//

Whenever you hear someone claim that the Japanese will never do something for unspecified “cultural reasons”, you know there is a fortune to be made.

Lu Dong is the co-founder and CEO of Japan Foodie, a cashless payment system currently masquerading as a restaurant discovery application.

Lu and I talk about the boom in inbound Chinese tourism that led to the creation of Japan Foodie, and how he and his team quickly managed to identify and dominate this massive and underserved market.

We talk about how tourism is changing Japan, the best way to build a two-sided marketplace, the only way forward for most e-commerce platforms, the future of e-payments in Japan and the history of women’s lingerie in China.

It’s a great conversation, and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Show Notes

The real problems with Japan being a cash-based society
What people really care about in a restaurant app
How to build a two-sided marketplace
Why e-commerce platforms are really advertising companies
What happens in Japan after the Olympics
Launching China’s first major sexy lingerie brand
How too much success can kill a startup
When you should turn down VC money
Why its harder to be an entrepreneur when you get older 
The importance of corproate accelerators in Japan

Links from the Founder

Check out Japan Foodie
Connect with Lu on LinkedIn
Friend him on Facebook

Leave a comment
Transcript
Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs.

I’m Tim Romero, and thanks for joining me.

One thing I have learned starting startups in Japan for 20 years is that every time you hear people claiming that Japanese people won’t do something because of unspecified cultural reasons, there’s a lot of money to be made.

In the 90s, people claimed that e-commerce would never catch on because Japanese preferred the high touch, expensive department stores, but today, those department stores are struggling as every year, more and more commerce moves online. 10 years later, people were saying that online auctions would never work because Japanese people would simply not by used goods for cultural reasons. They were wrong, of course, and today, Yahoo! Auctions and Mercari, and dozens of others are thriving.

When a behavior is widely described as a result of cultural reasons, it usually means that the behavior doesn’t really make sense, and we cannot explain it, and man, that is the perfect area to start looking for business opportunities. If you can discover the real reason for this behavior, and it’s usually a rational economic reason, if you can discover the real reason for this behavior and fix it, you can make a fortune.

You might have heard that Japan is a cash-based society for cultural reasons, but we are already starting to see the cracks in that falsehood forming.

Today, I’d like to introduce you to Lu Dong, the founder and CEO of Japan Foodie, a restaurant discovery app and yeah, there are a lot of those, but this one is special. Well, not so much the app, but the business model, and the perfectly rational way in which Japan’s cash-based culture will migrate to electronic payments, and it’s already working.

In our conversation, Lu also provides some great advice for building multi-sited marketplaces, and he tells some pretty interesting stories about tourism, fundraising, and women’s lingerie.

But you know, Lu tells that story much better than I can, so let us get right into the interview.

[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”1404″  info_text=”Sponsored by”  font_color=”grey” ]

[Interview]

Tim: So, I’m sitting here with Lu Dong, the founder of Japan Foodie and several other companies, so thanks for joining us.

Lu: Thank you.

Tim: You know, actually, recently, we’ve been focusing on sort of serial entrepreneurs in Japan, but before we talk about your other companies, let us talk about Japan Foodie.

Lu: So,

from Disrupting Japan: Startups and Innovation in Japan https://ift.tt/2A3fmvK

//

Whenever you hear someone claim that the Japanese will never do something for unspecified “cultural reasons”, you know there is a fortune to be made.

Lu Dong is the co-founder and CEO of Japan Foodie, a cashless payment system currently masquerading as a restaurant discovery application.

Lu and I talk about the boom in inbound Chinese tourism that led to the creation of Japan Foodie, and how he and his team quickly managed to identify and dominate this massive and underserved market.

We talk about how tourism is changing Japan, the best way to build a two-sided marketplace, the only way forward for most e-commerce platforms, the future of e-payments in Japan and the history of women’s lingerie in China.

It’s a great conversation, and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Show Notes

The real problems with Japan being a cash-based society
What people really care about in a restaurant app
How to build a two-sided marketplace
Why e-commerce platforms are really advertising companies
What happens in Japan after the Olympics
Launching China’s first major sexy lingerie brand
How too much success can kill a startup
When you should turn down VC money
Why its harder to be an entrepreneur when you get older 
The importance of corproate accelerators in Japan

Links from the Founder

Check out Japan Foodie
Connect with Lu on LinkedIn
Friend him on Facebook

Leave a comment
Transcript
Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs.

