Startup | My Eyes Tokyo

Hack Osaka!

February 14 2013

Hi, nice to meet you! I’m Tazu Yamada, Kansai Area Manager of My Eyes Tokyo. I’ve delivered some news articles and interviews with wonderful people from the area including Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe in Japanese, but today I will try to tell you what I saw and felt in English for the first time. Today’s topic is “Hack Osaka”. Do you know what it means? It’s a subtitle of the big international conference called “Global Innovation Osaka 2013” which was held in order to discuss how Osaka should be changed right before the opening of the innovative complex facility called

To eliminate cultural and economical segregation – that’s my dream.

November 05 2012

Interviewed & written by Isao Tokuhashi Mail to: info@myeyestokyo.com DongYol Lee (S. Korea) Social entrepreneur/Chief organizer & Global facilitator of Startup Weekend Tokyo (He’s been in Japan since 2005) This is the interview for those who are interested in bootstrapping. DongYol Lee organizes the event called “Startup Weekend Tokyo”, It’s a Tokyo version of Startup Weekend, which originated in Seattle and is now held in about 300 cities in the world. Things participants do are forming a team, making a product or service and pitching in 54 hours during the weekend. You pay only $75 per event and join

You’ll have stimulating experiences if you interact with people from other countries.

October 03 2012

Interviewed & written by Isao Tokuhashi Mail to: info@myeyestokyo.com Tao Romera Martinez (Spain) Engineer of Sanpo The 1st interview with a man from Spain! Tao Romera Martinez, an engineer of the smartphone application service called “Sanpo“. Sanpo (散歩, walk or outing in Japanese) is like “Google Map for people who enjoy the slow life”. Google Map shows the shortest distance from A to B, but Sanpo tells you the courses from A to B that are wonderful to stroll or cycling irrespective of distance. We got to know the existence of this service at Samurai Venture Summit (Sept 2012),

I want to make Japan an entrepreneurs’ country.

October 02 2012

Interviewed & written by Isao Tokuhashi Mail to: info@myeyestokyo.com Kentaro Sakakibara Incubator “We will create a second Google or second Facebook!” If you heard that, what would you think? Some of you might think, “No, it’s impossible”. But today we introduces a man who makes it his mission to realize such a thing. Kentaro Sakakibara, President of Samurai Incubate Inc. We got to know about him in April, 2012. We found him in a magazine which featured Japanese entrepreneurs who were aiming for a global expansion and their supporters such as incubators and investors. The word “Samurai” was burned

There won’t be a war as long as you know about others and talk to them.

September 08 2012

Interviewed & written by Isao Tokuhashi Mail to: info@myeyestokyo.com David Sindell (USA) Lawyer David Sindell is a business immigration lawyer with offices in New York, San Francisco (Silicon Valley), and recently in Tokyo. We met him at the presentation and exchange event for entrepreneurs called “GTIC (Global Techno Innovation Cafe)”, which was held by Tomo Akiyama, a Japanese venture capitalist. He’s been traveling between America and Japan for many years and recently became a gaikokuho bengoshi (foreign law registered lawyer) in Japan. Specifically through his Silicon Valley office, he acts as a bridge between Japanese ventures and the mecca of

Startups that don’t make innovation happen aren’t worthy of existence.

August 21 2012

Interviewed & written by Isao Tokuhashi Mail to: info@myeyestokyo.com Hiroaki Taira Entrepreneur Today we features a Japanese IT entrepreneur who used to live in the Silicon Valley in his youth. Hiroaki Taira moved around Japan with his family because his father, a semi-conductor engineer, was transferred to some branches. Then his family went to Silicon Valley, but he left the ventures’ playground long before he started business. Eventually he looked at Thailand, which is still a “developing” country in the IT field. He gambled on its possibility and aimed at a place which has not been reclaimed yet, not

Enjoying communications with people who have many different background – that’s the origin of our services.

July 25 2012

Interviewed & written by Isao Tokuhashi Mail to: info@myeyestokyo.com Suguru Sakanishi Multilingual communication system developer Today we tell you a story of a man who aims at building a prosperous and happy world for where people exchange various kinds of languages. Suguru Sakanishi, who developed “WorldJumper Localizer“, a system that makes them multilingual automatically by adding a little something to your website. Much cheaper than translation agencies, much more precise than automated translation and your website will be translated into English, Japanese, Korean and Chinese (Traditional/Simplified) within a short time. I learned this breathtaking service at the session of “GTIC”

Age has got nothing to do with marking a first step toward.

July 24 2012

Interviewed & written by Isao Tokuhashi Mail to: itokuhashi@myeyestokyo.com Taichi Ito Entrepreneur Today’s interviewee is Taichi Ito, an entrepreneur. We were introduced to him by Tomo Akiyama, a venture capitalist whom we interviewed in June 2012. Now Ito produces a future world-class photo-posting/sharing mobile application. He will launch an e-commerce website and give a shot at interaction between app & e-commerce system. When it’s achieved, people who have different backgrounds share their hobbies and enjoy communication with each other through selling and buying on his web services. Ito is now busy building such a world. We tell you his

We’ll popularize “Serendipity interest commerce” in the rest of the world – meshtiles

July 24 2012

Interviewed & written by Isao Tokuhashi Mail to: itokuhashi@myeyestokyo.com Today we are introducing you to “meshtiles”, a photo posting/sharing application. You may think, “Is that a wonderful idea? There are many photo sharing services!”. But this story does not confine itself to meshtiles. Furthermore, the episode of meshtiles is just the beginning of the whole story. meshtiles & something & something… About not only photos but also services derive from its current system, Taichi Ito who’s in charge of developing/managing the meshtiles talked to us about its potential. – Taichi Ito – Graduated from Keio Univ. (Bachelor of Commerce). Gained

I find astonishing ideas while communicating with a diversity of people.

June 28 2012

Interviewed & written by Isao Tokuhashi Mail to: itokuhashi@myeyestokyo.com Tomo Akiyama Venture capitalist We’ve brought you the stories of Japanese entrepreneurs who fight to change the world. But we introduce you to an investor who supports them for the first time. Tomo Akiyama, a Japanese venture capitalist/seed accelerator. We met him for the first time in mid June, 2012. We attended a conference in Tokyo and was deeply inspired by words of the man wearing a polo shirt and jeans. He was tapping on a laptop, his name was called, stood up, grabbed a microphone and said; “I think a rogue

Interviews with Tokyo People Achieving Dreams