Disrupting Japan

Most of us don't actually zone out in front of the TV. In fact, we give off all kinds of clues to what we really think about the shows we are watching. Japanese startup, T-Vision Insights has come up with a way both to measure and to monetize those reactions. Today we sit down with founder and CEO Yasushi Gunya and we talk about T-Vision's business and the future of advertising in video. T-Vision Insights already has 100's of customers and is monitoring thousands of households both in Japan and the US and we dive into some of the differences in how different kinds of people watch and react to TV. I guarantee some of the results will surprise you. It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it. Show Notes How AI can determine viewer engagement Proof that women watched the super bowl more closely than men How men and women watch TV differently Which TV shows and commercials  are most engaging The danger of advertising on the Walking Dead How privacy concerns are addressed Why it's hard to sell genuinely new innovations The most engaging parts of commercials Why starting a startup is not really risky in Japan Links from the Founder Everything you ever wanted to know about T-Vision Insights T-Vision Insight's ranking of the most engaging commercials in Japan Friend Yasushi 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. This episode is a fun one. You know, I’ve always considered watching TV to be a passive activity. I mean, aside from sleeping, it seems like the most passive thing you could spend your time doing. You zone out while entertainment is poured into your brain, but it turns out, that’s not quite the case. TV watchers are a subtly active bunch and as we watch, we give off all kinds of signals to indicate our opinion of what we are being shown. Well, Yasushi Gunya, founder and CEO of T-Vision Insights has developed an unobtrusive way to measure viewers’ reactions to TV shows and to TV commercials. It’s already deployed in thousands of homes in Japan and in the United States, and the results are remarkable. T-Vision is already showing global 100 brands how consumers react to their commercials and to the TV shows that they air in, and they provide a data-driven approach to show what content is the most engaging and what kind of response it evokes, but what I think is even more interesting is that T-Vision’s data shows that we all engage with TV differently. Adults engage differently than children, Americans watch differently than Japanese, and men watch very differently than women do. In fact, there’s a big difference between how men and women watch sports on TV, and I guarantee you, it’s not the difference you think it is. But Yasushi 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! Yasushi: Cheers! Tim: So, we are sitting here in the We Work office in this incredibly hot Tokyo afternoon with Yasushi Gunya of T-Vision Insights, so thanks for sitting down with us. Yasushi: Thank you, Tim, and let’s cheer since we have beer here. Tim: That tastes good on a hot day. So, T-Vision Insights measures the viewer’s reactions to TV shows and the commercials, but why don’t you explain basically how it works and what it is? Yasushi: Okay, our core technology is AI-backed algorithm and we just inserted to a sensor and set the sensor on the top of TV. As a result, we can understand how people in front of the TV will react to the contents of TV, and actually, we have already said this kind of stuff to 3,000 households in US and Japan. Tim: Okay, and we say ‘how they react,’ so is this a device sort of like Microsoft Kinect,

The single most common question I get asked are variations of "How do you start a business as a foreigner in Japan?"  or "What's it like to start a startup as a foreigner in Japan?" It's always been a hard question to answer simply because it is such a big one, that it can be hard to know where to start. Well, today we are going to start to answer that question, and over the next month or two, we are really going to dig into it. Jordan Fisher is CEO and co-founder of Zehitomo, which is an online marketplace for off-line services. This is not an easy space. There are many such sites in Japan, but Jordan explains why the fact that he and his co-founder are both foreigners has given them a competitive advantage not just in the marketplace, but in recruiting and marketing as well. Unsurprisingly, there are a few things that are much harder for foreign startup founders than for Japanese founders, and we talk about those as well. It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it. Show Notes Why charging commission is a losing strategy One surprisingly popular kind of offline services Why its hard to start a startup as a foreigner in Japan What it's like raising money as a foreigner in Japan Ho to use your gaijin-ness to your business advantage Why some Japanese have a hard time in foreign startups How to differentiate your startup in Japan Why the fear of failure is still holding Japan back Links from the Founder Everything you ever wanted to know about Zehitomo Connect with Jordan on LinkedIn Friend him on Facebook Zehitomo is Hiring Main recruiting page Wantedly page 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. How do you start a business as a foreigner in Japan? What’s it like to grow a business as a foreigner in Japan? These are the two questions I get asked the most, not only by our non-Japanese listeners who make up 80% of the Disrupting Japan’s audience but also by