I’m Tim Romero, and thanks for joining me.

One thing I have learned starting startups in Japan for 20 years is that every time you hear people claiming that Japanese people won’t do something because of unspecified cultural reasons, there’s a lot of money to be made.

In the 90s, people claimed that e-commerce would never catch on because Japanese preferred the high touch, expensive department stores, but today, those department stores are struggling as every year, more and more commerce moves online. 10 years later, people were saying that online auctions would never work because Japanese people would simply not by used goods for cultural reasons. They were wrong, of course, and today, Yahoo! Auctions and Mercari, and dozens of others are thriving.

When a behavior is widely described as a result of cultural reasons, it usually means that the behavior doesn’t really make sense, and we cannot explain it, and man, that is the perfect area to start looking for business opportunities. If you can discover the real reason for this behavior, and it’s usually a rational economic reason, if you can discover the real reason for this behavior and fix it, you can make a fortune.

You might have heard that Japan is a cash-based society for cultural reasons, but we are already starting to see the cracks in that falsehood forming.

Today, I’d like to introduce you to Lu Dong, the founder and CEO of Japan Foodie, a restaurant discovery app and yeah, there are a lot of those, but this one is special. Well, not so much the app, but the business model, and the perfectly rational way in which Japan’s cash-based culture will migrate to electronic payments, and it’s already working.

In our conversation, Lu also provides some great advice for building multi-sited marketplaces, and he tells some pretty interesting stories about tourism, fundraising, and women’s lingerie.

But you know, Lu tells that story much better than I can, so let us get right into the interview.

[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”1404″  info_text=”Sponsored by”  font_color=”grey” ]

[Interview]

Tim: So, I’m sitting here with Lu Dong, the founder of Japan Foodie and several other companies, so thanks for joining us.

Lu: Thank you.

Tim: You know, actually, recently, we’ve been focusing on sort of serial entrepreneurs in Japan, but before we talk about your other companies, let us talk about Japan Foodie.

Lu: So,

from Disrupting Japan: Startups and Innovation in Japan https://ift.tt/2A3fmvK

//

Japanese thoughts on risk are changing, but they are changing slowly.

Many people still consider failure to be a permanent condition, and that makes it hard to take risks, or in some cases even to be associated with risks.

Today we talk with Hajime Hirose, one of Japan’s new breed of serial entrepreneurs. Hajime has started companies in three different countries and several different industries.  We talk about the challenges and importance of going global and how a Japanese founder ended up running a Chinese company that IPOed in New York.

And of course, we also talk about how difficult it is for startups to combat rumors in Japan, even when everyone knows those rumors to be false.

It’s a great conversation, and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Show Notes

The road to China runs through Seattle
Today’s management crisis in Chinese and Indian companies
Why leave Japan to start a startup
Why not all publicity is good publicity in Japan
Why the truth cannot fix lies
How to survive when your competition is giving away their product for free
What startups are best started outside Japan

Links from the Founder

Connect with Hajime on LinkedIn
Hajime’s latest project, Datadeck
PTMind’s PT Engine

Leave a comment
Transcript
Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs.

I’m Tim Romero, and thanks for joining me.

You know, there aren’t many serial entrepreneurs in Japan. The reason for that is, well, the same reason why we don’t have a lot of angel investors in Japan. Until very recently, the idea of both startup success and startup failure was permanent.

If your startup succeeded, you were expected to be running it until either you or the company expired, and if you failed, well, if you failed, you were done. Until very recently, failure was considered a permanent condition. No one was inclined to give you a second chance, but things are changing, and today, I would like to introduce you to Hajime Hirose, a Japanese serial entrepreneur who has built and sold startups and also bankrupted them.

We talk about how Japanese attitudes towards startups are changing, but how in Japan, a bad rumor, even a completely unfounded rumor can kill and otherwise promising startup. We also talk about the importance and the difficulty of going global, and the unlikely tale of a Japanese man running a Chinese startup that ended up IPOing in New York, and we also talk about Hajime’s old startup story that wheezed its way through London, Shanghai, Redmond, Jakarta, and yes, of course, Tokyo.

But you know, Hajime tells that story much better than I can, so let us get right to the interview.

[Interview]

[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”1411″  info_text=”Sponsored by”  font_color=”grey”  ]

Tim: Cheers!

Hajime: Cheers!

