In the popular imagination, Japan is almost synonymous with robots.

While Japan once dominated cutting-edge robotics, over the past decade she has fallen further and further behind Japan and China.

Today we sit down with Chiamin Lai of Firstlight Capital, who believes that Japan might just regain that leadership. We talk about the unique opportunity and advantage Japan has in the deployment of practical physical AI, the enterprise culture that is holding it back, and what a handful of innovators are doing about it today.

It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it.

Japanese startups is hot right now, and more and more foreign money is flowing in. 

But many Japanese VCs remain stubbornly outward-looking. 

Today we sit down with Shri Dodani, who after a series of highly successful American startups, decided that Japan is the best place to invest right now, and co-founded of Global Hands-On VC, to make those investments. 

We talk about the unique advantages startups have in Japan and why Japanese founders often have trouble leveraging those advantages. 

It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it.

According to Taro, Japan's logistics industry is on the brink of collapse, and it's hard to argue that he's wrong.

Taro Sasaki founded Hacobu with the goal of modernizing Japan's logistics industry. He found few takers for the first few years, and then a new law changed everything.

We talk about how Japan's demographic and economic challenges, why some industries simply refuse to invest in themselves, and how to sell to them anyway.

It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it.

Last month I gave lecture at Globis University on what it takes to build an AI startup today. 

It's no longer early days for AI, and most founders don't have the connections and resources that drive toady's multi-billion dollar seed rounds. However, as I detail, they still have several paths to success. 

After the lecture I am joined on stage for a panel discussion by Reiji Yamanaka, the managing director of the Kibo Impact Investment Fund, and Kelvin Song, the program director of the Globis MBA program.

It's a fascinating discussion, and I think you'll enjoy it.

Japan's declining birth rate makes global headlines. But most of the developed world will soon be facing the same problem.

The real solution involves a lot of social and economic changes, and as you'll see, technology has a huge role to play as well.

Today we sit down and talk with Kaz Kishida, CEO of Dioseve, about how their technology promises to transform IVF, their accelerated timeline for the global rollout, and safety issues and ethnical questions involved.

It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it.

Last month I spoke on a panel about the future of climate tech.

I was joined by Emi Naganuma, the founder and General Partner of Apprecia Capital and Richard Youngman, the CEO Cleantech Group, with Michael Matsumura of Scrum Ventures moderating.

Right now is both a challenging and an exciting time for climate tech innovatoin.

It's a fascinating discussion, and I think you'll enjoy it.

For the last 150 years, Japan has made a science of borrowing the best ideas from the West and transforming them into her own.

The startup world is no exception. Japanese startup culture is heavily shaped by foreign influence, but not in the traditional top down way where leadership chooses which changes are introduced.  Japan's startup ecosystem is being shaped by bottom-up experimentation by both Japanese and foreign founders on the ground here in Japan.

Today we talk with Sandeep Casi, an entrepreneur and Partner at Antler. We talk about the challenges foreign founders still face in Japan and how they are changing Japanese entrepreneurship for the better.

It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it.

Progress is not only slower in Japan, it is often different.

Looking at the numbers, it's clear that venture capital is even more male-dominated in Japan than it is in the West. Our guest today explains not only how that's changing, but how she's changing it.

Sophie Meralli is a Partner at Shizen Capital and co-founder of Tokyo Women in VC. We sit down and dive deep into the keys to developing a creative, global mindset among Japanese founders and VCs, the role immigrants have to play in developing Japan's startup culture, and what really works in changing, not only minds, but actions related to the role of women in startups and venture capital.

It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it.

American startups dominate this innovation cycle not as a result of startup innovation, but of enterprise innovation.

Today we sit down with Dai Watanabe and dive into the dynamics of industry disruption and startup innovation. For the last 25 years Dai has held leadership roles at the center of Japan's major innovation trends. From the glory days of Japan's mobile internet, to the utter disruption unleashed by the iPhone, to today's doubling down on startup innovation.

We talk about what's in store for the future of Japanese startups, and why opportunities in innovation are never quite what they seem at first.

It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it.

Fifteen years ago, University-run venture funds were all illegal here in Japan, but today a higher percentage of major Japanese universities have VC funds than in the US or Europe.

