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From Monozukuri Hub Meetup: DFM and prototype experts meet hardware startups

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This is a guest post by Sabrina Sasaki, a marketing representative of Kyoto-based hardware startup accelerator Makers Boot Camp, together with volunteer Takako Teruyama. 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 Kengo Osaka. Makers Boot Camp’s monthly event, “Monozukuri Hub Meet up” had its 7th edition on Wednesday, 16 October at MTRL Kyoto, entitled as “Design For Manufacturing for Startups”. Sabrina Sasaki, Marketing at Makers Boot Camp, got events rolling with a brief introduction on Design For Manufacturing (DFM). She broke down each stage of Manufacturing starting from concept to retail, the final stage startups want to reach, and also mentioned about how conventional ways of manufacturing, a.k.a “Over Wall Manufacturing”, where each expert at different stages are separated, are inefficient and time consuming because one needs to find the right person to move up to every stage, even if coming up with superb ideas for products. Literally there is a wall existing between each stage because there is no direct relationships among the experts. When it comes to startups, obviously they have limited financial and human resources so that these walls…

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Sabrina Sasaki

This is a guest post by Sabrina Sasaki, a marketing representative of Kyoto-based hardware startup accelerator Makers Boot Camp, together with volunteer Takako Teruyama. 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 Kengo Osaka.


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Makers Boot Camp’s monthly event, “Monozukuri Hub Meet up” had its 7th edition on Wednesday, 16 October at MTRL Kyoto, entitled as “Design For Manufacturing for Startups”.

Sabrina Sasaki, Marketing at Makers Boot Camp, got events rolling with a brief introduction on Design For Manufacturing (DFM). She broke down each stage of Manufacturing starting from concept to retail, the final stage startups want to reach, and also mentioned about how conventional ways of manufacturing, a.k.a “Over Wall Manufacturing”, where each expert at different stages are separated, are inefficient and time consuming because one needs to find the right person to move up to every stage, even if coming up with superb ideas for products.

Literally there is a wall existing between each stage because there is no direct relationships among the experts. When it comes to startups, obviously they have limited financial and human resources so that these walls stonewall their way. As startups always have to start from scratch, how are they going to jump over these walls, when they can keep only limited things in handy? Also, how to keep prototyping until getting some results, when they can not afford to? Well, in the bridge Paris-Kyoto, the French team of prototype experts, guest-speakers, can provide some insights for makers.

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Natsuo Akazawa, PLEN projects

First speaker was Natsuo Akazawa, CEO at PLEN projects, where he has developed biped robot “PLEN”. “PLEN2” robot was crowdfunded through Kickstarter as a printable open source, meaning that anyone can build up robots on its own, anywhere in the world, as long as referring to their 3D open source data. In terms of their business model, the company can’t make money out of it because it’s an open source, however, people who used their data and assembled robots share their own robots through SNS, which spreads widely and effectively compared to advertisements.

It does not pay money back but the company lasts as a collaborative platform for humanoids. In the end, Akazawa also introduced their new joint venture “PLENGoer Robotics”, which was first offered by Chinese EMS company, Goertek and launched this year. They are now teamed up and working together to develop new robots that will be first shown next January. Born in a small town factory, now he is involved in this huge international project where the size of manufacturing is bigger than he has ever experienced before.

See also:

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Jean-Dominique Francois, La French Tech Tokyo

Second Speaker, Jean-Dominique Francois from La French Tech Tokyo, explained about the special agency launched by the French government. He works to bridge startups between France and Japan. Well, we all love France for its food, wine, fromage and arts but also as a source of very good IoT startups, like the case of the software ones giving Pepper a Latin movement.

With 20 years of International Business Development Experience in Europe and Asia (mostly Japan), Jean-Dominique acquired a comprehensive understanding of start-ups and their ecosystem. For the last years, as member of the French Economic Diplomacy, he is also helping French high-tech start-ups and SMBs to develop in the Japanese market.

See also:

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Akihiko Tanaka, Dassault Systems

Akihiko Tanaka, Director of the Academic Program at Dassault Systemes, spoke about their 3D Experience Lab Incubation startup related to CAD systems and System Management tools required for better Project Management, all in the cloud. Toyota, Honda and many others already use this platform that is also available for startups. Imagine the future using the virtual world, with amazing stories from clients.

Startups incubation project – gathering together startups from all over the world. There are 6 categories that startups can apply to join their City, Life, Lifestyle, IoT, Ideation and FabLabs. The criteria for being selected are being collaborative, disruptive innovation in products and services, and also make a positive impact on the society.

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Benjamin Davoult, crossEffect

After a break, the Design for Manufacturing experts had the chance to introduce their company and their work, before joining the panel discussion.

The first one panelist was from crossEffect, Benjamin Davoult (Product Designer), who introduced himself as a French nerd. He came to Japan after finishing his Master Degree in Industrial Design, when he was hired by crossEffect. His work as a Product Designer also consists as a Silicone Mold Designer for Vacuum Casting and Prototypes/trial models creator.

He explained the process for rapid prototyping: receiving a 3D data from a client, upon a new project request, so they can check the design details and make sure it’s ready to build the physical part- that’s when they use a 3D printer, a huge laser machine called stereolithograph, where a laser soft with metal plates sink inside the liquid resin, and then the laser fits again and become a new layer of the part. This process is done during the night (it takes around 8-10h), so the team can start building the model on the next day. Sometimes the physical model is provided by the client, but either way, they still have to finish the master model. The next part is to frame, with the silicone inside, and then, after one day, the master model is ready for vacuum casting machine, where they fill in the model with resin. Then they open the machine to finalise the details, in the painting room, so the prototype will look very similar to the industrial mass-manufactured product: if you have both side by side, you can’t say which one is the prototype.

The company where he works also started a new branch focused on Industrial Design, so the main idea is to start from concept to 3D modelling, 3D printing and vacuum casting.

They can start any project just by concept (an idea), from hand drawing, from hardware with a PCB (a circuit board). Within one week, his team is able to come with many proposals, as speed is their main focus. They can also offer multiple services like, but of course the price can vary a lot, depending on the specialty.

He showed some recent IoT products by crossEffect for brands like Panasonic, Rohm, Sanyo and Omron.

Ben likes to make things, especially useful new inventions, spending most of his spare time creating devices and machines of all kinds, with his own 3D printer at home.

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Emery Delmotte, Saijo Inx

Emery Delmotte, Sales Specialist at Saijo Inx, a Japanese company founded in 1950, was also born in France. He is now in charge of International sales at Saijo Inx, where he’s been supporting the company to expand its business overseas. Currently, their main customers are Japanese large corporations, as Kyocera, Omron, Murata, Fujitsu, Denso and NIDEC. Saijo Inx main business is to make prototypes from thin sheet metal working and plastic resins, press stamps, folding and cutting and die-sets making.

Their production speed is focused on small pieces for high precision 0.03mm margins, for prototypes with less than 2mm² and sheet metal thickness until 0.05 mm. The lead time is about 7 days: prototype corresponds to 46% of Sales, while Mass production is around 45% – the other small fractions are molding and thins. Over 400 projects are handled a month from medical products, motors, in-vehicle relays and connectors, industrial equipment, communication modules, electronic components, switches, batteries & fuel cells to heat fins.