Tim: All right, so I am sitting here with Hajime Hirose, the what the future founder of BuzzElement, and a few other startups as well, so thanks for sitting down with me.

Hajime: Well, thank you. I’m really excited because I’m a big fan of your show and I’m really thrilled to be on this side of the show.

Tim: Well, listen, I’m excited to have you here because there are relatively few serial entrepreneurs in Japan. So, I’m looking forward to this conversation. Your first real international business was in China, but before we get to that, let us back up and talk about how you wound up there.

Hajime: So, I was born in Tokyo, grew up in Yokohama, and I went to CIO for university, and I’ve been living outside of Japan for the last 26 years.

Tim: And, you ended up working for Microsoft, right?

Hajime: That’s right.

Tim: Back when MSN was still a thing.

Hajime: That’s right, yeah. So, that was back when Microsoft just bought Hotmail back in 1998.

Tim: Oh, the good old days.

Hajime: Yeah, that was good, that was really fun. So, I was lucky to be the only two Japanese guys on the project.

from Disrupting Japan: Startups and Innovation in Japan https://ift.tt/2PZddIa

//

Japanese thoughts on risk are changing, but they are changing slowly.

Many people still consider failure to be a permanent condition, and that makes it hard to take risks, or in some cases even to be associated with risks.

Today we talk with Hajime Hirose, one of Japan’s new breed of serial entrepreneurs. Hajime has started companies in three different countries and several different industries.  We talk about the challenges and importance of going global and how a Japanese founder ended up running a Chinese company that IPOed in New York.

And of course, we also talk about how difficult it is for startups to combat rumors in Japan, even when everyone knows those rumors to be false.

It’s a great conversation, and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Show Notes

The road to China runs through Seattle
Today’s management crisis in Chinese and Indian companies
Why leave Japan to start a startup
Why not all publicity is good publicity in Japan
Why the truth cannot fix lies
How to survive when your competition is giving away their product for free
What startups are best started outside Japan

Links from the Founder

Connect with Hajime on LinkedIn
Hajime’s latest project, Datadeck
PTMind’s PT Engine

Leave a comment
Transcript
Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs.

I’m Tim Romero, and thanks for joining me.

You know, there aren’t many serial entrepreneurs in Japan. The reason for that is, well, the same reason why we don’t have a lot of angel investors in Japan. Until very recently, the idea of both startup success and startup failure was permanent.

If your startup succeeded, you were expected to be running it until either you or the company expired, and if you failed, well, if you failed, you were done. Until very recently, failure was considered a permanent condition. No one was inclined to give you a second chance, but things are changing, and today, I would like to introduce you to Hajime Hirose, a Japanese serial entrepreneur who has built and sold startups and also bankrupted them.

We talk about how Japanese attitudes towards startups are changing, but how in Japan, a bad rumor, even a completely unfounded rumor can kill and otherwise promising startup. We also talk about the importance and the difficulty of going global, and the unlikely tale of a Japanese man running a Chinese startup that ended up IPOing in New York, and we also talk about Hajime’s old startup story that wheezed its way through London, Shanghai, Redmond, Jakarta, and yes, of course, Tokyo.

But you know, Hajime tells that story much better than I can, so let us get right to the interview.

[Interview]

[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”1411″  info_text=”Sponsored by”  font_color=”grey”  ]

Tim: Cheers!

Hajime: Cheers!

Tim: All right, so I am sitting here with Hajime Hirose, the what the future founder of BuzzElement, and a few other startups as well, so thanks for sitting down with me.

Hajime: Well, thank you. I’m really excited because I’m a big fan of your show and I’m really thrilled to be on this side of the show.

Tim: Well, listen, I’m excited to have you here because there are relatively few serial entrepreneurs in Japan. So, I’m looking forward to this conversation. Your first real international business was in China, but before we get to that, let us back up and talk about how you wound up there.

Hajime: So, I was born in Tokyo, grew up in Yokohama, and I went to CIO for university, and I’ve been living outside of Japan for the last 26 years.

Tim: And, you ended up working for Microsoft, right?

Hajime: That’s right.

Tim: Back when MSN was still a thing.

Hajime: That’s right, yeah. So, that was back when Microsoft just bought Hotmail back in 1998.

Tim: Oh, the good old days.