our Japanese fans as well. And you know, I’ve always found it hard to answer that question because it’s just such a big question that it’s hard to get your head around it. It’s hard to know how to even start to answer it. Well, today, we’ll be talking a lot about exactly that. We’ll be sitting down with Jordan Fisher, the CEO and cofounder of Zehitomo. Now, Zehitomo is an online marketplace for off-line services and we will dive deeper into their business model during the show, but really, we talk a lot about how Westerners or at least Jordan, this one particular Westerner approaches of doing business in Japan. Both as an individual and a company, there are certain things that you can get away with and some things that you just can’t. There are certain advantages you’ll have over your Japanese competition and there’s certain disadvantages that you might not be able to overcome. But you know, Jordan tells that story much better than I can, so let’s get right to the interview. [pro_ad_display_adzone id="1411"  info_text="Sponsored by"  font_color="grey"  ]     Tim: So, I’m sitting here with Jordan Fisher, the founder and CEO of Zehitomo which is a marketplace for matching professionals with those who want to hire them, so thanks for sitting down with me. Jordan: Yeah, great to be here, Tim, thank you. Tim: So, I mean, I gave a really brief description of what Zehitomo is, so maybe you can explain it a little better than I did. Jordan: Sure, sure. In a nutshell, it’s what you said, we’re a marketplace for local services. I think a lot of people don’t really immediately click when you say ‘local services,’ what that actually means, and I generally summarize it by saying that it’s the jobs that happens off-line, not the ones that happen online, so think about your photographer, your plumber, your personal trainer,

Japan had been a global leader in robotics for decades, but recently the traditional Japanese leaders have been losing ground to the better-funded and better-publicized firms coming out of America and China. Mujin is changing that. While iRobot and Boston Dynamics have been grabbing headlines and YouTube views, Mujin has been quietly breaking ground with a series of real-world commercial successes in deploying the next generation of industrial robots. Perhaps Mujin's largest achievement to date has been their project for Chinese e-commerce giant JD, in which they developed the world's first fully-automated logistics warehouse where robots unload the trucks, stock the shelves, and them pick and pack the items for shipment without human intervention. Today we talk with Issei Takino, who founded Mujin with his co-founder Rosen Diankov, and he explains why Japan looks at robots in a fundamentally different way than Western countries do, and how that will lead to a significant competitive advantage. It's an interesting conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it. Show Notes How to get the ecosystem to adopt your platform Why robots have not yet taken over industry (or the world) How to get your first customers in robotics How to get feedback from reluctant Japanese customers When being a Japanese startup is an advantage How America and Japan view robotics and automation differently Advice for starting companies with multi-cultural teams The critical differences between Japanese and American universities Links from the Founder Everything you ever wanted to know about Mujin Friend Issei on Facebook See Mujin's robots in action Video of Mujin's automated logistics warehouse (this is very cool) [shareaholic app="share_buttons" id="7994466"] 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. Today we're going to talk about robots, specifically industrial robots. Now Japan has been a global leader in robotics for decades, but in recent years, Japanese firms seem to be losing ground to the better funded and better publicized companies coming out of the US and China. Well today we're going to sit down with the founder of a company that is already starting to change that. Issei Takino founded Mujin with his co-founder Rosen Diankov and they have developed a kind of android for industrial robots, that is to say, it's a generic operating system that works with almost any hardware and works far more effectively than anything else in the industry. Issei and I go into some of the details during the interview but perhaps the clearest illustration of Mujin success was a project, they did for Chinese e-commerce giant JD. They developed the world's first fully automated logistics warehouse. It's a massive facility but almost no humans work there. Robots unload the trucks, stock the shelves, pick the items for delivery and then pack them and ship them out. It's hard to explain in an audio podcast, so check out the video. We've got a link at the site and it's really amazing to watch. Issei and I also talked about how Japan and the West look at robots very differently and how that might be holding America back. He also shares his experience and advice about founding and running a start-up as a multinational team and we talked about why these kinds of Japanese foreign partnerships are going to become more common and more important in the coming years. But you know, Issei 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" ] Tim: All right! So I'm sitting here with Issei Takino of Mujin, the maker of controllers for industrial robots. So thanks for sitting down with me. Issei: Oh! It's my pleasure, thank you, thank you for inviting.