Together with Kyoto Shisaku Net, Saijo Inx provides a complete support: from development, prototyping, mass production, fast realisation, smooth transition to mass production, early market introduction, implement incrementations.

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Antoine Andrieu, Hilltop

Antoine Andrieu works for the Development Department at Hilltop.

The French Engineer introduced his company, showing a photo with not many workers in the factory ground, and they’re starting an automatization process to control machines with new customized software – Antoine is the Project Leader of the Smart Factory Project, in charge of the factory’s automation, using IoT and Industry 4.0 concepts and technology to bring the company to the new era of fast prototyping.

His team work is focused on automation and right now there is a new trend in the company with IoT devices and consumer products. He showed some cases of B2B solutions created internally by his development team, from idea to the next steps of development for customers, such as testing devices, bicycle safety lights, aroma diffusers, transporting robots, etc.

Hilltop can provide Prototype, Mechanical Design, Assembly and even mass production support for IoT.

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The final session with the experts was moderated by Sushi Suzuki | Kyoto Institute of Technology, Kyoto Design Lab Associate professor. Sushi’s link to Paris comes from when he co-founded Paris Est d.school, teaching design innovation at École des Ponts ParisTech.

The panel discussion spoke about maker’s issues and how Kyoto Shisaku members can support hardware startups as a group, part of Makers Boot Camp main activities.

Click here if you would like to check the presentation deck from all speakers, with detailed information about each one.

SOCAP 2016 brings together various solutions emanating from Japanese startups

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This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. From September 13 through 16, San Francisco’s Fort Mason provided the venue for SOCAP (Social Capital Markets) meeting which is held here on an annual basis. Their motto is “where the global community using business as a force for social change gathers to listen to each other, and to learn, and to get things done!” and has been ongoing since 2008 when 600 people took part; this year more than 2,500 participants attended. There were several Japanese entities visiting San Francisco this year. Social Good LLC, which is closely involved with Impact Hub Tokyo, was represented at SOCAP 2016 by Mr. Yutaka (“Charlie”) Iimori. Social Good’s most recent “business” concept is the application of Internet of Things (IoT) technology for the improvement of safety in forested regions. Indonesia is one of the area targeted by them to set up an IoT network based on sensor-laden bird nest boxes. Indonesia not only needs monitoring of the fauna to promote biodiversity but to maintain tropical timber trade conditions as well. By coincidence, the forest fire detection network would also be of use…

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


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Image credit: Kei Hareyama

From September 13 through 16, San Francisco’s Fort Mason provided the venue for SOCAP (Social Capital Markets) meeting which is held here on an annual basis. Their motto is “where the global community using business as a force for social change gathers to listen to each other, and to learn, and to get things done!” and has been ongoing since 2008 when 600 people took part; this year more than 2,500 participants attended.

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Social Good LLC’s Yutaka (“Charlie”) Iimori
Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

There were several Japanese entities visiting San Francisco this year. Social Good LLC, which is closely involved with Impact Hub Tokyo, was represented at SOCAP 2016 by Mr. Yutaka (“Charlie”) Iimori. Social Good’s most recent “business” concept is the application of Internet of Things (IoT) technology for the improvement of safety in forested regions. Indonesia is one of the area targeted by them to set up an IoT network based on sensor-laden bird nest boxes.

Indonesia not only needs monitoring of the fauna to promote biodiversity but to maintain tropical timber trade conditions as well. By coincidence, the forest fire detection network would also be of use in California, which in recent years has seen many forest fires devastating it. As an aside, it should be noted that Social Good is looking to link startups and non-profits in order to promote community disaster-mitigation activities too.

It is understood that several Japanese tradinghouse-related people were also taking part, since impact investing and “meaning” are “central to such organizations” according to Mr. Yasu Yonemitsu, a consultant who wrote a report for the EU about Sogo Shosha (major Japanese trading companies) and was formerly with Mitsui & Co. He says,

In particular SOCAP focuses on clean energy and sustainable foods/agriculture, so these are areas that keenly interest such Shosha groups.

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Image credit: SOCAP

The first day of SOCAP 2016 centered on neighborhood economics, on the assumption that cities are centers for change. In particular for the San Francisco Bay Area, cities therein have been hotbeds for “open innovation” and “inclusive entrepreneurship” as can be witnessed by the continued growth seen in Silicon Valley and San Francisco’s SOMA (South of Market) district, not to mention areas in the East Bay as exemplified by Berkeley, Emeryville and Oakland.

See also:

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Image credit: SOCAP

Renewal and resilience were the main themes upon considering neighborhood economics, in addition to the strength of community in fostering a better society. Referring back to the forest fire issue in light of these, there are several novel solutions being mulled in Silicon Valley which calls upon renewal of disaster countermeasures and promotion of resilience as based upon new technologies such as alert-providing drones and mitigation-oriented mobile systems.

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Image credit: “Tex” Pomeroy

Interestingly, SOCAP 2016 overlapped somewhat with TechCrunch Disrupt SF which started on September 12 (unfortunately located this year at Pier48 across town, unlike the nearby venue last year), and one Japanese startup also attempted to disseminate information on their earthquake sensor alarm network as a “pro-community system” at Fort Mason, on the premise that San Francisco and California should become readied for a major earthquake.

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Image credit: SOCAP

Startup Grind Tokyo finds new venue, looks to become more international

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This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. Startup Grind Tokyo, currently the only Google for Entrepreneurs community in Japan of the startup-focused group, held a meeting on 19 April at its new venue in Roppongi for the first time. Sponsor Pivotal provided the space for the group on the 20th floor of Roppongi Hills Mori Tower. It will also be the main site for subsequent meetups, with guests from Japan for the May and June events already lined up. The Tokyo City Chapter Director is Tamami Ushiki, with Satoru Kobayashi acting as Event Host. Japan-based Indian entrepreneur Shyam Pyarauk is the General Coordinator. As is usually the case, the April Startup Grind meeting in Tokyo featured a “fireside chat” with an interviewee, a prominent startup player, being asked to talk about their experience upon launching their business(es). The guest this time was Hallohallohome Founder Hiromasa Suzuki, a Japanese entrepreneur who found success in business in the Republic of Philippines (RP). He has recently written a book urging the Japanese to take a closer look at the market in RP and other “Emerging Markets” in addition to promoting land purchases in ASEAN centered upon the Filipino real estate….

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


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Startup Grind Tokyo, currently the only Google for Entrepreneurs community in Japan of the startup-focused group, held a meeting on 19 April at its new venue in Roppongi for the first time. Sponsor Pivotal provided the space for the group on the 20th floor of Roppongi Hills Mori Tower. It will also be the main site for subsequent meetups, with guests from Japan for the May and June events already lined up. The Tokyo City Chapter Director is Tamami Ushiki, with Satoru Kobayashi acting as Event Host. Japan-based Indian entrepreneur Shyam Pyarauk is the General Coordinator.

As is usually the case, the April Startup Grind meeting in Tokyo featured a “fireside chat” with an interviewee, a prominent startup player, being asked to talk about their experience upon launching their business(es). The guest this time was Hallohallohome Founder Hiromasa Suzuki, a Japanese entrepreneur who found success in business in the Republic of Philippines (RP). He has recently written a book urging the Japanese to take a closer look at the market in RP and other “Emerging Markets” in addition to promoting land purchases in ASEAN centered upon the Filipino real estate.