Hajime: Yeah, that was good, that was really fun. So, I was lucky to be the only two Japanese guys on the project.

from Disrupting Japan: Startups and Innovation in Japan https://ift.tt/2PZddIa

//

The conventional wisdom is that traditional Japanese companies can’t innovate.

And traditionally, that’s been true.  Hosoo, however, might be carrying on a 1200-year-old tradition, but they are hardly a conventional company.

Today we talk with Masataka Hosoo, who is the 12th-generation leader of Hosoo, one of Japan’s most famous kimono silk makers. And while the company used to provide kimono fabrics to emperors and shogun, times have changed.

Masataka explains how he is changing with the times and working with not only fashion brands like Dior and Chanel, but companies like Panasonic to develop user interfaces that involve textiles rather than simple lights and buttons.

We also talk about a possible innovation blueprint that Japan’s other small businesses can follow.

It’s a great conversation, and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Show Notes

How ancient weaving techniques are used in modern fashion
When Japan hit peak-Kimono (it’s not when you think)
Bringing kimono fashion to Paris
How to retrain a 300-year old company to be innovative
Why textiles should be seen as jewelry
How traditional Japanese crafts can go global
How other 300-year-old companies are reinventing themselves
Why Kyoto might be Japan’s next startup hub
The 80/20 Rule for innovation in Japan

Links from the Founder

HOSOO global website
This year’s Hosoo Collection
Hosoo’s current design projects
Videos of the fabric and the production process
Kyoto’s Go On project

Leave a comment
Transcript
Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs. I’m Tim Romero and thanks for joining me.

Who says traditional Japanese companies can’t innovate? Well, okay, actually, a lot of people say that. I mean, yeah, to be honest, almost everyone says that, but the point is, those people are wrong.

Now, I have talked before about my work at Tepco and other large companies and the progress of they’re making their innovation programs, but today, we are going old school and I mean really old-school.

Masataka Hosoo is a 12th generation leader of Hosoo, the company that bears his family name. Now, Hosoo is one of Japan’s most famous kimono makers. They used to provide fabrics to emperors and Shogun, but times have changed, and today, Masataka explains how he is innovating and changing with the times.

Hosoo still makes kimono fabrics, of course, but they are also working with companies like Dior and Chanel to create new design ideas, and also with companies like Panasonic to change the way people interact with electronics.

It is a great conversation, not only about fabrics and fashion, and the unexpected way that they affect our lives, but one of a unique approach to innovation and of punk rock, but you know, Masataka tells that story much better than I can, so let’s get right to the interview.

[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”1404″  info_text=”Sponsored by”  font_color=”grey” ]

[Interview]

Tim: Cheers!

Masataka: Cheers.

Tim: So, I’m sitting here with Masataka Hosoo of Hosoo, one of the most innovative textile manufacturers in Japan. So, thanks for sitting down with me.

Masataka: Thank you.

Tim: Hosoo is a very different kind of company than the startups that usually come on the show. I mean, you were founded 330 years ago, but you are doing really new things. So, why don’t you tell us a little bit about who Hosoo is and what you are doing today?

Masataka: Okay, now, Hosoo is a family business and we had been making kimono more than 300 years in Kyoto. Of course, Kyoto is a 1000-year-old chapter and our textile called Nishijin textiles. Nishijin is a district’s old name in the center of Kyoto about 3 km², and this area had been making textile more than 1200 years, and before, our client is Imperial Kyoto, Shogun at the top of a samurai.

Tim: So, Nishijin-ori, I mean, you mentioned its 1200 years old.

from Disrupting Japan https://ift.tt/2NIhWvK

//

The conventional wisdom is that traditional Japanese companies can’t innovate.

And traditionally, that’s been true.  Hosoo, however, might be carrying on a 1200-year-old tradition, but they are hardly a conventional company.

Today we talk with Masataka Hosoo, who is the 12th-generation leader of Hosoo, one of Japan’s most famous kimono silk makers. And while the company used to provide kimono fabrics to emperors and shogun, times have changed.

Masataka explains how he is changing with the times and working with not only fashion brands like Dior and Chanel, but companies like Panasonic to develop user interfaces that involve textiles rather than simple lights and buttons.

We also talk about a possible innovation blueprint that Japan’s other small businesses can follow.