Twenty years ago, we all thought that starting a startup required a special and rare kind of talent. It was something you either had or you didn't. Today, founding and running a startup is considered more of a learnable skill. It has its own best practices,  industry standards, and common knowledge. And, in both startups and enterprises, I find it refreshing to talk to people who have succeeded by going against those industry standards. Peter Galante started what would become the wildly successful Japanese Pod 101 with no clear idea how to monetize and no clear business plan. He did, however, have a firm conviction that what he wanted to build had value and the people would flock to it. And he was right. Peter and I talk about how his unconventional business plan and his rejection of VC advice and standard best practices, actually resulted in a rapidly growing startup in a market protected from even his best-funded competitors. It's an interesting conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it. Show Notes Who is really studying Japanese online Why most Japanese language learners fail What you need to know about turning a hobby into a business What happens when your startup start changing for free content Why podcasting is dying [Noooo!!!!] and video is rising How content creators can get paid when so much content is free How to defend your business against better-funded startups Links from the Founder Everything you ever wanted to know about Innovative Language Learning JapanesePod 101 JapanesePod101 on YouTube Connect with Peter on LinkedIn Friend him on Facebook [shareaholic app="share_buttons" id="7994466"] 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. Today, we're going to sit down and talk with startup founder and fellow podcaster Peter Galante, founder of Japanese Pod 101, and if you study Japanese, then you've probably already listened to more than a few of those episodes. When I went over to their studio for the conversation, Peter mentioned that he was actually a little bit nervous about coming on the show. That came as quite a surprise to me. I mean, I'm a friendly guy and I genuinely love learning about business models and taking them apart, you know, breaking them down into their individual movies parts, holding them up to the light to see how they work. I think that subject is endlessly fascinating and I learn something new every time I do it but that's my approach and not everyone thinks this way. Not everyone approaches startups as an exercise in business model design where you have a system of interacting components that need to be optimized in underserved markets that need to be served. Some people, in fact, probably more founders that are willing to admit it start out with a vision of what they want to be doing and then figure out how to backfit some kind of sustainable business model onto it. This is exactly what Peter has done and as we'll see during the interview, this is exactly what has not only led to the success of Japanese Pod 101 but it is also what is preventing even well-funded competition from entering this space. We also - and as a podcaster, this breaks my heart - we also talked about the ongoing and transformative shift from audio to video content. Oh, yeah, and Peter wanted to make sure I let you know that about the same time this podcast is released, Japanese Pod 101 will exceed 1 billion downloads. That's pretty impressive for something that started out as a hobby but you know, Peter tells that story a lot better than I can. So let's get right to the interview. [pro_ad_display_adzone id="1411"  info_text="Sponsored by"  font_color="grey"  ] [interview] Tim: I'm sitting here with Peter Galante of Innovative Language Learning who is redefining online language education but is m...

