Disrupting Japan: Startups and Venture Capital in Japan

Disrupting Japan: Startups and Venture Capital in Japan


Latest Episodes

Passion alone can’t make cars fly
December 20, 2021

We have been dreaming about flying cars (and startups have been promising them!) for over 70 years, and it looks like we might almost be there. Orders have been placed, and delivery schedules set. - T

But what if your data is too big for the Cloud?
November 22, 2021

Cloud visionaries promised us unlimited scalability, but they greatly underestimated the amount of data we would start producing. - Today we sit down with Michael Tso, the co-founder of Cloudian, and

DJ Selects: How Government Money is Hurting Japanese Startups
October 25, 2021

Japanese university and government venture funds play a much larger role in Japan than in the West. - I've always considered this difference to be, on balance, neutral, today's guest makes a convincin

This disruptive tech started with a dance move
September 27, 2021

It's hard to get paid to do what you love. - Perhaps no one understands this better than dancers, but Taku Kodaira and his team at Mikro Entertainment are on a mission to fix that. - But this conversa

The Future of Disrupting Japan
August 30, 2021

Disrupting Japan turns seven years old this week! - Unfortunately, because of current conditions in Japan, we won't be able to sit down over a beer and talk about startups live as we usually do. - Tod

The new era of Evocative Machines. Why you're going to love it.
July 26, 2021

We speculate a lot about our future "robot servants" or "robot masters", but that whole metaphor is wrong. It's not going to happen that way. - This is a very personal and rather speculative episode.

Why the robot uprising will give us Robot Pets, not Robot Masters
June 28, 2021

Japan has a very different approach to robotics. - Japan leads the world in industrial robots, but there is also a growing movement that is reinventing the way we share our world with machines. - Kana

One way that AI is transforming family farms
May 31, 2021

Some of Japan's innovations are going to have a much bigger impact outside of Japan. - Like most startups, most AgTech startups sensibly tend to focus on their own markets. While this makes things eas

What you can learn from this “PoopTech” startup 
May 03, 2021

The bacteria in our gut affect our lives and our health in ways we are just starting to fully realize, and mapping this biome is expected to advance medical science and pharmacology as mapping the hum

Instagram for skin disease? Wait, this could work!
April 05, 2021

A lot of great ideas seem crazy when you first hear about them. - Today Ryotaro Ako, founder of Atopiyo, explains not only why this is a great idea that is deeply valued by his users, but he also fran