What Japan’s CVCs can teach the rest of us
The future of Japanese industry depends on startups. At some point in the early 2000s the seemingly unstoppable engine of Japanese corporate...
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Disrupting Japan
Japanese startups are fundamentally changing Japan’s society and economy. Disrupting Japan gives you direct access to the thoughts and plans of Japan’s must successful and creative startup f...
Episodes
20 of 268 episodes
The Japanese startup killing the nasal swab
Sometimes it seems like Japan just can't figure out medtech startups. In theory, Japan should be one of the most active startup markets for...
Using cold storage to lower energy prices in Japan
This summer has sent both temperatures and electricity prices soaring. One Japanese startup, however, has found a way to use industrial cold...
Soft robots are solving hard problems in Japan
Slithering robots sounds vaguely horrifying, but it turns out they're incredibly useful. Soft-robots lack the charisma of their more acrobat...
What the world really thinks about Japanese robotics
Japan was once the the undisputed global leader in robotics, but that's simply not true today. In fact, with China and America dominating th...
The future of AI looks very different in Japan
Japan is much further ahead in real AI deployment than most people realize. Today we talk with David Ha, CEO of Sakana AI, Japan's clearly m...
Why Japanese Femtech is so different
Things don't always go as planned. In fact, they usually don't. Four years ago, femtech was both a rapidly-growing product category and a na...
The real Luddites would have loved AI
Welcome to Disrupting Japan, straight talk from Japan’s most innovative founders and VCs. This is our 250th episode, and I wanted to give yo...
What’s next for Physical AI in Japan?
I have a short in-between edition for you today. Last month at Venture Cafe's big global gathering in Tokyo, I had a chance to sit down on s...
Why its hard for startups to use technology for good
New technology is always introduced with the promise of the good it can do for humanity. Most of the time the promised good never come to be...
Corporate venturing as a path to innovation in Japan
You might think that large Japanese companies have trouble innovating. Unfortunately if you believe that, you would be correct. Recently, ho...
How to sell vegan foods to meat lovers
It's tough to be a vegetarian in a world full of carnivores. It's even tougher to be a startup selling a vegan egg-substitute into a world f...
What everyone gets wrong about branding in Japan
Japan market entry is hard. Consumer tastes are different, business culture is different, and market needs can be radically different from t...
What role can startups really play in human longevity?
Japan has one of the longest lived and healthiest populations in the world, and let Japanese startups are playing a relatively small role in...
Will Japan ever regain its lead in robotics?
In the popular imagination, Japan is almost synonymous with robots. While Japan once dominated cutting-edge robotics, over the past decade s...
Why so many Japanese VCs won’t invest in Japan
Japanese startups is hot right now, and more and more foreign money is flowing in. But many Japanese VCs remain stubbornly outward-looking....
Can startups save Japan’s logistics industry?
According to Taro, Japan's logistics industry is on the brink of collapse, and it's hard to argue that he's wrong. Taro Sasaki founded Hacob...
How to start an AI Startup in early 2026
Last month I gave lecture at Globis University on what it takes to build an AI startup today. It's no longer early days for AI, and most fou...
Japanese technology to supercharge human fertility
Japan's declining birth rate makes global headlines. But most of the developed world will soon be facing the same problem. The real solution...
What’s next for climate tech startups & innovation
Last month I spoke on a panel about the future of climate tech. I was joined by Emi Naganuma, the founder and General Partner of Apprecia Ca...