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D-POPS GROUP’s CVC Investment Activities: Finding New Members for Our Ecosystem

  • Media
2025.05.12

At D-POPS GROUP, we understand a “Venture Ecosystem” to be a dynamic platform that enhances the growth and sustainability of a community of enterprises. United by a shared identity and philosophy, these companies continuously innovate to address critical social challenges through groundbreaking business models. We are committed to making this ideal a reality through daily strategic efforts and unwavering dedication.

*For more details, please read “Venture Ecosystem: A Platform for Growth and Sustainability”.

As part of these dynamic efforts, we conduct Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) investment with our annually-generated profits to support other startup companies. Below is an expanded account of these activities.

1. Investment Criteria

Many companies engage in CVC investment activities, but generally, their contributions to the profits and success rates of their investments are small. However, D-POPS GROUP focuses not merely on pursuing profits, but on building Ecosystem partnerships. We establish basic policies and conduct activities based on ways in which our more than 20 group companies (more than 50 companies if you include investments) can improve and grow.
 

A. Business Domains

 

① “Real Business × Technology × Group Synergy”, and most important: “× People”

We look for companies that exhibit more than one of these four foundational elements. Our group’s origins in mobile phone retail shops, human resource businesses, and subsequent new expansion into solutions and technology businesses give us unique strengths in real-world economic activities—dealing with physical stores, property, and tangible assets. No matter how widespread AI becomes, a human’s hands-on touch will always be needed for final tuning. We believe human capabilities will become even more important in the future. AI is merely a tool to maximize human potential, and we want to support initiatives that empower people. Finally, we emphasize the utilization of technology as a foundation.

While not all elements need to be present, we first confirm how many of them exist or if there is extraordinary strength in any one area.
 

② Preferably focused on ICT/DX domains

If a business is related to information and communication technology or digital transformation, this makes for easier and more immediate knowledge sharing, collaboration within the group, and joint sales activities. This is not a make-or-break issue, but creating synergies with group companies is one of our foundational elements.
 

③ Addresses important social issues and has high market growth potential

Our group believes that “companies are public institutions of society” and does not conduct business solely for profit. Whether the startup truly addresses important social issues is a key consideration. Naturally, we also examine whether the market is growing and whether the target company has clear competitive advantages within that growth area.
 

B. Ideal Founder Profile

Diversity is important for Ecosystem growth. However, within that diversity, there are still certain personality traits that we think are necessary. D-POPS GROUP considers whether the founders and management of target investment companies fit the following profile as an important criterion for welcoming them as partners:

① Entrepreneurs with strong social contribution awareness and determination to transform society
② Those who embrace challenges with entrepreneurial spirit
③ Those who demonstrate sincerity, humility, gratitude, honesty, frugality, and tenacity
 

C. Stages and Models

We don’t have strong preferences regarding the fundraising stages or business models that typical VC funds clearly define. Instead, we provide broad support from seed to Series A, B, and later stages. Whether B2C or B2B, our group includes companies with various models, and our advisors have diverse experiences, allowing us to accompany startups according to their needs.

If we had to choose a preference, it would be subscription-based revenue models or platform-type business models. This is because we believe such models align with our culture of valuing people, prioritizing long-term customer relationships, and ensuring stable growth of the entire Ecosystem.

2. Investment Results for Fiscal Year 2024

D-POPS GROUP was already conducting CVC investment activities prior to 2024, but in that fiscal year, we established an investment committee and advanced our activities in accordance with our investment policies. This means that for all candidate companies, we follow a process where the investment committee deliberates, and only with unanimous agreement does it submit an application to the CEO. After conducting appropriate due diligence, only when all requirements are met do we enter into an investment agreement. As a result, in fiscal year 2024 (March 2024 to February 2025), we invested in the following eight startup companies:
① fluctlight inc. (https://fluctlight.ai/)
With the corporate philosophy of “solving Japan’s labor shortage by developing convenient AI-powered services to realize enriched lives for people”, this company is working on developing new services using generative AI technology.