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In recounting his road to entrepreneurship, Suzuki said that he was working in apparel sales in RP when his Japanese employer decided the company should quit the market.

I first became an entrepreneur by default, when I asked my boss then not to fold the RP operation and was told ‘OK then, you run it!’… in the beginning things went quite well.

Then the mainstay business worsened and he faced major difficulties, including a huge debt. He notes that fortunately, “I had products in stock that could be monetized, so I continued on.”

By dint of hard work, he was able to regain success, by “playing smart and keeping an eye on the market conditions.” The Japanese entrepreneur in RP especially kept tabs on the financial field since RP was a country where “global currency abound due to Filipinos sending money back home from their workplaces abroad” not to mention the IT sector which he found to be the “game changer” both in RP and Japan. Regarding the Internet, he added that he learned a lot from his association with models, who used their blogs effectively upon marketing.

In retrospect, he asserts “I am lucky to be supported by very many people.” Today, he handles the marketing for Hallo Hallo Alliance which is a network of businesses centered upon his companies, involved in diversified fields such as housing, human resources and travel. The Aichi-born Suzuki concluded,

I am now spending much time in Tokyo but I found my way here via Manila. RP reminds me of Japan of yore, back when it was full of vim and vigor. Hopefully this energy will transfer here in part, as my colleagues and I shuttle back and forth.

After the meetup, Startup Grind Tokyo’s General Coordinator Pyarauk stated that hopefully the group can become even more international as time goes on.

If there are potential sponsors out there, hope they can contact us. Perhaps English-language speakers can also be lined up in the future. And of course there are other cities in Japan so the Tokyo City Chapter need not be alone in this country.

From the 3rd Japan Startup Awards, panel discussion with international media guests

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The content of this article first appeared on CNET Japan. It has been translated and reproduced by The Bridge with the approval of CNET Japan and the author of this article. (Text by Yuki Yamadai, Photography by Takao Tsushima) The Third CNET Japan Startup Awards ceremony was held on December 10th. The CNET Japan Startup Awards are given to startups that were noticed in 2015 and chosen. Selection was done by CNET Japan as well as The Bridge’s editorials with five startups receiving awards. In addition to the award ceremony, a variety of lectures as well as discussion panels were held with guest speakers. In this article I will be reporting on a discussion that was held on the topic of “How Japanese Media and Foreign Media View Startups in Japan.” The discussion featured four reporters from Japan and abroad and was moderated by The Bridge’s Masaru Ikeda. See also: Articles on past CNET Japan Startup Awards events A discussion between four reporters from Japan and abroad First, an introduction of the four panels members. Serkan Toto worked as a Tokyo-based writer for the world’s biggest tech blog, TechCrunch, from 2008 to 2012. Currently he is the CEO of a…

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The content of this article first appeared on CNET Japan. It has been translated and reproduced by The Bridge with the approval of CNET Japan and the author of this article. (Text by Yuki Yamadai, Photography by Takao Tsushima)


The Third CNET Japan Startup Awards ceremony was held on December 10th. The CNET Japan Startup Awards are given to startups that were noticed in 2015 and chosen. Selection was done by CNET Japan as well as The Bridge’s editorials with five startups receiving awards.

In addition to the award ceremony, a variety of lectures as well as discussion panels were held with guest speakers. In this article I will be reporting on a discussion that was held on the topic of “How Japanese Media and Foreign Media View Startups in Japan.” The discussion featured four reporters from Japan and abroad and was moderated by The Bridge’s Masaru Ikeda.

See also:

A discussion between four reporters from Japan and abroad

First, an introduction of the four panels members. Serkan Toto worked as a Tokyo-based writer for the world’s biggest tech blog, TechCrunch, from 2008 to 2012. Currently he is the CEO of a Tokyo-based consulting company for the video game industry, called Kantan Games. Richard Solomon is the editor of his self-published Beacon Reports and Nikkei Asian Review, as well as a contributing writer of articles on Japanese startups for the Japan Times.

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Serkan Toto, Freelance Journalist / Kantan Games CEO

Tim Romero is an entrepreneur who came to Japan twenty years ago, having since established four companies. He is also the host of a podcast program called Disrupting Japan. From CNET Japan, Ryo Fujii, an editor/writer covering Japanese web services and mobile carriers, also participated in the discussion.

What is the most interesting startup in Japan?

The discussion proceeded while referring to the results of a questionnaire that was completed by both Japanese and international writers and media partners.

The first topic of the questionnaire was “What is the most intersting startup in Japan?” Results from the questionnaire included Whill, a startup developing stylish electric wheelchairs, Eureka, a social matching service, Preferred Networks, promoters of the use of real-time machine learning technology in business, Wantedly, a business social network specializing in searching for interns, and others. There was also a percentage of responses from people who said “nothing particular comes to mind.”

Surely there are some startups among the questionnaire results that the discussion panel members recognize. Picking out Preferred Networks, Toto remarked that as for their field, the video game market,

Japan has reached maturity, but in the past year no significant startups have come out.

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Richard Solomon, Beacon Reports

Solomon, who wrote about Whill three years ago, cited another recognized startup, C Channel, the video sharing social network founded by messaging app Line’s ex-CEO Akira Morikawa. He explained that he sees Japan’s startup scene as being in a transitional phase, until now remaining in a outdated post industrial revolution state, but is now right on the verge of moving to the next level.

On the other hand, Romero, citing crowdsourcing platform CrowdWorks and curated news app Smartnews as examples, sees Japan as having a lot of interesting startups. He explained that one main difference between the startup scene in the US compared to Japan, is that in Japan startups are often founded by entrepreneurs who have left positions at major Japanese companies and thus have a wealth of experience to draw on, making it easier for such startups to succeed.

CNET Japan’s Fujii made note of services that have moved into IoT territory, not limiting themselves only to the web. Especially in 2015, similarly to how mobile healthcare startup FiNC received funding from, for example, ANA (All Nippon Airways), looking back Fujii noted that this has been a year of progress in collaboration between startups and major corporations. He also added that cases where startups have been founded internally in large corporations are also increasing.

On what criteria do journalists choose startups?

The next topic for discussion was, “On what criteria do you choose startups to write articles about?” Questionnaire responses centered around criteria such as “originality” and “the entrepreneur’s vision”.

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Serving as discussion moderator, The Bridge’s Masaru Ikeda

Discussion moderator Ikeda, a writer and journalist himself, pointed out that “there are startups that can’t very well differentiate PR from media.” Ex-writer for TechCrunch Toto agreed,

That’s true, there are people who misunderstand that difference. What writers and journalists are thinking about is the reader, what the reader is interested in. Why not try approaching media from the same point of view?

As a podcaster himself, Romero’s idea of journalism is a little bit different from journalism as information disseminated in text.

Podcasts are a type of media where you can directly hear the person’s voice, so I want to share that human aspect.

Japanese people, however, generally prefer not to display that “human aspect”, so therein lies somewhat of a challenge, Romero explained.

When searching for startups to write about, Fujii says he looks for “societal potential” and “ability to help large numbers of people overcome challenges”. If, say, some kind of progressive technology is created but we can’t see any concrete application for it in society, we won’t write about the technology on its own, Fujii explained. He also shared that at CNET Japan, they aren’t particularly picky about the scale of the companies they write about, rather, if it is determined that there is information that has some value to the world, they believe it should be shared equally whether it comes from major corporations or startups.