This is a rather personal episode. We have no guests this time. It’s just you and me. Today, rather than diving deep into a specific aspect of startups in Japan, we are going to take a hard look at both what is and what is not working within the Japanese startup ecosystem as a whole. And at the end, I'm going to answer the most common question I am asked by overseas audiences. "Where are the Japanese unicorns?" You might already know about Japan's two existing unicorns, but I'm going to explain where the next four will be coming from. I guarantee that it's from somewhere you would not have expected. So let's get right to it. UPDATE:  Evocative Machines are starting to take off in Japan. If you are interested in the subject, please check out The Evocative Machines Project. [shareaholic app="share_buttons" id="7994466"] 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. Once again, I’ve got a special show for you today. There will be no guests, no beer, no playful banter with someone speaking English as a second language. Today, it’s just you and me. It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these one-on-one episodes. Way too long really. I truly enjoy doing them and they tend to be my most popular episodes, but man they take a lot of time to write and put together. This episode, in particular, I had to rewrite two or three times, to make sure you would really understand what I am trying to explain. Because by the end of this episode you and I will definitely be in new and uncertain territory, and I for one love being in new and uncertain territory. By the time we’re done, you’ll have a solid idea of where Japan’s next dozen unicorn startups will be coming from. First, I want to tell you what inspired me to create this episode for you. In fact, it was kind of a strange situation. I mean twice a month we sit down and talk about innovation in Japan. I’m privileged to talk with and to introduce you to some of the most interesting founders and innovators in Japan. I spend a lot of time talking, writing and thinking about how the startup ecosystem is changing. But. You know, I think I missed something. Something important. And, I think the reason I might have missed it was because I watch things so closely that when …. Well, lets back up a bit so all of this will make sense. Actually, it was my friend Allen Miner who first pointed out the change. For those of you who don’t know him, Allen was one of Japan’s first modern VCs and he also brought both Salesforce and Oracle to Japan.  And by the way, if you have not listened to the Disrupting Japan episode where Allen tells the story of Oracle’s Japan market entry, you really need to go back and listen. Someday business schools will make proper case studies from that story, but until then, it’s a Disrupting Japan exclusive. It’s a story of fake it till you make it on a multi-billion dollar scale. The plot involves intrigue, secret dealings, and … rock-concerts. What more could you possibly want?    Go and listen to it right now. I'll wait. … Welcome back. Did you listen to the episode? No, of course, you didn’t. Nobody ever does. It’s a silly conceit. I don’t know why we podcasters keep using it. We should stop. Anyway, give Allen’s interview a listen when you get the chance. Now back to our story. For the past eight years, the Japan Society of Northern California has given out annual innovation awards to startups in both Japan and the US. They are a really worthwhile organization that has been around for more than 100 years. I’m on the advisory committee for the awards, and last month in Tokyo I attended the awards ceremony for the Japanese startups. The winners, by the way, were Mujin, Soracom, and Cloudian.  Ken, the founder of Soracom was on the show last year, and you’ll be hearing from the other two founders on the ...

If you've ever done business in Japan, someone probably walked you through the intricacies of Japanese business card culture. Chika Terada, the founder of Sansan, created one of Japan's most successful startups around the business card protocol. And even though Sansan has been expanding quickly and is on track for an IPO, Chika thinks that Japanese business card culture will soon disappear. Chika and I talk about the challenges of rapidly scaling a company, and how the IPO market in Japan will change in the next few years. We also talk about what Chika learned as his company expanded into other markets and how even B2B business is really a complex mix of business and culture. It's an interesting conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it. Show Notes Why business cards are not data, but an event marker Why Sansan wants to replace business cards How to save the corporate culture when you are committed to things that don't scale How stock options should be (and are) used at Japanese startups Why marketing is so hard to disrupt in Japan How Japan's business card culture extends overseas How big company attitudes towards startups re changing in Japan How to teach innovation in Japan Links from the Founder Everything you ever wanted to know about Sansan Check out Eight for business networking Sansan in English Friend Chika on Facebook [shareaholic app="share_buttons" id="7994466"] 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, anyone who has done business in Japan has had to learn the intricacies of Japanese business card culture and the protocol involved in exchanging them. Well, Chika Terada has built Sansan, one of Japan's most successful startups around business cards. The name Sansan started as a play on words, kind of like the band Mister Mister but the company itself has grown into a powerhouse of B2B CRM and corporate relationship management in Japan where LinkedIn has failed. Now, Chika and I talk a lot about the challenges involved in scaling a company up so quickly and what he's learned by expanding into international markets, some with business card cultures very similar to Japan and some with very different protocols, and we talk about why we might finally be seeing a shift in the unhealthy fixation that so many Japanese investors and founders have on the IPO. And you know, despite the fact that Sansan has built its entire business on business cards and the protocols surrounding them, Chika explains why he thinks that they may eventually go away and what will replace them. But you know, Chika tells that story much better than I can. So let's get right to the interview. [pro_ad_display_adzone id="1411"  info_text="Sponsored by"  font_color="grey"  ] [Interview] Tim: So we're sitting here with Chika Terada, the CEO and founder of Sansan who is really changing how Japan looks at business cards. So thanks for sitting down with me. Chika: Thank you, thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to talk with you again. Tim: Again, yes, it's great to have you back on the show because you were actually the very first guest I had on this show over three and half years ago. Chika: I'm very pleased to hear. I mean, by looking at your success after the first interview, that's remarkable. Tim: And likewise, you as well. Sansan has been just growing at a fantastic rate since that interview and jt's one of the real startup success stories in Japan. People from overseas often see Sansan as kind of like a business card scanning app and I know it's a lot more than that. It's more like a networking tool but maybe you can just start out by explaining what Sansan is and what Eight is. Chika: Right, it is true that our company deals about business cards but this means our company is all about the bu...