Today we sit down with Kei Furukawa, a partner at the University of Tokyo IPC, a $300M venture fund, and we talk about the unique role these funds play in Japan, how they drive innovation in rural areas, and why he has to talk professors out of becoming startup CEOs.

It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it.

Today we are going to sit down with an old friend.

It was over seven years ago when I first had Tim Rowe on the podcast and we mapped out what we saw as the future of startup innovation in Japan. In today's short episode, we talk about what we got right. what surprised us, and what we think is next for Japanese startup innovation. 

It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it.

Today we are going to break down some startup stereotypes. 

I sit down with Kunio Hara, co-founder and CEO of Beatrust and break apart the stereotypes of the uncreative Japanese enterprise and the young startup founder, and Kunio explains how Beatrust is already teaching old dogs new tricks.

It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it.

While American AI startups are dominating the headlines, one Japanese company has begun rolling out "AI employees" to famously cautious  Japanese enterprise customers. 

Today we talk with Shota Nakagawa the CEO of Caster and discuss their model of human-AI collaboration, why Japan is positioned to lead real-world AI deployment, and the big steps needed for Japan to catch up with the West. 

It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it.

Welcome to Disrupting Japan. Straight talk from Japan’s most innovative founders and VCs.
I’m Tim Romero, and thanks for joining me.
There is so much happening in Japan right now.
Startups and innovation are beginning to reshape Japan with the same dynamism we saw during the post-war boom or the Meji-era re-opening.
And I’ve been in the middle of this for a long time. I’m now a partner a JERA Ventures, but over the over 30 years that I’ve lived in Japan, I’ve started four startups here, worked at TEPCO Ventures, ran Google for Startups Japan, and, of course, I’ve been running the Disrupting Japan podcast for more than 10 years.
Every episode, I sit down with friends, VCs, founders, and leaders who are shaping Japan’s startup ecosystem to give you an inside look at what’s really happening here in Japan.
So, please subscribe and join me on this journey.
I’m Tim Romero, and thanks for listening to Disrupting Japan.

Japanese business loves paper.

From fax machines, to business cards, to massive project binders. Paper processes are slow to die in Japan, especially in industrial facilities.  

Today we talk with Jumpei Yoshida of Kaminashi who explains why that's finally changing and how foreign workers are driving the transformation. 

It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it.

Most outside of the energy industry are (pleasantly) surprised to learn how aggressively startups and CVCs are pushing decarbonization forward. 

Decarbonization is a fascinating and incredibly important issue, so please join me on this short but special episode. 

It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it.

Japan is lagging behind in AI, but that might not be the case for long.

Today we sit down with Jad Tarifi, current founder of Integral AI and previously, founder of Google’s first Generative AI team, and we talk about some of Japan's potential advantages in AI, the most likely path to AGI, and how small AI startups can compete against the over-funded AI giants.

It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it.

While the rest of the world is copying Silicon Valley, Tokyo is looking at Paris.

Today we sit down with Mark Bivens and Matt Romaine, the co-founders of Shizen Capital to talk about Japan's new startup policies, the changing role of M&A, the main force behind the changing attitudes about startups in Japan.

It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it.

Today, we are going to talk about AI, but not in the way you expect.

Today, I’m going to give creatives a solid three-point plan to beat AI in the marketplace. I’m going to explain how musicians, podcasters, authors and other artists can survive and even thrive amidst the unstoppable flood of AI generated slop we will all be forced to wade though for the foreseeable future,  And to maybe do some good in the process.

It’s taken me over a year to write the script for this episode, and like so many of my solo episodes, I originally planned on it being very different from how it turned out. But sometimes the scripts takes on a life of its own, and I have to follow it to what always ends up being a far more interesting place.

The Japanese government is taking a very hands-on approach to funding startups.

Yuka Hata, Senior Managing Director of the Japan Investment Corporation (JIC) explains the kinds of startups and funds they invest in, and why.

We also talk about the two  biggest challenges new Japanese VCs face, and what it’s really like for women in VC in Japan

It's a great conversation, and I think you'll enjoy it.