support small lot production for startups creating a new product. KSN has already clients from France, and they also count on some French team members to support French startups.

We shared our area side by side with Kyoto VR, a brand new startup working on combining both arts and technology for a unique virtual reality experience. Recently, they exhibited a demo session at Nuit Blanche, a French event in Kyoto, with a special project involving IoT for cultural initiatives. Paris and Kyoto are already sister-cities in the fields of Fine Arts and Architecture and IoT should also be considered for the next projects.

Makers Boot Camp team with all the invited startups for the pitch session: Atmoph, PLENGoer and Kyoto VR.
Atmoph team members Chikaku Kato, Customer Relations, and Kyohi Kang, CEO and Co-Founder,
introduced their smart window already available for sale in Paris and other overseas markets.
PLENGoer team with their open-source robots that will be in a tour to US for CES 2017.
For Japanese makers like them, France is also a key market they plan to expand to.

During the two days of the event, there were sessions with key industry players from both countries, as Valeo, Michelin, Orange and Dassault Systems, Toyo Aluminium, SynphaTech Japon, and also a special session day focused on IoT startups. The purpose of the event was to bring stakeholders involved on the current discussions between France and Japan in order to achieve a plan for concrete actions in the next years.

With this spirit, Makers Boot Camp signed an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) with La French Tech, represented by The French Embassy of Japan.

In May 2016, on behalf of Makers Boot Camp, I was invited to attend two outstanding hardware events in France: Connected Conference and Innorobo. It is clear the potential of disruptive projects in robotics and healthcare being created in France, so we’d like to partner with local players interested to reach a global market with high quality. Currently, there are players from both Japan and France willing to promote an exchange of technologies and resources.

From the French local governments,
Aix-Marseille Provence and Occitanie sent their representatives from both private and public sectors.

From Toulouse city, Julien Toulouse paid us a visit to our ecosystem in Kyoto, including our KSN factories with French team members involved. The tour was a way to illustrate Japanese small lot capabilities for French startups.

On Japanese side, Kansai representatives from local government and companies were also supporting the event. We hope the players involved can commit to a more active role in both countries, fomenting IoT industry all over the world.

Startups promote 8K and 360-degree broadcasting solutions at Inter Bee in Tokyo

SHARE:

This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. This year, startups like Soracom took part in the professional broadcasters’ confab Inter Bee. Held from November 16 for three days at Makuhari Messe, the startup could be found at the joint Amazon Web Service (AWS) booth. Also, its evangelist Kazutaka Goto gave live streaming demonstrations at the Cloudpack corner using mobile routers at 4K size underscoring the usefulness of Soracom solutions even as broadcasting and telecommunications converge further. Dec 2 update: A sentence above was partially deleted due to our misunderstanding about which connectivity was being used in the Cloudpack booth. See also: Japan’s Soracom launches cellular network service for Internet of Things developers Inter Bee had some 38,000 people from over three dozen countries/regions converge at the Chiba waterfront convention center. It is considered to be a gathering which sets the trend for future media business, a field many startups are eyeing keenly. In Japan for example the Olympics slated for 2020 is seen by many to be one of the driving forces behind an expanding media market here and in the rest of Asia. This trendsetting aspect…

This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.


interbee-2016-astro-8k
Photo by Jerrey Suppan

This year, startups like Soracom took part in the professional broadcasters’ confab Inter Bee. Held from November 16 for three days at Makuhari Messe, the startup could be found at the joint Amazon Web Service (AWS) booth. Also, its evangelist Kazutaka Goto gave live streaming demonstrations at the Cloudpack corner using mobile routers at 4K size underscoring the usefulness of Soracom solutions even as broadcasting and telecommunications converge further.

Dec 2 update: A sentence above was partially deleted due to our misunderstanding about which connectivity was being used in the Cloudpack booth.

See also:

interbee-2016-cloudpack
The Cloudpack booth
Image credit: Cloudpack

Inter Bee had some 38,000 people from over three dozen countries/regions converge at the Chiba waterfront convention center. It is considered to be a gathering which sets the trend for future media business, a field many startups are eyeing keenly. In Japan for example the Olympics slated for 2020 is seen by many to be one of the driving forces behind an expanding media market here and in the rest of Asia.