Startups are changing how business is done in Japan, but medicine remains stubbornly resistant to innovation. In some ways, that's good. We are literally experimenting with peoples lives, so caution is definitely warranted. We don't want to rush things. However, Japan's national health insurance acts as a single buyer, and sometimes the only way to innovate is to go around them. That's exactly what Kenichi Ishii, the founder of Next Innovation has done. Their long-term strategy involves creating widespread and comprehensive telemedicine in Japan, but right now they have developed a basic approach that has reduced the cost of some medical treatments by more than 70% And business is booming. Ken and Next Innovation are both proudly from Osaka, and we also talk a lot about the state of the Osaka startup ecosystem. It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it. Show Notes Why medical startups need to innovate around Japan's national health insurance How to cross-sell in the medical market Why Osaka offers a competitive advantage to some kinds of startups What is holding back telemedicine in Japan The culture of secrecy in Japanese medicine The most likely source for innovation in Japanese medicine Links from the Founder Everything you ever wanted to know about Next Innovation Friend Ken on Facebook Check out the Sumashin app The Osaka Innovation Hub is the center of Osaka's startup scene [shareaholic app="share_buttons" id="7994466"] 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. The medical industry is one of the hardest to disrupt and in some ways, that's a good thing. I mean, we're literally experimenting with people's lives here so there's a good argument to be made for being conservative and taking things slowly, but you know, looking at the national health insurance system in Japan and the health systems of all developed nations, it becomes pretty obvious that not only can improvements be made but that improvements must be made. Well, today, we talk with Kenichi Ishii, the founder of Next Innovation. Their long-term strategy involves increasing the use and acceptance of telemedicine in Japan in general but right now, they've developed a basic approach to telemedicine that enables them to sell prescription drugs over the I, and business is booming. Oh, and Next Innovation is a proudly Osaka-based startup. Ken and I talk a lot about the challenges Osaka has faced in developing a startup ecosystem and why it seems that those problems might be over, and you'll be hearing from more and more Osaka startups on the show. During the interview, Ken and I talk about value-based medicine and price-based medicine. It's not really intuitive so it's probably best if I explain it to you now. When Ken talks about cost-based patients, he means those who see medical treatment as a means to an end and they want it done simply, cheaply, and quickly. The value-based patients are those that want to be involved either because of an interest in the treatment or for other social reasons that we’ll talk about. Ken will explain why this difference is important, how Japan's tight control over the medical industry forced him and his team to be very resourceful in launching this product, the crisis Japanese hospitals are facing now and why we can't stay on our current path; we need to innovate our way out of this situation. But you know, can tells that story much better than I can, so let's get right to the interview  [pro_ad_display_adzone id="1411"  info_text="Sponsored by"  font_color="grey"  ] [Interview] Tim: So I'm sitting here with Kenichi of Next Innovation, a true telemedicine startup in Japan. So thanks for sitting down with me. Kenichi: Thank you, nice to meet you. Tim: Telemedicine covers a really broad area,

Preferred Networks is making changes in Japan. Over the past few years, this AI startup has raised more than $130M in venture funding and grown to more than 130 people. If you live outside of Japan, you might not have heard of this team, but they are working with Toyota to create the next generation of driverless cars. They are working with Japan's most advanced industrial robot manufacturers to improve efficiency. They are also working with many financial institutions on fraud detection. Oh yes, and they also built Japan's most powerful commercial supercomputer. Today we sit down and talk with Daisuke Okanohara, the technical co-founder of Preferred Networks. Daisuke and I talk about the story behind Preferred Networks, he also shares his challenges and current strategies for maintaining the company's experimental and engineering culture as it grows larger and more structured. Daisuke also talks about his time at Google, how Japanese AI stacks up to China and the US, and why he’s convinced that their biggest competition is going to come from somewhere you would never expect. It's a great discussion, and I think you'll enjoy it. Show Notes What edge-heavy computing is and why it's important How a Google Internship changed Daisuke's outlook on AI The future of driverless cars at Toyota Why the team decided to build Japan's most powerful supercomputer Why you can't sell disruptive products to large companies How to keep a curious spirit even as your company grows Where the real competition in AI will come from Links from the Founder Everything you ever wanted to know about Preferred Networks Check out their Homepage Follow them on Twitter @PreferredNet Check out Chainer Preferred Networks free open source AI library The core Chainer project PaintsChainer Cupy Chainer [shareaholic app="share_buttons" id="7994466"] 