Tag - startups

 
 

STARTUPS

Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Mar 3, 2021
Twin sisters score Japan’s hottest IPO by making mobile games for women
To the growing list of things that make gaming startup Coly Inc. unusual, it can add one of the best market debuts in recent Japanese history.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Feb 18, 2021
Automating boring tasks made these Japan startup founders rich
Their firms' shares have all more than doubled in the past year, leading to talk of a burgeoning tech scene that's very different from Silicon Valley.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 10, 2021
Aurora partners with Toyota in bid to bring autonomy to masses
The deal aims to aims to mass produce automated vehicles and launch them on ride-hailing networks, including Uber's, over the next few years.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 9, 2021
SoftBank’s Vision Fund posts record $8 billion profit on IPO boom
A global rally in technology shares has boosted the value of SoftBank's stakes in publicly traded firms like Uber Technologies Inc.
Japan Times
COMMENTARY / Japan
Feb 5, 2021
A new golden age for Japanese entrepreneurs
No matter how small the startup, because of COVID-19, it can finally hire people, build teams, invest in what always yields the highest returns for any new venture — human capital.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 7, 2021
SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son is poised for another IPO windfall in 2021
The IPOs could give Son another round of enormous gains after successful offerings from DoorDash Inc. and KE Holdings Inc. in 2020.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 11, 2020
Rags to riches: CEO of ¥100 billion startup comes up from the streets
Taihei Kobayashi's story is among the most remarkable to emerge from a small-cap stock boom that's minting fortunes.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Dec 11, 2020
Airbnb and DoorDash rallies stoke renewed debate on pricing IPOs
Had the shares priced closer to where they started trading, Airbnb could have raised $4 billion more for the company and early investors.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Dec 11, 2020
In China men's skin care boom, startups and investors seek rich glow
Already the biggest in the world, the Chinese men's facial skin care market is forecast to hit 12.5 billion yuan ($1.90 billion) this year — and expand 50% by 2025.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 4, 2020
How a mother's comment gave a Japanese intern an idea worth billions
Yuta Tsuruoka's Base Inc. has been a beneficiary of a rally in small-cap technology stocks in Japan as retail investors sought to pick winners in the pandemic.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 20, 2020
Nissan said to be in talks with U.S. startup to electrify pickup truck
Nissan has never fared well in the competitive U.S. full-size truck market, and demand for the Titan plunged 38% last year.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 15, 2020
Japan’s startup gauge surges to 14-year high on retail demand
The coronavirus pandemic proved to be a blessing in disguise for many Mothers-listed companies as investors first poured their money into pandemic-themed stocks.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 9, 2020
PlayStation inventor starts new career making robots for no pay
Ken Kutaragi, 70, wants to make affordable robots that can safely move around and do physical work alongside humans in factories and logistics centers.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / ON: TECH
Sep 26, 2020
Tea, toys and tech on the go
Teplo personalizes your cup of tea; Digicoro makes playing with kid's apps more analog; and Keepack helps keep your items sanitized while on the move.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / FOCUS
Sep 20, 2020
Startups race to develop tech that can clear workplaces of COVID-19
Smithfield Foods Inc. thought it was doing great. In the first quarter of this year, the pork giant’s earnings were up 190 percent over the same period in 2019. Then the pandemic hit, and the close quarters of meatpacking plants made them ideal places for the coronavirus to spread.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 20, 2020
Japanese startup raises $28 million to help fund moon mission
Ispace plans its first lunar landing mission in 2022, and another the year after to explore the moon's surface with a rover.

Longform

Sociologist Gracia Liu-Farrer argues that even though immigration doesn't figure into Japan's autobiography, it is more of a self-perception than a reality.
In search of the ‘Japanese dream’