Japanese HR departments are in a bit of a panic right now. The increasing job mobility that startups have unleashed is forcing them to rethink their entire mission. Today we sit down and Takako Ogawa, co-founder and CEO of Panalyt, a startup at the center of this transformation, and we talk about the changing career paths in Japan, when startups need to change CEOs, and the dangers of going global that people don't seem to talk about. It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it. Show Notes Why it's so hard for HR to answer simple questions Google’s approach to people analytics and w ..read more

Fusion energy promises almost unlimited, inexpensive, clean energy. That's a pretty big promise. Today we sit down with Satoshi Konishi, co-founder and CEO of Kyoto Fusioneering, and we talk about what it is really going to take to develop commercially viable fusion power and the role that startups have to play in that process. We talk about the emerging public-private research partnerships, who is pulling ahead in the fusion race, and  we dig into the long history and near future of fusion energy It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it. Show Notes Why fusion energy is much ..read more

Most sustainability startups struggle to find sustainable business models Towing, however, has found their solution, and their customers are seeing 20% to 70% increases crop yields. Today we sit down with Towing co-founder Teppei Okamura and he explains why even such a drastic yield improvement required an innovative production and distribution model to achieve scale. We also talk about the advantages (and the challenges) of working with university research teams, how environment policy and carbon credits affect innovation in sustainable agriculture, and Towing's joint research project with JA ..read more

Almost everyone agrees that the Japanese education system needs to be modernized, but EdTech startups face an uphill battle in Japan.  Of course, academia and governments are not known for being particularly innovative or forward-thinking, and that's why Kohei Kuboyama left a fast-track career at Japan's Ministry of Finance to launch and EdTech startup.  Kohei lays out his blueprint for getting new technology and new products adopted in Japan's schools, explains the challenges of leaving government service to start a startup, and talks about a few positive long-term trends he sees in ..read more

MedTech is one of the most challenging areas for startups to compete in,  "Move fast and break things" just doesn't work in medicine.  So you might be surprised to learn that there are quite a few innovative medical startups coming out of Japan right now.   Today we talk with Yuichi Tamura, founder of Cardio Intelligence, who has developed Smart Robin, and AI platform that can read EKGs, has been certified as a diagnostic device and is being used in clinics and hospitals all over Japan.  We talk about the challenges of bringing medical AI to market, their plans for glo ..read more

Japan wants to learn how to code. Over the past 15 years software development in Japan has changed from low-level clerical work to a mission-critical skill, and the Japanese government and industry as scrambling to find programmers and develop new talent. Yan Fan came to Japan on a mission to teach everyone how to code. After opening Japan's first coding  bootcamp, and she and her co-founder Kani grew Code Chrysalis to profitability and about 50 staff, and continue to grow rapidly. Yan and I talk about digital literacy in Japan, and she also  explains her blueprint for making sales i ..read more

Shadow IT has been responsible for more enterprise SaaS deployments and workflow innovation than any growth strategy of the last 15 years. And that 's all about to end. Today we sit down with Yasu Matsumoto, who stepped down as CEO of Raksul after leading the startup from founding to post-IPO success, to start Josys, a new startup helping enterprises put an end to shadow IT once and for all. Yasu explains why that the end of shadow IT is actually a good thing for everyone, why he decided to step down from his high-profile CEO role, and the future of SaaS sales and marketing. It's a great conve ..read more

For decades (centuries, really) lending in Japan has relied on personal guarantors and introductions rather than objective credit scoring. This startup is changing that. Before starting Credit Engine, which provides credit scoring, automated approvals, and other services to mega-banks and other financial institutions,  Sei Uchiyama founded an online lending startup to ensure he understand this market from the bottom up. Credit Engine currently automates everything from loan approvals to the collection of delinquent and non-performing loans, and its already starting to change finance ..read more

The legal system is complex, hard to understand, expensive to navigate, and ripe for disruption. In the future, we will still need lawyers to help us understand the law, but it look like we are going to need far fewer of them than we have today. Nozo Tsunoda is an attorney who walked away from a promising legal career to start LegalOn, an AI startup focused on making the practice of law more efficient, transparent, and easy to navigate. We talk about why corporate legal departments are the early adopters, but why AI technology is forcing its way even into the most traditional law firms, and ho ..read more

Startups solve real problems. During the boom times, the media focuses on the multi-billion-dollar valuations and the mega-IPOs. But even in those times, founders are innovating in the background and using technology to just make the world a better place. Today we talk with Sun Xiaojun, who started BionicM in 2015 as a way to replace the limb that he lost when he was a child.  And since then, he has built the startup into much more. We talk about the challenges he had to overcome to bring innovative medical technology to market, why Japanese universities still struggle to productize their ..read more