It’s a great conversation, and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Show Notes

How ancient weaving techniques are used in modern fashion
When Japan hit peak-Kimono (it’s not when you think)
Bringing kimono fashion to Paris
How to retrain a 300-year old company to be innovative
Why textiles should be seen as jewelry
How traditional Japanese crafts can go global
How other 300-year-old companies are reinventing themselves
Why Kyoto might be Japan’s next startup hub
The 80/20 Rule for innovation in Japan

Links from the Founder

HOSOO global website
This year’s Hosoo Collection
Hosoo’s current design projects
Videos of the fabric and the production process
Kyoto’s Go On project

Leave a comment
Transcript
Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs. I’m Tim Romero and thanks for joining me.

Who says traditional Japanese companies can’t innovate? Well, okay, actually, a lot of people say that. I mean, yeah, to be honest, almost everyone says that, but the point is, those people are wrong.

Now, I have talked before about my work at Tepco and other large companies and the progress of they’re making their innovation programs, but today, we are going old school and I mean really old-school.

Masataka Hosoo is a 12th generation leader of Hosoo, the company that bears his family name. Now, Hosoo is one of Japan’s most famous kimono makers. They used to provide fabrics to emperors and Shogun, but times have changed, and today, Masataka explains how he is innovating and changing with the times.

Hosoo still makes kimono fabrics, of course, but they are also working with companies like Dior and Chanel to create new design ideas, and also with companies like Panasonic to change the way people interact with electronics.

It is a great conversation, not only about fabrics and fashion, and the unexpected way that they affect our lives, but one of a unique approach to innovation and of punk rock, but you know, Masataka tells that story much better than I can, so let’s get right to the interview.

[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”1404″  info_text=”Sponsored by”  font_color=”grey” ]

[Interview]

Tim: Cheers!

Masataka: Cheers.

Tim: So, I’m sitting here with Masataka Hosoo of Hosoo, one of the most innovative textile manufacturers in Japan. So, thanks for sitting down with me.

Masataka: Thank you.

Tim: Hosoo is a very different kind of company than the startups that usually come on the show. I mean, you were founded 330 years ago, but you are doing really new things. So, why don’t you tell us a little bit about who Hosoo is and what you are doing today?

Masataka: Okay, now, Hosoo is a family business and we had been making kimono more than 300 years in Kyoto. Of course, Kyoto is a 1000-year-old chapter and our textile called Nishijin textiles. Nishijin is a district’s old name in the center of Kyoto about 3 km², and this area had been making textile more than 1200 years, and before, our client is Imperial Kyoto, Shogun at the top of a samurai.

Tim: So, Nishijin-ori, I mean, you mentioned its 1200 years old.

from Disrupting Japan https://ift.tt/2NIhWvK

//

Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs.

I’m Tim Romero and thanks for joining me.

Twice a month, you and I will sit down meet the founders of some of Japan’s most innovate startups. We’ll talk a bit about their companies, of course, but most of the time we talk about how Japan is changing, what it’s like to try to sell to large companies as a small startup, new emerging Japanese technology, and a lot of the social and personal issues founders here face.

Disrupting Japan is really about what it’s like to be an innovator in a culture that prizes conformity.

And yeah, since most of my guests are speaking English as a second language, there is alcohol involved in more than a few of these interviews.

So if you are interested in Japan and in innovation, let me introduce you to some of the most amazing and creative people in the world.

Come join me in Disrupting Japan.

from Disrupting Japan https://ift.tt/2PluScT

//

Disrupting Japan is four years old, so we decided to invite a few hundred movers and shakers from Tokyo’s startup community over to have few drinks and to hear three of Japan’s most successful foreign startup CEOs talk about what it takes to succeed in Japanese when you are not Japanese.

Our panel included some of the most influential foreign startup founders in Japan.

Tim Romero (@timoth3y) – Moderator
Paul Chapman (@pchap10k) – CEO, Moneytree
Jay Winder (@itsjaydesu) – CEO, Make Leaps
Casey Wahl (@caseydai2asa9sa ) – CEO, Wahl & Case

We talk about strategies for growth, how to leverage your “foreignness” to your advantage, how to best manage multi-cultural teams, and what the future looks like for foreigners in Japan.

It’s a great conversation, and I think you’ll enjoy it.

On a personal note, thank you for reading and listening and for being a part of Disrupting Japan. When I started this project ago, I never imagined how large and influential the show would become, or how large and passionate the worldwide interest in Japanese innovation truly is.