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. Preferred Networks is without question the brightest star in the constellation of Japanese AI startups. It attracted about 130 million in venture funding and have grown to more than 130 people over the past few years. Of course, if you don't follow AI, you might not have heard about them at all but they are the technology behind Toyota’s driverless cars, some of FANUC’s industrial robots, many cutting-edge applications in other verticals, and as a side project, they also built Japan's most powerful commercial supercomputer. It's an interesting team to say the least and today, we sit down and talk with Daisuke Okanohara, Preferred Networks’ technical cofounder. We talk about how Preferred Networks got started and got to scale and he also shares his challenges and strategies of trying to maintain the company's experimental and engineering culture as it grows larger and monthly revenue pressures increase. Daisuke also talks about his time at Google, how Japanese AI stacks up to China and the US, and why he's convinced that their biggest competition is going to come from somewhere you would never expect it. But you know, Daisuke tells that story much better than I can, so let’s gets right to the interview. [pro_ad_display_adzone id="1411"  info_text="Sponsored by"  font_color="grey"  ] [Interview] Tim: So I'm sitting here with Daisuke Okanohara, the cofounder and Executive Vice President of Preferred Networks, Japan's leading and probably most innovative AI startup. So thanks for sitting down with me today. Daisuke: Thank you very much. Tim: So Preferred Networks talks a lot about the importance of edge -heavy computing. So can you explain exactly what edge-heavy computing is and why it's important? Daisuke: Cloud computing is one of the most important trends in the IT area and most people believe that most computations or operations sho...

Education is very hard to disrupt. That’s both good and bad. Education is so important to both individuals and society, it should not be changed on a whim, but over time it seems that our institutions of higher education have drifted away from meeting students real needs. Yoshito Hori, founder and CEO of Globis, is making radical changes. He turned a small training school into Japan's first independent and fully accredited business school with an MBA. Less than ten years later, Globis became Japan’s most popular MBA program. We talk about the need for change in education and about the successful, real-world pilot program Globis is running to modernize Japanese higher education. Yoshito also shares insights on how to teach innovative thinking and explains why such a high percentage of Globis MBAs go on to found starts or join them. It's a fascinating discussion and I think you'll really enjoy it. Show Notes Why most Japanese do not want to attend full-time MBA programs How to make an advanced degree both exclusive and inexpensive How to groom MBA students to start startups How Sumitomo missed out on a multi-billion dollar business Why Japanese higher education is so resistant to change This difference between SPOCs and MOOCs, and why it's important How drinking in front of your computer might save higher education Links from the Founder Check out Globis Yoshito's blog on entrepreneurship in Japan Follow Yoshito on Twitter@YoshiHoriGLOBIS Connect with him on LinkedIn Yoshito's article on 100 Actions to revive Japan The G1 Global Conference [shareaholic app="share_buttons" id="7994466"] Leave a comment Transcript Disrupting Japan. Straight talk from Japan’s most successful entrepreneurs. I’m Tim Romero, and thanks for joining me. You know, education is hard to disrupt. And as long-time fans know very well, that’s both a good thing and a bad thing. It’s good because education is so important and foundational not only to how well a given child will do later in life but also because in the large developed nations, the educational system forms the basis of society itself. It provides us all with a shared set of experiences. So the fact that we don’t change the rules every few years is a good thing. On the other hand, this lack of disruption leads to educational systems that don’t really meet the needs of today’s students and today’s societies for that matter. So clearly, there must be a better way of doing things than what we’re doing now. Well, today, I’d like to introduce you to someone who’s found a better way. Yoshito Hori founded Globis as a small business training school and grew it into Japan’s first independent and fully accredited business school offering MBAs. And then, Globis became Japan’s most popular MBA program. Yoshito’s strategy for innovation is fascinating. Unlike similar schools in the US, Globis does not compete on cost. In fact, the Globis MBA is more expensive than similar degree programs at Todai or Hitotsubashi. No. Globis is doing something unique and something that is making a lot of people rethink how university and post graduate education is done in Japan. But you know, Yoshito 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: So we’re sitting here today with Yoshi Hori of Globis. Thank you so much for sitting down with me. Yoshi: Thank you very much as well. Tim: Globis has about 7,000 students per year. It’s the most popular MBA in Japan. It always does well in the national business school rankings here. But what seems most unusual, it’s a truly international MBA program. You have students both from Japan and overseas now, right? Yoshi: Yeah. Tim: What sort of ratio? Yoshi: Well, we have English MBA program and Japanese MBA program.