This trendsetting aspect of the Japan Electronics Show Association event can be highlighted by the fact that 4K size for the display will next being enhanced further by 8K. Should 8K come to largely supplant its predecessor size in the next few years, startups would need to adapt (let’s say in IoT solutions provider Soracom’s case, cloud-related systems) to the next standard.

interbee-2016-motion-elements-vr360
Image credit: Motion Elements

Another display tech area relevant to startups with info-tech prowess is Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality. The royalty-free visual/audio assets startup Motion Elements unveiled their beta-version VR / 360° panoramic photo and moving picture marketplace at Makuhari Messe, targeting the Asian arena. Motion Elements is invested in by such outfits as KK Fund, Incubate Fund and 500 Startups.

interbee-2016-augmented-tv
Augmented TV
Image credit: NHK Engineering System

The Japanese public TV operations NHK showcased more recent results of its technical laboratory efforts on “Augmented TV” development at this broadcaster’s booth, among the thousand booths that were found at this year’s event. This Augmented TV utilizes a “stretchable” vertical display to offer an experience tied in with digital signage. Being a public entity, of course many startups can explore the possibility of making use of this system once ready.

Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui showcases five finalists from first ever FinTech hackathon

SHARE:

See the original story in Japanese. In October Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) held a demo-day for its first ever the Mirai Hackathon event. The five finalists took the stage giving presentations in front of judges, bank employees, and representatives from the affiliate companies of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG, TSE:8136). For this hackathon SMBC made 27 sample APIs available for use in the creation of the team’s PoCs and began accepting applications from July 22nd. About 30 teams entered, with an explanation about API on September 3rd, followed by the hackathon, as well as mentoring, on September 17th, with 5 teams remaining as finalists in the end. The judges that participated in the demo-day were also responsible for mentoring the finalists. The following is a list of the participating judges: Hironobu Azuma (General Manager of Convergence Strategy Cluster / Research & Consulting Division, The Japan Research Institute) Keisuke Tatsuoka (Partner, Global Brain) Yusuke Murata (General Partner, Incubate Fund) Masaru Yoshioka (Senior Executive Officer, Management Department of Strategic Business, Innovation Partners Division, GMO Payment Gateway) Hiroyuki Koike (Operating Officer, Digital Innovation Business, IBM Japan) Kentaro Sakakibara (CEO, Samurai Incubate) Jun Ota (Senior Managing Executive Director, Transaction Business Division, SMBC) Shinichi…

1st-mirai-hackathon-demoday-all-finalists

See the original story in Japanese.

In October Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) held a demo-day for its first ever the Mirai Hackathon event. The five finalists took the stage giving presentations in front of judges, bank employees, and representatives from the affiliate companies of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG, TSE:8136).

For this hackathon SMBC made 27 sample APIs available for use in the creation of the team’s PoCs and began accepting applications from July 22nd. About 30 teams entered, with an explanation about API on September 3rd, followed by the hackathon, as well as mentoring, on September 17th, with 5 teams remaining as finalists in the end. The judges that participated in the demo-day were also responsible for mentoring the finalists.

The following is a list of the participating judges:

  • Hironobu Azuma (General Manager of Convergence Strategy Cluster / Research & Consulting Division, The Japan Research Institute)
  • Keisuke Tatsuoka (Partner, Global Brain)
  • Yusuke Murata (General Partner, Incubate Fund)
  • Masaru Yoshioka (Senior Executive Officer, Management Department of Strategic Business, Innovation Partners Division, GMO Payment Gateway)
  • Hiroyuki Koike (Operating Officer, Digital Innovation Business, IBM Japan)
  • Kentaro Sakakibara (CEO, Samurai Incubate)
  • Jun Ota (Senior Managing Executive Director, Transaction Business Division, SMBC)
  • Shinichi Mukai (Division Chief, Transaction Business Division, SMBC)
  • Tomoaki Nakayama (General manager, IT Innovation Department, SMBC)

1st-mirai-hackathon-demoday-judges

Each team’s ideas were evaluated and reviewed based on six elements: cooperation with various industries (originality), need, viability, feasibility, enthusiasm, and product. Furthermore, the winner of this hackathon is invited to the “Mirai 2017” pitch competition jointly by SMBC and The Japan Research Institute, which will take place on December 20th.

