2018

Miyazaki Prefecture's satsumaimo, or sweet potatoes, are selling fast in other parts of Asia thanks to Makoto Ikeda, the CEO of Kushima AoiFarm. Since he started this company with a staff of 4 family members in 2013, ex…

Up to the 1990's, Japan's home electronics giants led the global market. But recently, unwilling to implement key reforms, they have been slow to catch on to the digital revolution, and products without IoT compatibilit…

Kyoto is a long-established center of craft excellence. Hiroyasu Koma's 30-person start-up firm brought that power together to make a high-performance electric sports car. Unlike in the case of gasoline cars, parts for …

Along Japan's northeastern coast, efforts to develop young fisheries workers by boosting recognition for local marine produce and organizing training have put one fishing collective in the spotlight. Sensing peril for l…

Keiichi Yoshino left a career in finance to open a chocolatier in Kyoto, Japan's former capital. Only 4 years in, his brand has already won international awards and been picked up by an exclusive Kyoto hotel. He uses ca…

Atsushi Yoshida runs a 70-year-old firm specializing in high-voltage lightning arresters. Its devices, produced via research at the world's largest lightning-test facility, protect homes and infrastructure, as well as J…

The last decade has been tough for cattle breeders in Japan. Four-tenths of farms have folded, and the experience needed to succeed limits the influx of new talent. Shinya Kobayashi founded a business to address this si…

The key to gold medal success at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games may just be held by Toru Ozawa, engineer with a specialist wheelchair manufacturer in Chiba Prefecture, near Tokyo. Fine-tuned to match each owner's preci…

Across Japan, a decline in public transport and small retailers is said to have left as many as 7 million seniors unable to access basic daily necessities. 6 years ago, to address the needs of these "shopping refugees",…

With many up-and-coming nations undergoing rapid development, Japanese construction equipment is finding new popularity around the world due to its safety and reliability. Takayuki Aoki (32) founded an online service th…

Around the world, one sector relatively untouched by the IT-driven paradigm shift known as the sharing economy has been dining and catering. Miwa Okada is helping to change that with a service that introduces local user…

In January 2018, at the Global EdTech Startup Awards in London, a Japanese firm came through a field of over 2,000 to claim the top prize. Goichiro Arai's company triumphed with an app designed to help students organize…

With 80% of Japan's regional bus routes operating at a loss, Masaru Yajima runs a firm working to revive these vital transport lifelines. GPS and sensors are used to track progress and passenger flow, and this big data …

Virtual reality: currently a hot technology in the world of video gaming, and now also on the brink of transforming the medical field. Surgeon Maki Sugimoto has developed a system that uses precise 3D modeling of patien…

A trunk room is rented storage for items you don't often use but just can't throw away. But it's not always easy to keep track of inventory or pick up possessions when you need them. Hayato Matsuzaki launched a service …

Long beset by depopulation and industrial decline, these days the town of Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture, northern Japan, boasts a science park that's a honeypot for tech startups and international researchers. Daisuke Y…

Forced by a shrinking domestic market to venture overseas, Japan's sake brewers face stiff competition from the established dominance of wine. Takuma Inagawa heads a startup that's winning global plaudits with new sake …

For more than 60 years, we have been sending satellites and rockets into space. But this progress has polluted Earth's orbit with a host of man-made space debris, creating a fast-moving "junk belt" that poses considerab…

In Tokyo's upscale Ginza district is a rice ball shop so popular that lines of hungry office workers are a regular lunchtime sight. As well as the finest ingredients from all over Japan, founder Masayuki Habuki is commi…

Woven rush tatami mats are a traditional element of Japanese homes. But a shift toward Westernized lifestyles has seen production drop to a third of its former peak, driving both makers and rush growers out of business.…