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Ryo Fujii, CNET Japan writer/editor

A message to startups in Japan

The discussion’s final theme was, “What message would you like to send to startups in Japan?” One opinion that was frequently present in the questionnaire results was “Please issue press releases in English.” To this, all members of the discussion panel agreed.

Toto brought up what Japanese companies often consider “globalization”.

Hiring one foreigner and putting that person in charge of all international business… that’s not global.

Toto flatly stated.

Hire someone to do the work of globalization and you’ve created a total divide. Instead, companies should make their whole team global.

Moving on to Romero, he said with a wry smile,

I’ve lived in Japan for twenty years and my Japanese isn’t perfect, so I can’t blame anybody for not being able to speak English.

He asserted, however, that for companies that want to globalize, not only language but knowledge of the international market is what is really needed. Companies need to think more about what kind of value they can offer to the international community.

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Tim Romero, Disrupting Japan

Closing out the discussion, CNET Japan’s Ryo Fujii, citing LINE’s success internationally as a precedent, expressed his opinion regarding globalization.

There have been a lot of companies that tried to expand into the US and failed, but why not first try moving into the Asian market, where at least the culture is somewhat similar?

Translated by Connor Kirk
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

Berlin’s indoor farming startup InFarm wins Innovation Weekend Grand Finale in Tokyo

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See the original story in Japanese. Innovation Weekend is a periodical pitch competition event organized by Tokyo-based startup incubator Sunbridge Global Ventures. Preliminary sessions were held in New York, San Francisco, Berlin and Osaka this year. The top two finishers of each session were invited to pitch at the final Innovation Weekend Grand Finale 2015 event in Tokyo on December 11th. Here are the products and the market potential of award-winning startups. 1st place winner: InFarm (Berlin, Germany) Berlin-based InFarm has developed a production technology for growing vegetables indoors. By renovating a warehouse situated inside the city of Berlin, the company supplies urban communities with locally-grown fresh vegetables. Since vegetables are all organic, they are 40 times more nutritious than other commercialized vegetables. As the company strongly believes that everyone should be able to consume organic vegetables, it has released a small gardening kit called Microgarden last year. It is made of plastic for users to easily grow their own vegetables at home. In the same year, the company ran a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, successfully exceeded its initial goal and raised 27,000 euros. Users can start growing their own vegetables immediately with seeds that come with the kit. All…

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See the original story in Japanese.

Innovation Weekend is a periodical pitch competition event organized by Tokyo-based startup incubator Sunbridge Global Ventures. Preliminary sessions were held in New York, San Francisco, Berlin and Osaka this year. The top two finishers of each session were invited to pitch at the final Innovation Weekend Grand Finale 2015 event in Tokyo on December 11th.

Here are the products and the market potential of award-winning startups.

1st place winner: InFarm (Berlin, Germany)

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Berlin-based InFarm has developed a production technology for growing vegetables indoors. By renovating a warehouse situated inside the city of Berlin, the company supplies urban communities with locally-grown fresh vegetables. Since vegetables are all organic, they are 40 times more nutritious than other commercialized vegetables.

As the company strongly believes that everyone should be able to consume organic vegetables, it has released a small gardening kit called Microgarden last year. It is made of plastic for users to easily grow their own vegetables at home. In the same year, the company ran a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, successfully exceeded its initial goal and raised 27,000 euros. Users can start growing their own vegetables immediately with seeds that come with the kit. All they need to do is to place the kit by a window. In addition, a plastic sheet of the kit can be recycled after usage.

2nd place winner: Agolo (New York, USA)

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New York-based Agolo (formerly known as Ninoh) has developed a curated content publishing platform under the same name. Using natural language processing and a big data analysis engine, the platform automatically sorts out and reedits a large amount of unstructured data, such as reports, articles, social network posts, news updates and images. It allows media site owners to change the method of digesting information as well as to automate the article generation process. In addition, it allows them to handle real-time content-based marketing and contextual advertising.

The company secured an undisclosed sum in a seed round from Dentsu Ventures, a corporate venture capital of Japanese ad agency Dentsu (TSE:4324) in August this year.

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2nd place winner: Nomiku (San Francisco, USA)

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San Francisco-based Nomiku has invented sous-vide immersion circulators designed for home cooking. Sous-vide cooking is a method of slowly cooking vacuum-sealed food in controlled and low-temperature water, enabling food to be cooked properly without overcooking. Nomiku’s immersion circulators are connected to Wi-Fi to facilitate programming the water temperature based on the temperature recommended by chefs. Furthermore, users can control the temperature remotely via Internet so that they can safely leave home while cooking.

This startup was born out of Shenzhen-based hardware accelerator HAX (formally HAXLR8R) in 2012.

Reference:

Microsoft Award winner: Liquid (Tokyo, Japan)

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Tokyo-based Liquid has developed a new biometric payment system. Traditionally, the fingerprint authentication used 1:1 verification method that took time to identify the input fingerprint from a large number of registered fingerprint patterns. But this company has employed a 1:N identification method using deep learning algorithms. With this method, it only takes a few seconds to identify the input fingerprint. Once users are enrolled in this system, they can purchase with their fingerprints, allowing them to go out without any cash or credit card. By registering the fingerprints from two fingers, the risk of misidentifying the fingerprint is reduced to 1 in one hundred million.

This system is actually used at Huis Ten Bosch, a theme park in Nagasaki, Japan, where visitors can pay at restaurants and purchase at souvenir shops without their wallet, giving them a sense of freedom. It is also implemented at a hotel in Sri Lanka where hotel guests enroll their biometric information at check-in. After that, they can then unlock the key and purchase at partnered stores only with their fingerprints. This startup was born out of the third incubation batch by Docomo Ventures.

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Japan Air Lines Award winner: Quatre (Osaka, Japan)

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Quatre has built a cross-border e-commerce platform called Pukka. The company observed that many foreign tourists favor Japanese cosmetic products for their high quality. Prior to starting Quatre, the company’s founder Takayuki Yokomachi was a hairstylist. Subsequently he was working at @cosme, a Japanese leading cosmetic products portal. Pukka is now specializing in selling Japanese beauty and cosmetic products to mainland China.

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The Pukka website (in Chinese)

Translated by Mariko Kobayashi via Mother First
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy and Masaru Ikeda

From Infinity Ventures Summit in Kyoto: 14 startups pitch at Launch Pad competition

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This is part of our coverage of the Infinity Ventures Summit 2015 Fall in Kyoto, Japan. See the original story in Japanese. Infinity Venture Partners, a Tokyo-based global investment fund, organized its semi-annual startup showcasing event in Kyoto earlier this month, where 14 startups exhibited their products to investors and entrepreneurs. Hokkaido-based Agri Info Design won the top prize with their mobile app solution called AgriBus-Navi. Here’s a quick rundown of the top five winners and finalists. 1st prize winner: AgriBus-NAVI (by Agri Info Design) AgriBus-NAVI is a mobile app for installation on farm machinery like tractors, crop harvesters, and self-propelled sprayers for checkrow planting. One of the utmost difficulties in farmwork is confirmation as to agrochemical spraying having  been performed properly because rough chemical spraying causes fertilizers to be wasted. This mobile app replaces conventional GPS-based systems that have been used to solve such issues. 2nd prize winner: Nutte (by State of Mind) Nutte is a crowdsourced platform of seamstresses, receiving orders for all manufacturing processes for creation of clothing, from design to sewing. Differentiating from similar Japanese services like Sitateru, Nutte allows users to order their originally designed clothing or items using an image sketch. See also: Sitateru:…

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This is part of our coverage of the Infinity Ventures Summit 2015 Fall in Kyoto, Japan.