The insurance industry has proven very resistant to innovation. In fact, it has not really changed much in the past 200 years. The way insurance is sold and managed has changed, of course, but from the point of view of the consumer, things remain surpassingly like they were a century ago. Today we talk with someone who is changing that. Kazuya “Kazy” Hata is CEO of JustInCase, a new breed of Japanese insurance company that offers insurance over the smartphone and then monitors how you use your phone, your lifestyle, and your social connections to determine what your premium should be. We also talk about the next logical step for smart-phone-based insurance. Being able to ensure specific activities or possessions at will, maybe just for a few hours or while you are on a trip. It’s a great conversation, and I think you will really enjoy it. Show Notes Who actually buys long-term cell phone insurance What behavior might make you a "risky" smartphone user Why there are so few life sciences startups in Japan The future of insurance on demand Why P2P insurance presents a unique market opportunity Why it is so hard for insurance companies to innovate How Japan's FSA is working to encourage insurance innovation Links from the Founder Everything you wanted to know about JustInCase Kazy's blog (Japanese) Follow Kazy on Twitter @KazyHata Friend him on Facebook Genome Link Online Hackathon [shareaholic app="share_buttons" id="7994466"] 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, the insurance industry is really resistant to innovation. The modern insurance industry was largely developed in the 17th and 18th century and it's not changed a whole lot since then. Oh, the tools have changed: insurance is sold very differently today, risks are better understood and better quantified, better measured, and the emergence of the global reinsurance market has made the system far more stable, but the way insurance works from your point of view, from the way you and I see it, things have changed very little over the past hundred years. Most of the change in the industry is driven by regulatory changes rather than entrepreneurial innovation, and for insurance, I've got to say, I'm pretty much okay with that. Insurance firms need to remain solvent for decades and theoretically forever, and the fail fast, fail forward philosophy doesn't really work when it comes time to pay out life insurance or after a natural disaster, and yet, there needs to be a way to innovate and that's what we're going to talk about today. Kazuya Hata or “Kazy” as his friends call him is the founder and CEO of JustInCase. JustInCase offers insurance over the smartphone and the first product they're insuring is your smartphone itself. JustInCase then uses artificial intelligence to analyze your usage profile and your social connections to determine the premium you should be paying. We also talk about the next logical step for a smartphone-based insurance, being able to enter specific activities or possessions at will, maybe just for a few hours or while you're on a trip. The cellphone interface and the personal rich data which we continuously share about ourselves online, whether we know it or not allows companies to build up a personalized risk profile and both offer customized and flexible products and replace the number of fraudulent claims. But you know, Kazi tells this story much better than I can so let's get right to the interview. [pro_ad_display_adzone id="1411"  info_text="Sponsored by"  font_color="grey"  ] [Interview] I'm sitting here with Kazy Hata of JustInCase who offers not only insurance on your cellphone but actually sells insurance on the cellphone. Does that make sense? Kazuya: That's actually right, yes. Tim: Well,