I want to offer a sincere thank you to everyone who has pitched in to help make Disrupting Japan a success. There is no way I could have done this alone. But the best is yet to come. There is an amazing amount of innovation going on right now in Japan, and I look forward to bringing it to you.

Thanks for listening!

Leave a comment

A Special Note
For those of you who listened to the podcast know that the recording equipment cut out about half-way through the show. Fortunately, Jason Ball from Business In Japan was live streaming the show. Although the audio quality wasn’t high enough for the podcast, you can watch the whole show (minus a bit of Q&A) online.  Also, the transcript below represents the full show.

 
Transcript
Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs. I’m Tim Romero and thanks for coming out tonight. Now, you guys are awesome!

[applause]

You know, actually, that’s exactly what I hear in my head every time I say that line. Now, for our listeners at home or wherever you may be in the podcast land, we got a special show for you tonight. To celebrate Disrupting Japan’s 4th anniversary, we are podcasting live from Super Deluxe in Roppongi with some of the most innovative people on the face of the planet, that is Japan’s startup ecosystem.

So, let’s everyone get their drinks together for a kampai, and listeners at home, feel free to drink along with us.

Over the last four years, Disrupting Japan has become bigger and more influential than I ever imagined it could be. Thank you so much for everything you’ve done to support the show. Thank you for listening. It’s been an amazing four years, and the next four years are going to be even better. So, kampai!

Audience: Kampai!

[applause]

[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”1411″  info_text=”Sponsored by”  font_color=”grey”  ]

Tim: For these anniversary shows every year, we have a theme and this year, it is foreign founders in Japan, and on stage tonight, we have three – well,  I guess four fearless foreign founders who have taken very different roads to developing their companies here in Japan.

So, with introductions, on my far left is Jay Winder who has established MakeLeaps which is Japan’s leading SaaS invoicing system, and before that, you had another company, but I think a lot of you know Jay for running the Hacker News meetup here in Japan.

[applause]

In the middle, we’ve got Paul Chapman, co-founder and CEO of Moneytree which is one of Japan’s fastest-rising fintech startups, and a true B2C SaaS success story in Japan.

Paul Chapman: Thanks, Tim.

Tim: And on my immediate left is Casey Wahl, CEO and founder of Wahl & Case which is a recruiting company which doesn’t sound that startup-y to begin with, but Casey’s also founded Red Brick Ventures which was an accelerator that spun out several startups.

from Disrupting Japan https://ift.tt/2QogK2y

//

Disrupting Japan is four years old, so we decided to invite a few hundred movers and shakers from Tokyo’s startup community over to have few drinks and to hear three of Japan’s most successful foreign startup CEOs talk about what it takes to succeed in Japanese when you are not Japanese.

Our panel included some of the most influential foreign startup founders in Japan.

Tim Romero (@timoth3y) – Moderator
Paul Chapman (@pchap10k) – CEO, Moneytree
Jay Winder (@itsjaydesu) – CEO, Make Leaps
Casey Wahl (@caseydai2asa9sa ) – CEO, Wahl & Case

We talk about strategies for growth, how to leverage your “foreignness” to your advantage, how to best manage multi-cultural teams, and what the future looks like for foreigners in Japan.

It’s a great conversation, and I think you’ll enjoy it.

On a personal note, thank you for reading and listening and for being a part of Disrupting Japan. When I started this project ago, I never imagined how large and influential the show would become, or how large and passionate the worldwide interest in Japanese innovation truly is.

I want to offer a sincere thank you to everyone who has pitched in to help make Disrupting Japan a success. There is no way I could have done this alone. But the best is yet to come. There is an amazing amount of innovation going on right now in Japan, and I look forward to bringing it to you.

Thanks for listening!

Leave a comment

A Special Note
For those of you who listened to the podcast know that the recording equipment cut out about half-way through the show. Fortunately, Jason Ball from Business In Japan was live streaming the show. Although the audio quality wasn’t high enough for the podcast, you can watch the whole show (minus a bit of Q&A) online.  Also, the transcript below represents the full show.

 
Transcript
Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs. I’m Tim Romero and thanks for coming out tonight. Now, you guys are awesome!

[applause]

You know, actually, that’s exactly what I hear in my head every time I say that line. Now, for our listeners at home or wherever you may be in the podcast land, we got a special show for you tonight. To celebrate Disrupting Japan’s 4th anniversary, we are podcasting live from Super Deluxe in Roppongi with some of the most innovative people on the face of the planet, that is Japan’s startup ecosystem.