See the original story in Japanese.

Infinity Venture Partners, a Tokyo-based global investment fund, organized its semi-annual startup showcasing event in Kyoto earlier this month, where 14 startups exhibited their products to investors and entrepreneurs. Hokkaido-based Agri Info Design won the top prize with their mobile app solution called AgriBus-Navi.

Here’s a quick rundown of the top five winners and finalists.

1st prize winner: AgriBus-NAVI (by Agri Info Design)

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AgriBus-NAVI is a mobile app for installation on farm machinery like tractors, crop harvesters, and self-propelled sprayers for checkrow planting.

One of the utmost difficulties in farmwork is confirmation as to agrochemical spraying having  been performed properly because rough chemical spraying causes fertilizers to be wasted. This mobile app replaces conventional GPS-based systems that have been used to solve such issues.

2nd prize winner: Nutte (by State of Mind)

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Nutte is a crowdsourced platform of seamstresses, receiving orders for all manufacturing processes for creation of clothing, from design to sewing. Differentiating from similar Japanese services like Sitateru, Nutte allows users to order their originally designed clothing or items using an image sketch.

See also:

3rd prize winner: CloudSign (by Bengo4.com)

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Bengo4.com Taichiro Motoe

Bengo4.com, the company behind Japan’s foremost legal portal under the same name, was listed on the TSE Mothers Market in December 2014. The company recently launched an online contract signing platform called CloudSign.

Using the CloudSign platform, a sender of a contract is requested to upload an agreement form in PDF format designating which part of the form should be filled by a recipient. Then the recipient will receive an e-mail containing a unique URL to browse the form. As the recipient signs the form with a digital signature, the finalized version of the form will be shared on both sides by each other via the platform.

See also:

4th prize winner: Anyca (by Anyca)

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Anyca is a car-sharing platform for individuals. When a user books a car registered on the platform, the owner of the car will be requested to approve the use. Upon the approval, both parties can arrange a delivery place of the car each other. The user will be requested to return the car to the owner after the use. Allowing users to apply for a car insurance by the day, the service is aimed to secure both easiness and safety. The service is a provided by a group company of DeNA (TSE:2432), a Japanese leading mobile gaming company.

5th prize winner: Repro (by Repro)

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Repro is a startup behind a mobile app analysis and marketing tool, having won pitch competitions at startup events like our Mixer Tokyo and B Dash Camp.
In addition to quantitative analysis, this tool provides mobile developers with qualitative analysis visualizing user behaviors on screen by using movies. It also allows the developers to send push notifications or in-app messages to their users.

Adopted by and implemented into 1,025 apps from 17 countries worldwide, paying mobile developers comprise 5.6% in the entire user base of the analysis platform. The company fundraised 1 million yen (about $820,000) from DG Incubation and other companies in April.

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See also:

Below are the startups selected as finalists.


Wizpra NPS (by Wizpra)

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Founded in March 2013, Wizpra has been providing a user experience management platform called Wizpra NPS and an employee experience management (EEM) platform called Wizpra Card. Wizpra NPS has been adopted by more than 1,000 retailers in Japan including fitness gyms in the six months since launch.

The company fundraised a total of 230 million yen (about $1.9 million) from Gree Ventures, Mobile Internet Capital, SMBC Venture Capital and Mizuho Capital in January.

See also:

LiveConnect (by Z-Works)

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Z-Works has developed a home gateway device, a cloud platform and mobile app leveraging sensors corresponding to the Z-wave standard, a wireless communication specification for home automation. Amongst their products, LiveConnect is an IoT (Internet of Things) service for home security.

Aiming to support care for the elderly, for instance, their smart lock solution allows caregivers to lock a room using a mobile app and a motion sensor by detecting the sign of wandering behaviors of their charges.

Medicine Delivery (by Minacolor)

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Minacolor has been offering advice on medicines and treatments by pharmacists online. The company started an on-demand medicine delivery service in November of 2013.

Using the service, a pharmacist from the company will choose an appropriate medicine according to one’s symptom and their deliverer will bring it to the door of one’s home within the shortest delivery time of 30 minutes after receiving the order. The service is currently available in the central district of Tokyo, or the southern part of the area surrounded by Yamanote Loop Line.

Users will need to place an order using a mobile app so that it will record their order history upon considering multiple drug intake or future ordering convenience. The company takes about 5,000 yen (or about $41) on average from each order with an average profitability of 10%, aiming to crowdsource jobs to 80,000 qualified pharmacists who want to work at home.

Popcorn (by Coubic)

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Coubic is a startup known for a freemium scheduling and appointment booking solution under the same name. The company provides a mobile app offering special deals on last-minute bookings for beauty and massage salons, called Popcorn. Available only for booking up to 15 minutes prior to receiving, the app adopts advance payment to reduce the risk of cancellation for salon owners. These salon owners can use the Coubic platform to better manage customers.

See also:

Spectee (by Spectee)

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Spectee shows users critical incidents and events happening now in an easier manner by curating updates from social media and sorts them based on geotags or keywords contained in every tweet or message post. About 60 locations across Japan are set in the app where users can see what is happening in real time in every location.

See also:

Fitty (by Scala International)

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Fitty is a mobile app that helps women find the proper fit for lingerie pieces. By entering several selections like bra size or body shape into the app, it will suggest users the best-fit selection of bras. In order to enable presentation of best suggestions to users, the company has been collecting up-to-date product profiles from fashion retailers and manufacturers to incorporate them into the app.

As an extension of the recommendation result, the app will give users a link so that they can purchase bra items online. The company is considering launch of a business which provides statistical data of bra wearers to lingerie manufacturers.

Partee (by g&h)

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Partee is a mobile app that allows users to create a T-shirt or smartphone cases using their favorite pictures. Users can also create it using pictures uploaded by not only them but also their friends. When one’s picture is used by other users, some revenue will be shared with the owner of the picture.

Monomy (by Fun Up)

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Monomy is an iOS app that offers an online marketplace for creatives, allowing people to make accessories they like with ease using smartphones. The platform was launched in August by Fun Up, the Tokyo-based company which has been running several online services since 2011.

The difference between trendy marketplaces for handmade goods and Monomy is that users only need to design the accessories they want. What happens is that Monomy takes care of the whole process from receiving orders through production in their own workshop. They can take large orders such as orders for 1,000 items and make them all in their workshop, with the accessories being made by experienced craftspeople by hand.

See also:

LaFabric (by LifeStyle Design)

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LaFabric is a made-to-order fashion e-commerce site. Since its launch back in February of 2014, starting with custom-made business suits and shirts, they have expanded to jeans and other casual fashion items to cover people’s needs.

LifeStyle Design, the company behind the service, fundraised about 100 million yen (or about $830,000) from Nissay Capital in May.

