Blog

Blog (page 2)

176 articlesSearch articles

  1. Thought and Capital 2 | How Thought Came to Part Ways with Capital in Japan

    In November 1970, an extraordinary session of the Diet was convened. It would later be called the "Pollution Diet." In this session, 14 pollution-related bills were passed all at once, and the Environment Agency was established the following year. This was in the same year, 1970, as the Osaka Expo that we saw at the opening of the previous installment. In Osaka, the city of the future was on display, while in Tokyo, laws were being made to stop the harm being done now…

  2. I Appeared on the Podcast "Big Money Demands Big Stories: Why Do I Think Startups Need a 'Philosophy' Now?"

    I was invited to appear on De-Silo's podcast 2020s, in an episode titled "Big Money Demands Big Stories: Why Do I Think Startups Need a 'Philosophy' Now?" It relates to my recent articles, so if you're interested, please give it a listen…

  3. Thought and Capital 1 | How Capital Came to Be Separated from Thought

    In March 1970, the Japan World Exposition opened on the Senri Hills in Osaka. The site was lined with Kenzo Tange's Grand Roof, Taro Okamoto's Tower of the Sun, pavilions by Kisho Kurokawa and other Metabolist architects, moving walkways, videophones, robots, and a plaza controlled by computers. Expo '70 was…

  4. The Vacuum in Startup Thought: Why The Technological Republic Is Accepted Without Friction

    The Technological Republic is getting attention in Japan too. Its author, Alex Karp, is the CEO of Palantir, and the core of his argument is that the technology industry should move away from consumer convenience and reconnect with the purposes of the state. Over the past few years, what has come into Japan…

  5. Starting to Write the Thought and the Future Surrounding Startups, from Japan

    This article has been split up and reorganized into the following articles. Thought and Capital 1 | How Capital Came to Part from Thought Thought and Capital 2｜How Thought Parted from Capital in Japan Thought and Capital 3｜How Thought and Capital Were Joined Again in the United States Thought and Capital 4｜Japan…

  6. Time to Move Away from Silicon Valley as the Answer

    Overseas startup and technology ideas are now flowing into Japan one after another. Peter Thiel, a co-founder of PayPal, has repeatedly been introduced as a key figure for understanding contemporary America, and more recently The Technological Republic has also become a topic of discussion…

  7. When an Organization That Gave AI to Everyone Loses Productivity

    (Note: On 8/10, I substantially changed how the argument is structured.) In the Cheonggyecheon restoration project in Seoul, completed in 2005, an elevated highway running through the city center was removed and the stream buried beneath it was restored. It seems that removing the main artery of a city center would paralyze traffic. In fact, right after construction…

  8. Follow National Policy, or Shape It

    Over the past few years, it feels as though the startup world has also been growing more attentive to national policy. Every time the government announces priority areas and budgets for semiconductors, space, defense, or AI, VC investment themes drift toward national policy, and entrepreneurs' pitch decks seem to quote more and more policy documents...

  9. Choosing a Big Mountain and Learning How to Climb It with AI: A Look Back at the 2026 Entrepreneur Dojo

    The 2026 course of the Entrepreneur Dojo, an entrepreneurship education program at The University of Tokyo, has come to an end. The first half, S1 (April to June), consisted of 7 sessions centered on lectures and guest talks, and the second half, S2 (June to July), consisted of 7 sessions of team-based practice. This year, we changed the design of the course significantly in both…

  10. Thinking About Company Creation Along the Time Axis

    In my previous article, I organized company creation by differences in its starting point: starting from technology, starting from demand, starting from outcomes, and starting from mission as a new possibility. After that, I published an article on thinking about startups in terms of supply risk and demand ri…