Tag - startups

 
 

STARTUPS

Japan Times
BUSINESS
Feb 6, 2017
Venture brings freshest fish to cities, more money for fishermen
Ryohei Nomoto wants to put fresher sashimi on your plate, and more money in the wallets of Japan's struggling fishermen.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Jan 17, 2017
High school dropout builds bus empire in Japan after selling his car
Kimi Takura quit his fast-paced job as a deliveryman when he was 22 after he was hospitalized for a month with exhaustion. Out of work, he sold his much-loved Jaguar car, bought a secondhand bus and started a one-man business catering to Taiwanese tourists.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 21, 2016
Japan experiencing budding startup wave as fundraising environment improves
A wave of startups is emerging in famously risk-averse Japan as cash-rich corporations increasingly delegate the task of keeping pace with technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics to smaller, nimbler businesses.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 28, 2016
Paper made from stone tempts Japan's top printer to invest
The nation's biggest printing company is funding a startup that makes paper out of rock, in a bid to diversify into new materials and as environmental concerns push companies to seek more sustainable products.
BUSINESS
Oct 24, 2016
Elderly make up a third of Japan's entrepreneurs
As Japan's entrepreneurial spirit fades, the elderly make up a rising share of people going into business for themselves.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 30, 2016
Silicon Valley to Japan’s piecemeal startups: first global growth, then IPO
Trace the roots of most modern Japanese tech companies back far enough and there's a good chance you'll stumble across a little-known venture capital firm called Jafco Co.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 14, 2016
U.K. startup looks for a slice of Japan's remittance market
TransferWise Ltd., a British peer-to-peer money transfer startup launched last week on the promise of cheaper prices, is betting its service will change the way Japanese and foreign residents send and receive money overseas.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 4, 2016
U.S. venture firm aims to break corporate hold on Japanese startups
When he worked in Silicon Valley, venture investor James Riney was used to aggressive entrepreneurs who pitched him for financing any time they got a two-minute opening. Now that he's in Tokyo, the culture is so different he's changed his ways. Startup founders are so timid about asking for money that...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 8, 2016
Nomura-Keio fund boosts investment target for domestic startups
Keio University and Nomura Holdings Inc. increased the fundraising goal for their venture-capital partnership by 50 percent to ¥15 billion after demand from Japanese financial firms during the first phase of financing exceeded expectations.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 4, 2016
Fidelity invests in Japanese printing startup RakSul before IPO
RakSul Inc., a Japanese printing startup that's seeking to go public, has raised about ¥2.1 billion from investors, including Fidelity.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 3, 2016
The Tinder for Japan's aging CEOs posts a 1,170% stock gain
When Masao Takeuchi signed away the company he'd spent 25 years building from scratch, one of his biggest feelings was relief.
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 3, 2016
Mercari mulls additional funding after clinching U.S. foothold
Japan's first startup unicorn is considering a new fundraising round to maintain momentum after a spike in U.S. downloads for e-commerce company Mercari Inc.
Japan Times
JAPAN / GENERATIONAL CHANGE
May 1, 2016
Ex-bureaucrat on mission to trigger technological revolution
Almost a decade before the March 2011 quake and tsunami triggered the triple core meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, Ko Fujii knew the government could not effectively communicate the risks of nuclear technology.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Apr 27, 2016
Untimely call of nature leads to inspiration for pocket toilet-time monitor
Business ideas are often hatched in unlikely places. But for Atsushi Nakanishi, an epiphany could not have hit him at a worse time.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Mar 18, 2016
How $5-a-night hostels led to Japan's first $1 billion startup
In 2012, Shintaro Yamada was 34 years old, single and frustrated with his job. So he quit a comfortable position in Tokyo and set out to see the world.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jan 6, 2016
Mitsubishi UFJ plans division to pursue fintech endeavors
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. has set up a unit to research and develop new financial technologies, the first of its kind for a major Japanese bank, people with knowledge of the matter said.
COMMENTARY / World
Dec 19, 2015
The troubling slump in American startups
Data on startups provide robust evidence of a pervasive decline in U.S. business dynamism over the last several decades.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech / ADVANCES IN PROGRESS
Dec 14, 2015
Fintech firms make inroads into the banking biz
With startups offering financial technology services raking in billions of dollars around the world, fintech, coined from "finance" and "technology," has become a buzzword that old guards at big name financial institutions can no longer ignore.
ENVIRONMENT
Dec 7, 2015
We may still lack the technology to halt climate change
Legions of diplomats are huddled right now in Paris trying to hash out a historic climate accord. Legions of entrepreneurs and investors aren't waiting on a treaty.
Japan Times
JAPAN / EXPLAINER
Dec 7, 2015
Japan pushes new policies to reboot startup sector
When asked to name globally recognized Japanese firms founded within the last decade, many people would be hard-pressed to list any.

Longform

Professional cleaner Hirofumi Sakurai takes a moment to appreciate some photographs in a Gotanda apartment whose occupant died alone.
The last cleanup: Life and death in a lonely Japan