Translated by Moto Tsujino via Mother First
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy and Masaru Ikeda

Health 2.0 Asia showcases five most prominent healthcare startups from Japan

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See the original story in Japanese. Health2.0, started in California in 2007, is the global conference introducing the latest technologies and advanced solutions in the medical and health sector. The conference was held in Japan for the first time over a two-day period of November 4 and 5. Five prominent startups from Japan challenging the sector each with own style entered the Afternoon Pitch Competition posited on Day 1. The judges for the competition were: Akira Kurabayashi, Managing Director, Draper Nexus Ventures Yasutaka Sakon, Executive Director, Strategic Planning and Business Operations, Docomo Healthcare Shumpei Fukui, Principal, Archetype Satoshi Fukushima, Senior Associate, Globis Capital Partners Symax (competition winner) Symax analyzes urine by attaching it inside a toilet for analyzing health conditions. It enables early detection of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and gout with 99% accuracy leveraging the original algorithm. Some similar existing services cost no less than tens of millions yen (or tens of thousand US dollars). Compared to these, Symax is superior in the number of diseases it can detect and continous use at low cost. The company claims that this solution can discover 86% out of all different types of lifestyle diseases. An individual user can also use…

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See the original story in Japanese.

Health2.0, started in California in 2007, is the global conference introducing the latest technologies and advanced solutions in the medical and health sector. The conference was held in Japan for the first time over a two-day period of November 4 and 5.

Five prominent startups from Japan challenging the sector each with own style entered the Afternoon Pitch Competition posited on Day 1.

The judges for the competition were:

  • Akira Kurabayashi, Managing Director, Draper Nexus Ventures
  • Yasutaka Sakon, Executive Director, Strategic Planning and Business Operations, Docomo Healthcare
  • Shumpei Fukui, Principal, Archetype
  • Satoshi Fukushima, Senior Associate, Globis Capital Partners

Symax (competition winner)

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Symax analyzes urine by attaching it inside a toilet for analyzing health conditions. It enables early detection of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and gout with 99% accuracy leveraging the original algorithm.

Some similar existing services cost no less than tens of millions yen (or tens of thousand US dollars). Compared to these, Symax is superior in the number of diseases it can detect and continous use at low cost. The company claims that this solution can discover 86% out of all different types of lifestyle diseases.

An individual user can also use it for 980 yen (about $8) a month while companies can use it for their employees’ health and adjustment of medical expenses by installing it it a building or facilities. Some high-class nursing homes and condo developers have shown interest in it because they can reduce an initial investment to about one-tenth that for conventional similar solutions which usually costs more than hundreds of thousand US dollars. Using the vital data collected, offers of data marketing business to health insuarance societies and companies are planned.

See also:

Clintal

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Over a million “hospital refugees” are being found in Japan; many patients feel anxious and dissatisfied about doctors’ explanations and treatment plans. Clintal is an online platform where doctors with optimal skills can be searched for such patients in accordance with their diseases and symptoms. They can see the list of skilled doctors just by selecting diseases and treatment departments.

Its characteristic is that it is searchable not by hospital units but doctors, using both qualitative and quantitative data for selecting skilled doctors and evaluating accessibility to such doctors. Regarding the recommendation service, it provides a skilled doctor’s details in about a week’s time after inputting information from the web form. It deals with subjects such as increases in medical expenses and medical quality improvement, as these are becoming social problems in Japan.

Though a question considering resistance to doctors’ achievement disclosure was tossed by the judges, high evaluation has been given by doctors with positive and cooperative attitude can be seen for improvement of information accuracy instead. There are 500 skilled doctors listed on Clintal at this point and they aim to list the top 3 to 4% out of 250,000 doctors throughout Japan within a year.

See also:

Handiii

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Exiii explores a new form of myoelectric hand called Handiii using the 3D printing technique and the release of open source. Myoelectric arms are for people without hands for control with remaining muscles intuitively. As there has been no change in the function over a half century this kept the market small at several thousand people. Thus, customization needs for the size and shape of persons wearing an artificial hand have been hurdles.

For these reasons, an artificial hand so far costs about 1.5 million ($12,000) yen each. The diffusion of artificial hands stays at 0.7% because of the high cost. Handiii is an attempt which turns artificial hands into easier choice with its cost and design. It costs about 30,000 yen ($250) to make each artificial hand. The world where people can express handicaps as their personalities instead of hiding them is coming. Communities around the artificial hands have been formed and various customizations are put into practice all around the world.

See also:

HealthServer

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The Dricos team has developed HealthServer which prepares supplement drinks to safekeep good health. HealthServer is the extremely easy solution for modern people to maintain good health.

Coordinating with various wearable devices, it analyzes the supplements which are necessary for user body. Then, the server prepares drinks according to the contents. The server also reads biomedical signals and produces an energy drink which fits each person who touches the machine itself when wearables are not in use.

38% of Japanese take some kinds of supplements today and its market amounts 1.5 trillion yen (about $124 billion) in scale. As the first stage, they have already started action to establish a sports gym next spring targeting people who go to the gym with high health awareness. And continuous sales are expected since the supplements of HealthServer are replenished by exchanging cartridges.

Cocololo

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There are people who have mental problems in over 70% of the offices in Japan. Cocololo can visualize a mind condition not using wearables but with only smartphone which is familiar to us. It reads stress and relax numerical values with finger placement on the smartphone camera. The result is expressed as eight feeling types and the reliability of measurement accuracy is about 80%. Since its launch seven months ago, the app has acquired over 300,000 downloads to date.

After measuring the stress level, there is also a function which recommends music and spa coupons according to the stress condition. And as a stress check is going to be mandatory for enterprises from this December, the Cocololo team will also be providing solutions for corporations.


As you can see the five companies which made pitches this time provide a variety of medical or healthcare forms, approaches and targets. As technologies and devices develop in the future, data will be collected no matter what. The point is how to use them for solutions to solve people’s problems. Healthcare services are increasingly attracting interest; those within and outside Japan should be scrutinized from now on.

Translated by Azusa Murano via Mother First
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy and Masaru Ikeda

Cloud-based personnel management tool SmartHR wins TechCrunch Tokyo’s pitch competition

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TechCrunch Japan, the Japanese version of the leading startup news site, held its flagship annual conference TechCrunch Tokyo in Shibuya today, where 12 outstanding startups from Japan and Korea fiercely competed with each others to win the Startup Battle pitch competition. Based on votes by judges comprising investors and evangelists from Japan and the US, Tokyo-based Kufu, the Japanese startup behind cloud-based personnel management tool SmartHR, won the top award. SmartHR (TechCrunch Tokyo 2015 Startup Battle Top Award winner, IBM BlueHub Award winner, GuruNavi Award winner) Personnel management requiring the preparation of forms and documents to be filled in is a time-consuming task, especially at small companies. SmartHR is a cloud-based platform that enables users to complete all these tasks in one week for free versus three weeks for a cost of 20,000 yen ($170) on average if outsourced to a certified labor and social insurance consultant/scrivener [Sharoushi]. SmartHR is targeting four million small and medium-sized enterprises employing 27 million people in Japan. The team is planning to harmonize it with the E-Gov API (application program interface) that the Japanese government recently introduced. A database of employees is also built by using the platform so it will also provide features that encourage companies to enact office rules or hire an occupational health physician according to…

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TechCrunch Japan, the Japanese version of the leading startup news site, held its flagship annual conference TechCrunch Tokyo in Shibuya today, where 12 outstanding startups from Japan and Korea fiercely competed with each others to win the Startup Battle pitch competition.

