Selects: Why Japan’s Geisha are disappearing in the social media age
You don’t usually think of Japan’s geisha as being an industry, but it is. In fact, strictly...
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Tag: Japanese Culture
DJ Selects: Why Men Need Women Founders
Ari Horie has always had a different approach to supporting women entrepreneurs. She doesn’t talk about “empowering” women and …
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DJ Selects: The Myth of the Successful Startup Failure
Startup culture has crazy and contradictory views about failure. As founders we are told to fail fast, but also to never give up. We are told to follow our vision, but be ready to pivot. Somehow this macho-bullshit culture of “I never really fail and ‘m not afraid of failure.” has become dominant amount founders. But it’s the result of denial. Trivializing failure is a way of not thinking about it’s effects.
The truth is that failure sucks. Failure is painful. Failure …
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DJ Selects: The Real Reason Uber is Failing in Japan
Uber and Airbnb represent a new very kind of startup, one that could not have existed twenty years ago, and the very thing that make these companies so transformative in the United States ensures they will never succeed in Japan. You see…
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How Japan’s Unique Relationship with Robots is About to Make it #1 Again
Japan had been a global leader in robotics for decades, but recently the traditional Japanese...
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Why Artificial Intelligence Is The Key to Fixing Japan’s Rigid Education System
Using artificial intelligence to change the way the education system works seems like a fool’s...
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Why Japanese Design Is So Different & What You Should Learn from It
There are a lot of passionate opinions about Japanese design. From the beauty and subtlety of the...
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Can This Founder Solve Japan’s Hidden Mental Health Problem? – Hikari Labs
Seeking help for even minor mental health problems still carries a stigma in Japan. This is...
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Will Japan’s Geisha Survive the Digital Age? – Disrupting Japan
You don’t usually think of Japan’s geisha as being an industry, but it is. In fact, strictly...
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How Uber’s Failure in Japan Can Help Startups Everywhere
Uber’s disastrous failure in Japan was not caused by local competition, but by a uniquely American strategy that simply could not work in Japan.
You see, Uber represents a new kind of startup. The very thing that makes them so successful in America dooms them to failure in Japan.
The Real Reason Uber is Failing in Japan
Uber and Airbnb represent a new very kind of startup, one that could not have existed twenty years ago, and the very thing that make these companies so transformative in the United States ensures they will never succeed in Japan. You see…
Read More
Winning When Everyone Tells You to Quit – Yuki Ito
Over the last 25 years, both Zest and Yuki Ito have been through several different incarnations. Interestingly, these incarnations perfectly mirror the changes we have seen in Japan’s startup scene in that time.
Today Zest makes cloud-based, field-service software, which …
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