First Prize winner: Grow up care system, nursing care facility office support service by Glory

Supplemental Prize: “Mirai Hackathon” Original VISA Prepaid card for 100,000 yen (about $1000 US), Participation rights for the Mirai 2017 pitch competition

1st-mirai-hackathon-demoday-winner-glory

In long-term care facilities, when care receivers need to use money such as for shopping, there are measures for managing money received from their family members, but the paperwork is complicated and money troubles unceasing.

In order to solve such problems, Glory developed a service that provides facial recognition-based login, electric seal verification, simple mobile input, in combination with notification of transaction deals for families. All together, it forms a service that eradicates the financial trouble between long-term care facilities and their residents (care receivers) by solving the complicated petty cash payments on the facilities’ side.

The care facilities do not take over the bank books or personal seals from their resident’s families, but through enhanced security they can manage withdrawals, while allowing the family to monitor these activities in real time. For the elderly who cannot judge for themselves, by leveraging the adult guardianship system, it becomes possible to have an even more flexible operation.

1st-mirai-hackathon-demoday-care-system-1

Best Quality award winner: MANA (Meta Automatic New Addition), adding meta-info to payment/reception details by Money Forward

Supplemental Prize: Mirai Hackathon Original Visa Prepaid Card for 25,000 yen (about $250 US), Rights to an exhibition booth at the Mirai 2017 event

1st-mirai-hackathon-demoday-winner-money-forward

Within a company, information concerning payments to suppliers is tied to the context, however context is lost when it becomes deposit and withdrawal information for financial institutions. For this reason, understanding what the deposits and withdrawals were intended for from the bank statements and then erasing it becomes cumbersome.

By imparting meta-information (transaction content) onto deposit and withdrawal information with Mana, it improves the convenience of transactions between companies, and solves the problem of erasing the payment details. Through the use of Mana users on both the billing and payment sides can share this meta-information among other details, and even if the other party is not a Mana user it is possible to generate a billing invoice on the platform. From the claims side users can ascertain their accounts receivable balances and scheduled payment amounts. On the payment side, the billing and transfer activities can be directly connected, thus reducing the amount of tasks. And so, merits such as understanding the planned withdrawal amount and balance after withdrawals are born.

It is possible to imagine that the affinity between demographics like companies that are not using EDI or are not categorized as large, along with small and medium-sized companies who use Money Forward’s signature service MF Cloud, would be high. The judges expressed the opinion that rather than providing this as a stand-alone service, it would be more convenient on the banking side to integrate it into their online banking system.

1st-mirai-hackathon-demoday-mana-2

1st-mirai-hackathon-demoday-mana-1

High Growth award winner: Tipping tool for onilne content creators by Bugnitude

Supplemental Prize: Mirai Hackathon Original Visa Prepaid Card for 25,000 yen (about $250 US), Rights to an exhibition booth at the Mirai 2017 event

1st-mirai-hackathon-demoday-winner-bugnitudeWhen the content found on blogs or online video sites is useful or interesting, users of this service can press the “Like” button to show appreciation in the form of money. While this service could be termed the modern day “tipping”, it can also be used to support donations for offline events, such as fireworks displays put on by volunteers. Also, in the period before any given content’s evaluation rises due to many users pressing the button, the team came up with a way to motivate users by awarding reward points to users who press the button before others.

The judges pointed out the similarities to Japanese social tipping platform Grow!, which launched in 2012 and has since shutdown. Since there was no bank supported API during the time of Grow!, it may be possible to produce a different user experience, and the judges advised them that it is vital to decide how and which media they will partner with in expanding their service.