Based on votes by judges comprising investors and evangelists from Japan and the US, Tokyo-based Kufu, the Japanese startup behind cloud-based personnel management tool SmartHR, won the top award.

SmartHR (TechCrunch Tokyo 2015 Startup Battle Top Award winner, IBM BlueHub Award winner, GuruNavi Award winner)

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Kufu CEO Shoji Miyata (right) receives the award from TechCrunch US writer Kim-Mai Cutler.

Personnel management requiring the preparation of forms and documents to be filled in is a time-consuming task, especially at small companies. SmartHR is a cloud-based platform that enables users to complete all these tasks in one week for free versus three weeks for a cost of 20,000 yen ($170) on average if outsourced to a certified labor and social insurance consultant/scrivener [Sharoushi].

SmartHR is targeting four million small and medium-sized enterprises employing 27 million people in Japan. The team is planning to harmonize it with the E-Gov API (application program interface) that the Japanese government recently introduced. A database of employees is also built by using the platform so it will also provide features that encourage companies to enact office rules or hire an occupational health physician according to how many employees they have.

Below is a quick rundown of other 11 startups which delivered their awesome pitch at today’s showcase event.

Bonx (Sakura Internet Award winner, PR Times Award winner, PayPal award winner)

Bonx is a wearable transceiver for skiers and other outdoor sports afficianadoes.

See also:

OneTapBuy (AWS Award winner, Special Judge’s Award winner)

Previously known as MyBanker, OneTapBuy has been focused on developing mobile app which specifically helps people manage their savings and investments more easily.

See also:

VideoTap (Microsoft BizSpark Plus Award winner)

VideoTap is a female-targeted mobile video ad network that attracts 40 million unique users every month.

See also:

Popcorn

Popcorn is a last-minute beauty salon booking app, focused on serving in the central Tokyo area. It helps salon owners cultivate a new customer base while customers can have their hair cut for a lower price.

See also:

CasterBiz

CasterBiz is a crowdsourcing platform for small businesses focused on personnel and accounting as well as secretarial tasks.

Shelfy

Shelfy helps restaurant owners get better deals for renovation by connecting with design studios and construction companies.

See also:

Tanren

Tanren helps large retail chains educate their employees at locations dotting the region by using an online video platform.

Watcha

Originally from Korea, Watcha is a mobile app recommending movies, TV drama series and anime series by learning a user’s preference.

WealthNavi

WealthNavi is an asset management service that helps middle-income people better locate diversified investments internationally.

Shopcounter

Shopcounter is a marketplace for e-commerce businesses to launch a real pop-up stores.

Mijin

Mijin allows companies to launch their original blockchain-based P2P network.

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Myojo Waraku: Japan’s rendition of SXSW begins in Fukuoka with showcasing prominent startups

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Myojo Waraku is an annual festival taking place in Japan’s western city of Fukuoka with a flavor of America’s South by South West (SXSW) festival, showcasing prominent startups, digital media and music performers from the land of the rising sun. The first edition took place in 2011, followed by holding of the festival’s global versions in Taipei and London. This year’s event was kicked off with a pitch session today where five Japanese startups delivered a pitch to a crowd from the local startup community and investors from outside Japan. Here’s a quick rundown of startups showcased at the event: Capitalico by Alpaca Alpaca has developed a forex trading platform using the deep learning technology called Capitalico. Based upon image recognition deep learning technology, the Capitalico platform allows users to easily find a forex chart from an archive since 2001 as well as a live forex chart which is similar to what you have on hand so that users don’t need to acquire programming skills to backtest their trading strategies. See also: Japan’s deep learning startup Alpaca raises $1M to launch AI-based forex trading platform UnlimitedHand by H2L H2L has a haptic game controller called UnlimitedHand. With a bandage-like device having motion sensor…

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Myojo Waraku is an annual festival taking place in Japan’s western city of Fukuoka with a flavor of America’s South by South West (SXSW) festival, showcasing prominent startups, digital media and music performers from the land of the rising sun. The first edition took place in 2011, followed by holding of the festival’s global versions in Taipei and London.

This year’s event was kicked off with a pitch session today where five Japanese startups delivered a pitch to a crowd from the local startup community and investors from outside Japan.

Here’s a quick rundown of startups showcased at the event:

Capitalico by Alpaca

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Alpaca has developed a forex trading platform using the deep learning technology called Capitalico. Based upon image recognition deep learning technology, the Capitalico platform allows users to easily find a forex chart from an archive since 2001 as well as a live forex chart which is similar to what you have on hand so that users don’t need to acquire programming skills to backtest their trading strategies.

See also:

UnlimitedHand by H2L

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H2L has a haptic game controller called UnlimitedHand. With a bandage-like device having motion sensor and muscle displacement sensor around the arm, it allows users to input their hand motions into a game. The device has a functional electrical stimulator that gives users a virtual touch, allowing users to “feel” the impact or the touch of a character in a game.

See also:

Symax

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Symax is a sensor device that can be attached to western-style toilets, telling users their health condition by analyzing their urine on a daily basis for a monthly charge of about $10. Based on a unique analysis algorithm, their technology detects lifestyle diseases such as gout and diabetes with 99% accuracy.

The team won at a startup competition at Health 2.0 Asia in Tokyo earlier this month, looking to acquire companies which want to optimize medical cost for their employees as well as nursing homes and condo developers which serve elderly people in particular.

Skydisc

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Skydisc has developed a variety of sensor devices and the cloud for storing, then analyzing data from these devices. Their device typically can detect temperature, humidity, three-axis acceleration, carbon dioxide concentration, and PM2.5 (particulate matter 2.5) concentration so that it can be applied to environment managing businesses, logistics and distribution, agriculture, and other business sectors. The company is expecting to secure funds worth 110 to 150 million yen (about $897,000 to $1.22 million) by the end of this November.

Soracom

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Soracom is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) focused on distributing SIM cards, allowing IoT developers to distribute SIM cards for 3G or 4G (LTE) cellular data connectivity under their brand to customers. In this way, it aims to help IoT developers shift their business model from from hardware sales to recurring subscription-based charging.

See also:


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Following the showcase on the stage, four venture capitalists from different markets discussed what they expect from the Japanese startup scene. Participating investors are:

  • Chee-Kong Choun, Pavilion Capital, the north Asia-focused investment initiative by Singapore’s state-run Temasek Holdings
  • Steve Jang, San Francisco-based angel investor
  • Tina Cheng, Partner and Chief Representative of Taiwan, Cherubic Ventures
  • Keith Nilsson, co-founder and Managing Partner Visionnaire Ventures

This panel was moderated by James Riney, the new head of 500 Startups Japan, the regional microfund by US-based startup-focused investment fund 500 Startups.

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Keith Nilsson

Keith explained that many investors in the US are looking at the Japanese market, exploring investment opportunities especially in key categories like hardware development, one of the strengths in the Japanese startup scene.