So, let’s everyone get their drinks together for a kampai, and listeners at home, feel free to drink along with us.

Over the last four years, Disrupting Japan has become bigger and more influential than I ever imagined it could be. Thank you so much for everything you’ve done to support the show. Thank you for listening. It’s been an amazing four years, and the next four years are going to be even better. So, kampai!

Audience: Kampai!

[applause]

[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”1411″  info_text=”Sponsored by”  font_color=”grey”  ]

Tim: For these anniversary shows every year, we have a theme and this year, it is foreign founders in Japan, and on stage tonight, we have three – well,  I guess four fearless foreign founders who have taken very different roads to developing their companies here in Japan.

So, with introductions, on my far left is Jay Winder who has established MakeLeaps which is Japan’s leading SaaS invoicing system, and before that, you had another company, but I think a lot of you know Jay for running the Hacker News meetup here in Japan.

[applause]

In the middle, we’ve got Paul Chapman, co-founder and CEO of Moneytree which is one of Japan’s fastest-rising fintech startups, and a true B2C SaaS success story in Japan.

Paul Chapman: Thanks, Tim.

Tim: And on my immediate left is Casey Wahl, CEO and founder of Wahl & Case which is a recruiting company which doesn’t sound that startup-y to begin with, but Casey’s also founded Red Brick Ventures which was an accelerator that spun out several startups.

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There are a lot of aerospace startups in Japan these days. We are seeing innovation in everything from component manufacturing to satellite constellations to literal moonshots.

All of those, however, depend on the ability to place new satellites in orbit, and that is getting harder and harder due to the ever-increasing amount of orbital debris. It’s simply getting too crowded up there.
Nobu Okada founded Astroscale to solve this problem. Today we sit down and talk about his solution, and we also dive into the very real political and financing challenges that have prevented this problem from being solved.

In many ways, the removal of space debris of a classic Tragedy of the Commons problem. Everyone agrees that it is an important problem that should be solved, but no one wants to spend their own money to solve it.

Well, Nobu and his team have developed a business model that they believe will be able to address this problem.  It’s an innovative and important approach. And yes, we also talk about dancing satellites.
It’s a great conversation, and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Show Notes

What is this Kessler Syndrome and why do we need to worry about it
Why dreams of being an astronaut did not work out
Why aerospace startups need their own manufacturing facilities
How to bring down a satellite
The trigger leading world governments to finally get serious about space clean up
What are your options when your satellite fails to launch
The single biggest risk in the space debris removal business
Why there are so many aerospace startups in Japan recently

Links from the Founder

Check out Astroscale and watch the dancing satellites for yourself
Friend them on Facebook
Follow Nobu on Twitter @nobuokada

Leave a comment
Transcript
Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs.

I’m Tim Romero and thanks for joining me.

There are a surprising number of new aerospace startups in Japan and today, you will be meeting the founder of one of the most innovative one. Nobu Okada founded Astroscale to solve the problem with space debris.

You see, every year, we are putting more and more satellites into orbit, and it’s gotten kind of crowded up there. There are zombie satellites that we have lost control over and there are satellites that have collided, resulting in thousands of small pieces of debris zipping around in random orbits at thousands of miles per hour, just waiting to crash into other satellites and begin a chain reaction.

Well, Nobu and the team want to do something about that. They have a plan to start de-orbiting this debris, and the technology side is fascinating. I mean, you might think that you have no real desire to know how to de-orbit a satellite, but trust me, you want to know how to de-orbit a satellite. It is really that cool.

Of course, Nobu and I cover much more than the technology. A big part of the story is how Astroscale has begun to build international recognition and consensus, and how they have actually constructed a business model around debris removal, and we also talk about the forces driving the sudden growth of aerospace startups and talk a bit about dancing satellite, but you know, Nobu tells that story much better than I can, so let’s get right to the interview.

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[Interview]

Tim: We are sitting here with Nobu Okada, the CEO and founder of Astros scale was cleaning up space, so thanks for sitting down with us.

Nobu: It is a great pleasure to meet with you and thank you for this great opportunity to be on your podcast.

Tim: I’m delighted to have you, and I’ve got to say, Astroscale is not like your typical startup. You have a really unique mission, so can you kind of explain what your vision is and what you are trying to do?

Nobu: Our mission is to secure long-term space flight safety by removing the s…

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