1st-mirai-hackathon-demoday-iine

API Award winner: Furikome Now!, an instant way to collect payments when eating out with friends by Team Gap (tentative)

Supplemental Prize: Mirai Hackathon Original Visa Prepaid Card for 25,000 yen (about $250 US), Rights to an exhibition booth at the Mirai 2017 event

1st-mirai-hackathon-demoday-winner-team-gap

Before or after occasions, such as drinking parties, when you want to split the bill, “Furikome! Now” is a platform that makes it possible to intuitively recognize the context of payment details, thus making simple and secure payment collection possible between individuals. For example, if the person responsible for collecting the payments knows only the e-mail addresses of attendees it is possible to prompt them to transfer their payments, making it unnecessary to install an app or prepare dedicated devices. For payments, it is possible to determine the context of payment details based on attached photos (for example, based on the fact that the photos are from a drinking party, the bill should be split to reflect this) and it is also not required for the money collector to input details such as account numbers, etc.

One interesting feature was in the case that the money transfer does not occur within the fixed period of time, attendees would be automatically reminded by telephone, which is possible through the use of Twilio. Secondarily, Team Gap believes from trend data related to user’s transfers, artificial intelligence could analyze the emotions and conditions of users at the time of their transfers making it possible to propose measures to improve the recovery rate.

Although they obtained a lukewarm evaluation based on the convenience of the features, because there was the hint of the possibility of remittance fraud, the judges advised them to seek continuous improvement in their design and naming.

1st-mirai-hackathon-demoday-furikome-now-2

1st-mirai-hackathon-demoday-furikome-now-1

Enthusiasm Award winner: Herukan, a platform that helps companies gain productivity by offering mental healthcare for employees, by Bluetech

Supplemental Prize: Mirai Hackathon Original Visa Prepaid Card for 25,000 yen (about $250 US), Rights to an exhibition booth at the Mirai 2017 event

1st-mirai-hackathon-demoday-winner-bluetech

Herukan is an app for employees of companies concerning the management of health services and the promotion of them. In order for users to maintain their motivation, it awards credit card points for goals achieved, and imposes penalties for missed goals. It goes further than the iPhone’s HealthKit by adding a unique workout feature that calculates rewards and penalties based on users’ measurements.

The cost is 4,980 yen per employee and fronted by the company, of which 3,100 yen per month is deposited and used in features such as point refund for target achievers. While the judges pointed out that this price may be too high, it was decided upon after referencing non-obligatory welfare costs, and the team believes it is within a reasonable price range.

Upon doing a big data analysis of the collected data, it could be sold to insurance companies, sports manufacturers, beverage manufacturers, and so on. In addition, in response to user trends on the app they could post reward advertisements, allowing them to further monetize.

1st-mirai-hackathon-demoday-herukan-3

1st-mirai-hackathon-demoday-herukan-1


At the doorstep interview following the conclusion of the presentations from the five teams, Koichi Iguchi, IT Innovation Department’s Deputy Director at SMBC, commented:

From the perspective of a banker, they brought a lot of ideas that were not easy to come up with, so it became a great learning opportunity for us.

All the APIs used during the hackathon event were provided on a sample basis to participating teams, but to connect this to actual business there will be a need to develop formal APIs. For SMBC, while advancing the open innovation together with fintech startups, it became a great opportunity for answering questions like what kinds of APIs are required, what kinds of business models are possible, and what kinds of security problems will present themselves.

At this event, both SMBC and Sumitomo Mitsui Card respectively provided API samples related to banks and credit cards. In the future, there is a possibility that other business corporations concerned with separate industries and operating under the umbrella of SMFG will become involved in similar activities.

1st-mirai-hackathon-demoday-judges-and-presenterIn terms of movements made by Japanese financial institutions for open innovation, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU) has started running a fintech-focused  accelerator, among others, Mizuho Bank is collaborating with NTT Data in support of open innovation, Japanese credit company Credit Saison (TSE:8253) opened DG Lab with Digital Garage (TSE:4819), while credit card giant JCB has announced the start of their accelerator program JCB Payment Lab.