Tina pointed out that Japanese angel investors are looking for opportunities outside Japan, encouraging more entrepreneurs to gain a mindset of risk-taking.

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Chee-Kong Choun

Chee-Kong says, one of the key values in transitioning trends in the region is that more investors have begun investing in startups because of their company or product quality rather than the conventional criteria of their founder background or experience in business.

Steve says that many Japanese companies have turned to Silicon Valley and spend a week or more there to meet up with local entrepreneurs, which is very useful for both sides in understanding each others. In addition, he also pointed out that more startups from Japan and Korea are starting by forming a multilingual team, developing products targeting the global market from the beginning, in contrast with conventional startups starting the global expansion after stabilizing the sales in their home turf market.

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Steve Jang

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Tokyo Motor Show 2015 indicates game changes for automotive sector

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This is a guest post authored by “Tex” Pomeroy. He is a Tokyo-based writer specializing in ICT and high technology. This is a part of our coverage of Tokyo Motor Show 2015. The Tokyo Motor Show 2015 opened for its two-week run on October 28th. “Innovation” was pegged as the central theme this year, with an opening discussion by executives from the main players in the Japanese automobile market regarding this issue from the industry’s standpoint. The content of the show which followed did indicate that – in reflection of the first-ever tie-up by this show with the consumer electronics confab in Tokyo earlier in October – there were major shifts in driving technology, with a marked gravitation towards things electric and electronic/info-tech. As Dr. Heinz Goddar, the German doyen of the patent world on a visit to Tokyo this time noted, there seems to be “game-changing moves” in the automobile sector. One very high-profile topic this year at the Tokyo Motor Show is automotive safety. Although the past several shows did in particular highlight the safety aspect as related to “intelligent transport systems” – especially with the holding of 2013 ITS World Congress in Tokyo – this year has…

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


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Toyota Body unveils its personal mobility product called Coms Connect, designed by Japanese mechanic designer and anime director Shoji Kawamori.

This is a part of our coverage of Tokyo Motor Show 2015.

The Tokyo Motor Show 2015 opened for its two-week run on October 28th. “Innovation” was pegged as the central theme this year, with an opening discussion by executives from the main players in the Japanese automobile market regarding this issue from the industry’s standpoint. The content of the show which followed did indicate that – in reflection of the first-ever tie-up by this show with the consumer electronics confab in Tokyo earlier in October – there were major shifts in driving technology, with a marked gravitation towards things electric and electronic/info-tech. As Dr. Heinz Goddar, the German doyen of the patent world on a visit to Tokyo this time noted, there seems to be “game-changing moves” in the automobile sector.

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Toyota Motor East Japan’s Patra Four

One very high-profile topic this year at the Tokyo Motor Show is automotive safety. Although the past several shows did in particular highlight the safety aspect as related to “intelligent transport systems” – especially with the holding of 2013 ITS World Congress in Tokyo – this year has seen much activities weaving the sensor/IoT system into vehicle operations.

It appears in the wake of Google’s Self-Driving Car concept unveiling in 2014, along with convergence of “robotics” with the motor industry thanks to increased electrical platform usage, the trend toward automated driving has been jumpstarted.

Not only major car manufacturers like Subaru and Toyota that are leading the push for “collision-free” vehicles but also intrapreneurial moves at smaller firms as exemplified by U-SHIN (TSE:6985) were showcased this time around. The Hiroshima car parts provider has now taken on the challenge of developing sensors that ensure safe operations as well as open the trunk or hatchback when a person has one’s hands full. Moreover, it has realized door lock sensors that the driver/passenger can easily gesture to unlock automatically, with minimal error rate such as from mistaking the movement of falling raindrops. Furthermore it is attempting to develop a compact car-use radar system.

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U-SHIN presents its power closure system and stepgate.

U-SHIN actually is following the trend begun by international CES 2015 show in Las Vegas this January. The usual staple over the past several years of smartphones, tablets and “K level” TVs was shored up by the appearance of connected cars and drones as well as “the Internet of Things” (IoT). In particular the connected cars appeared ready to take center stage henceforth, as borne out by Volkswagen Golf Touch R‘s popularity at Las Vegas. Though VW has taken a low profile in Tokyo “dieselwise,” others are building upon the gesture control and connected features conceptualized by the German carmaker.

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Apparently the Smart City initiative pushed for the third time by the show sponsor Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) finally hit the mark by channeling in firms aiming to plug themselves into the “grid” and the clean energy cycle. New entrants like the venture business “ex machina” all-electric concept car were trying to match Toyota group counterpart efforts looking to link in Kirobo as a “navigation aid.”  Others were seeking to leverage the tech prowess they gained under the traditional auto industry setting, finding applications from Augmented Reality to Vehicle Information Communication System for “personal transport units” among other items.

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“ex machina” all-electric concept car (Photo by Jerry Suppan)

In addition to automobile manufacturers the Smart City section had entities running the gamut from Asahi Glass marketing its bus/train-use products to Tokyo FM touting its broadcasting services for travelers intent on in-car entertainment participating in the section, along with such companies as those involved in assisting the elderly as well as the disabled in terms of mobility (more of this in a earlier story centered on startups in this field).

Returning to the “Connected Car” concept this year, major manufacturers like Toyota and Mercedes Benz were – beyond resorting to use of robots – promoting the use of the car body (including window panes) as well as accessories as means of being linked to information from both outside the vehicle like upcoming traffic or potential hazards plus inside such as in-car environ, engine and tire conditions. Obviously the Cloud has increased the selection of services much more.

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Daihatsu’s Noriori concept car

However the idea of “connected” in some cases have gone beyond to that of having the automobile become part of the setting, as with Daihatsu producing a concept car which could be altered into a pseudo-“park bench”… an extension of its “Universal Design” Noriori car. As regards the Noriori concept car, it enables facilitated transport of wheelchairs as well as baby strollers and of course those temporarily on canes and crutches, not to mention others wanting to make accessibility available to those physically challenged.

In reference to the disabled drivers an automated driving system including voice command would of course go a long way to assisting them in terms of increased mobility. But, there were also many efforts aimed at preventing the elderly drivers from misoperating the vehicle, not just be making traffic signs and directions clearer but also by making it more a deliberate process.

One Japanese gear manufacturer turned the manual gearshift into a “turntop” style (think “childproof bottle cap”) that gives the elder driver to think about the operation. Meanwhile ZF of Germany exhibited a car that can park at an angle due to the extreme angle at which the front wheels can turn; it is a common problem among elderly drivers to try parking on smaller lots.

Forward-looking activities abound this year as well, with the TPP agreement apparently having stimulated activities in Canada for it to have a motorcycle outfit showcase northern-made vehicles.

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Yamaha Motor’s YXZ 1000R

Yamaha also unveiled its buggy-type machine, seen being used in more rugged terrains. Speaking of rugged terrains, other manufacturers with line-ups of such equipment like Suzuki and Honda (in the latter’s case even publicizing its U.S.-made jetplane – unlike Kawasaki, doing a dismal job at publicity this time where queries were met with a blank stare and “Too bad, no info here.”) were quite frenetic, while Jeep taking up the “space exploration” image was actively promoting its cars, along with other Fiat group lines. Hopefully by the next Tokyo Motor Show more start-ups and intrapreneurs will be participating in this wideranging sector.

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Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Hard Rock