See also:

Translated by Amanda Imasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

Patent Information Fair brings startups together in Japan

SHARE:

This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. The Patent Information Fair & Conference, held for three days from November 9 at Tokyo’s Science Museum and organized by Fuji Sankei Business i/Sankei Shimbun, Japan Patent Information Organization (JAPIO) and Japan Institute for Promoting Invention and Innovation (JIII), attracted many startups to the Kitanomaru Koen venue. The event was supported by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan Patent Office, National Center for Industrial Property Information and Training as well as the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry. As it goes without saying, patents and such intellectual property rights and other know-hows can provide businesses, in particular new market entrants like startups, with an edge. There were a hundred booths gathered at the exhibit/conference which marks its 25th meeting this year. There were many overseas participants, including a presentation on the ASEAN intellectual property scene by P. Kandiah of Malaysia’s KASS International. One noteworthy Japanese startup was the spin-off from Nagoya University offering unique products and services based on utilization of cosmic rays. Headed by Dr. Kouji Narita, Science Impact has been exhibiting at the Patent Fair for…

This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.


jpo-booth
Japan Patent Office’s booth (Image credit: Japan Patent Office)

The Patent Information Fair & Conference, held for three days from November 9 at Tokyo’s Science Museum and organized by Fuji Sankei Business i/Sankei Shimbun, Japan Patent Information Organization (JAPIO) and Japan Institute for Promoting Invention and Innovation (JIII), attracted many startups to the Kitanomaru Koen venue. The event was supported by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan Patent Office, National Center for Industrial Property Information and Training as well as the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

As it goes without saying, patents and such intellectual property rights and other know-hows can provide businesses, in particular new market entrants like startups, with an edge. There were a hundred booths gathered at the exhibit/conference which marks its 25th meeting this year. There were many overseas participants, including a presentation on the ASEAN intellectual property scene by P. Kandiah of Malaysia’s KASS International.

patent-fpis-booth
Federation of Patent Information Services (FPIS) / Property booth (Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy)

One noteworthy Japanese startup was the spin-off from Nagoya University offering unique products and services based on utilization of cosmic rays. Headed by Dr. Kouji Narita, Science Impact has been exhibiting at the Patent Fair for the past few years owing to the fact that Dr. Narita has a Japanese patent attorney’s qualification. However, this year it gained momentum based on the company’s selection by Japan Science & Technology Agency (JST) for a new project.

patent-fair-science-impact
Science Impact booth (Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy)

The JST project which has Prof. Mitsuhiro Nakamura of Nagoya University as the team leader is the development of nuclear emulsion read-out technology which utilizes high-resolution cosmic ray radiography. Kawasaki Geological Engineering (TSE:4673) of Tokyo assisted in the work, with support from Fujifilm (TSE:4901) in addition to Science Impact, in order to apply this technology to checking volcanic activities and deterioration of structures within without the need for destructive testing, among other issues related to geology.

Specifically, the development work aimed to realize everything from indication materials and illumination/imaging to measurement/read-out and analysis as a wholistic system so as to estimate the needs and applications for this endeavor. As an aside, the Japanese public broadcaster NHK recently used the system to identify secret underground cavities in the Egyptian pyramids, in cooperation with the international archeological effort looking to unravel the mysteries of the ancient relics.

It is also understood that Science Impact is working together with “community FM stations” in Japan for conveyance of disaster information by the broadcasters. According to a Japanese community FM station operator, the system run by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, called L-ALERT, is seen being usable not only in Japan but abroad too in providing disaster alerts, and the Nagoya-based startup is aiming to cooperate in the adoption of this system overseas as well.

Speaking of overseas, another recent “spinout” at the show was the database provider Questel with a booth next to one of its Japanese distributors, Chuo Kogaku Shuppan (the other distributor being Property, located in the FPIS section). Questel was part of Orange, the former France Telecom that was renowned for its Minitel database system of yore. It is foreseen that other startups in addition to the aforementioned will be expanding in the patent information market through increased application of Artificial Intelligence.

japan-science-museum
Japan Science Museum (Image credit: Japan Science Museum)

Tokyo International Industry Exhibition 2016 utilizes expanded convention center

SHARE:

This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike attended the unveiling of the brand-new addition to the Big Sight international convention center where the 12th edition of the largest trade show for small and medium-sized businesses in Japan was started October 31. East Hall 7 was venue to the new Business Frontier Fair annex to the exhibition. Several selected startups were among those handpicked for the fair, encompassing the Going-Global Innovations Competitions Zone. Many firms were looking to partner with foreign companies in advance of the Olympiad slated for Korea (2018) and Japan (2020), not to mention 2019 Rugby World Cup to which Tokyo is playing host. The main sponsor, the Tokyo Small and Medium Enterprise Support Center, had last May tied up with the Thai Ministry of Industry and set up a Bangkok office, resulting in many companies from Thailand showing up at this year’s event. There have been other moves by the Japanese side, such as Japanese entrepreneur Takeshi Izuka looking to establish the Kirirom Institute of Technology in Cambodia and Taito City of Tokyo working closely with Hanoi for software development…

This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.


tokyo-big-sight-20th-anniversary
Image credit: Tokyo Big Sight

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike attended the unveiling of the brand-new addition to the Big Sight international convention center where the 12th edition of the largest trade show for small and medium-sized businesses in Japan was started October 31. East Hall 7 was venue to the new Business Frontier Fair annex to the exhibition. Several selected startups were among those handpicked for the fair, encompassing the Going-Global Innovations Competitions Zone.

Tokyo Big Sight’s East Hall 7
Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

Many firms were looking to partner with foreign companies in advance of the Olympiad slated for Korea (2018) and Japan (2020), not to mention 2019 Rugby World Cup to which Tokyo is playing host. The main sponsor, the Tokyo Small and Medium Enterprise Support Center, had last May tied up with the Thai Ministry of Industry and set up a Bangkok office, resulting in many companies from Thailand showing up at this year’s event.

12th-sme-trade-show-jinzai-solution
Jinzai Solution’s booth, connecting Tokyo and Hanoi for software development cooperation
Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

There have been other moves by the Japanese side, such as Japanese entrepreneur Takeshi Izuka looking to establish the Kirirom Institute of Technology in Cambodia and Taito City of Tokyo working closely with Hanoi for software development cooperation deals between companies located in their two cities. Gridmark, which took part in TechCrunch Disrupt SF, is promoting its language teaching-use voice-pen. There’s also a group closely linked to Japan setting up a hotel management school in Myanmar.

See also:

12th-sme-trade-show-growtac
Growtac’s booth
Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

But getting back to activities in the Tokyo area, there were several startups such as E3 Enterprise and Growtac offering athlete monitoring devices. Although not a startup per se, a Chiba outfit called Imedex (as President Makoto Ichida puts it, some companies could surely “re-startup”) – which was a Japanese delegation member at Disrupt SF exhibition too under its corporate banner of THINK INNOVATION – exhibited as well its cardiac monitoring system with the athlete in mind.

12th-sme-trade-show-imedex
Imedex’s booth
Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

Meanwhile others took a wider perspective like safety. Whill the all-terrain wheelchair had its rider safety system on show at the main hall. A perennial startup favorite of this writer’s, Challenge, had its earthquake sensor network as well as the campus safety system on display not only at the invited Business Frontier Fair Security/Safety/Disaster Preparation area but in the Information exhibition section too, looking to find as many overseas partners as possible.

See also:

12th-sme-trade-show-taito
Challenge’s booth
Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

Finally, there were Pi Photonics, a venture business from Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture which is now looking to set up a presence in Tokyo before the year is out, highlighting its LED lighting systems including for wave display-art use in Zushi, Kanagawa Prefecture and Mirai Labo of Hachioji, a venture business also looking to light up night-time construction work locations and such in addition to developing an innovative inverter for solar cell use.

The event’s international booth section
Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

Surprise showings for startups in Tokyo

SHARE:

This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. October has seen many confabs where startups have been able to appeal their products and services, beginning with CEATEC which however was not held in Tokyo. Instead there were several others that attracted much attention. One was the Edo/Tokyo crafts & technology fair at the Tokyo International Forum. Last year it had robots such as those provided a startup by Prof. Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University as well as Tokyo startup Ex Machina displayed at center stage, with participants like YRP IoT which is actually based in Yokosuka, in Kanagawa Prefecture. This year it appears the only startup there was Shannon Lab, a Tokyo firm researching Artificial Intelligence applications. More prominent were the Security & Safety Trade Expo (RISCON 2016) and Special Equipment Exhibition & Conference for Anti-Terrorism (SEECAT 2016) gatherings held concurrently at the Tokyo International Convention Center “Big Sight” in mid-October. Within RISCON there also was the new section dubbed “Cyber-security World” that focused on cyberspace, gathering companies ranging from Kaspersky the computer vaccine provider to PSI, a Japanese outfit working together with U.S. UK startup Darktrace. As…

This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology.


tokyo-mt-fuji-skyline
Image credit: Wikimedia

October has seen many confabs where startups have been able to appeal their products and services, beginning with CEATEC which however was not held in Tokyo. Instead there were several others that attracted much attention. One was the Edo/Tokyo crafts & technology fair at the Tokyo International Forum. Last year it had robots such as those provided a startup by Prof. Hiroshi Ishiguro of Osaka University as well as Tokyo startup Ex Machina displayed at center stage, with participants like YRP IoT which is actually based in Yokosuka, in Kanagawa Prefecture. This year it appears the only startup there was Shannon Lab, a Tokyo firm researching Artificial Intelligence applications.

confab-oct-2016-psi-dark-traceMore prominent were the Security & Safety Trade Expo (RISCON 2016) and Special Equipment Exhibition & Conference for Anti-Terrorism (SEECAT 2016) gatherings held concurrently at the Tokyo International Convention Center “Big Sight” in mid-October. Within RISCON there also was the new section dubbed “Cyber-security World” that focused on cyberspace, gathering companies ranging from Kaspersky the computer vaccine provider to PSI, a Japanese outfit working together with U.S. UK startup Darktrace.

As for SEECAT this year using two floors, had drones showcased in use during all types of emergencies upstairs, while lime-lighting the latest measures on the ground floor as to access restrictions for dealing with the heighted risks from terrorists organizations, not to mention startups involved in enhancing surveillance generally. It was noted that there would be increased need in Tokyo over the next few years, with both the Rugby World Cup (although this will be a nationwide event including a new stadium in the Tohoku region which was hit by the 2011 Tsunami disaster) in 2019 and the Olympics/Paralympics in 2020 being centered on the games to be hosted by the capital of Japan.

confab-oct-2016-challenge
The Challenge team at their booth

At RISCON seminars covering crowd control, disaster countermeasures and public health threats were held as well. This year, University of Electro-Communications Prof. Masashi Hayakawa who had established a spin-off venture from school ventured that earthquakes may be predictable, unfortunately not scientifically proven at this time. Other startups such as Cybozu Startups exhibited measures to mitigate post-disaster effects quickly by use of expedited information-gathering from the Japan Meteorological Agency, which provides Early Earthquake Warning among other alerts related to natural including non-weather-emanating disasters.

confab-oct-2016-cybozu-startups
Cybozu Startups’ booth

There were earthquake sensor maker on exhibit by Challenge, whose latest version of early temblor alert network EQguard-III could be checked alongside the SchoolGuard panic-button system for teachers. CEO Kazuo Sasaki noted that all these items are aimed at reducing casualty. The latest EQguard allows for 10 foreign languages to be used in announcing an impending major quake in enough time to increase the survival rate by 80%, with an eye to use at the Olympics. Digital signage and portable devices will also become linked to the EQGuard network. Challenge is said to be providing EQGuard anew in the Los Angeles area, near Caltech, too.

confab-oct-2016-sasaki-kanamori
Renowned geophysicist & Caltech Prof. Emeritus Hiroo Kanamori (right) with Challenge CEO Kazuo Sasaki (left)

Sensor use was also focused on at ITpro Expo 2016 sponsored by Nikkei BP. Here also the emphasis was on Artificial Intelligence as well as security. Startups running the gamut from Abeja to Uhuru were talking Deep Learning and Internet of Things. Soracom had a large booth covering their solutions while other startups were offering Virtual Reality-related solutions. It is expected that more ventures will be honing in on such products and services over the coming years.

See also:

Abeja CEO Yosuke Okada speaks at ITPro Expo.