② The Salons Japan Inc. (*Capital and Business Alliance) (https://www.thesalons.co/)
With the motto “True independence for beauticians”, this company develops and operates “THE SALONS”, a chain of private salon studios. This is truly a real-world business that supports people with specialized skills.

③ Adora Inc. (https://www.kodomamo.com/)
A startup developing and operating “Kodomamo”, an AI-powered parental control app. Their focus on protecting children while utilizing AI is well-aligned with our investment policy.

④ X-Locations Inc. (https://www.x-locations.com/)
This company aims to “combine, analyze, and visualize various location and spatial information in meaningful ways, making it accessible to everyone”. With many existing customers, they met our investment criteria.

⑤ Lezily Inc. (https://corp.lezily.com/)
Through “Japan’s first private mental training directed at moving beyond simply having ‘guts and perseverance’”, this company’s vision is to eliminate mental health issues in the world. We resonated with their dedication to valuing people.

⑥ BLUEISH Inc. (https://www.blueish.co.jp/)
With the philosophy of “Creating the future with AI and infinitely expanding business possibilities”, this company supports the efficiency of business processes. We decided to invest due to their executive leadership’s character and deep knowledge of AI.

⑦ Payke, Inc. (https://payke.co.jp/)
A company developing and operating “Payke”, a shopping support app for customers coming from overseas. This app is one of the most used by international visitors and represents a business that truly exemplifies the elements of real-world interaction and people.

⑧ WORKPORT, Inc. (https://www.workport.co.jp/)
With the mission of “Connecting people and companies to their desired future with limitless integrity and extreme rationality”, they are a recruitment and talent development company. We support their creation of a “reliable port of call for working people”.

For a more complete picture of our investment portfolio, please visit:
https://d-pops-group.co.jp/en/group/
https://d-pops-group.co.jp/en/press-release/

3. Post-Investment Support Activities

In our group’s CVC activities, we place special importance on supporting the business operations of the companies in which we invest. Below is just a short introduction of these support activities.
 

A. Trial Implementation at Group Companies

We have allowed test usage of services and products from Lezily, X-Locations, and BLUEISH at some of our group companies. This has enabled us to provide feedback on user experience and obtain hints for business development opportunities, preparing for future collaboration.
 

B. Collaboration with Group Companies

For Adora, we are introducing their contract services at all TOP1 mobile phone shops operated by D-POPS, while also negotiating nationwide distribution through carrier shops and electronics retailers’ smartphone stores with support from Advancer (another of our group companies). Additionally, we are working with BLUEISH and two other group companies to develop new business solutions.
 

C. Development of New Customers and Collaboration Partners

For almost all of our investment targets, we have introduced potential new customers and major companies that could become distribution partners. Thanks to our advisors’ extensive networks and companies within our Ecosystem tackling the same societal issues, these connection activities have progressed relatively smoothly.
 

D. Other Management Consulting

At first glance, The Salons Japan may appear to have no synergy with our other companies, but their private salon studios development and subleasing model is essentially a real estate business in disguise. Similarly, D-POPS’ expansion of mobile phone shop networks can also be considered a real estate business. Regular discussions between these executives have contributed to store development strategies that enhance brand power.

In this way, we are pouring our efforts into supporting companies that have newly joined our Ecosystem by providing what startup companies often lack: human resources, customer base, organizational strength, networks, and experience. In D-POPS GROUP’s CVC investment activities, we emphasize these support activities even more than financial backing.

4. Future Vision

As mentioned in our column article “Venture Ecosystem: A Platform for Growth and Sustainability”, D-POPS GROUP intentionally upholds collaboration, mutual learning, and assistance within the Ecosystem. As a concrete implementation of these values, we have recently started the following activities:
 

A. Business Introduction & Networking Events

We have begun organizing events where founders of newly invested startups give presentations about their businesses, followed by Q&A sessions and networking gatherings in the evening. The leaders of our group companies are all filled with entrepreneurial spirit, so they are greatly interested in the business models of thriving startups, stories of overcoming tremendous challenges, and the perspectives of uniquely talented entrepreneurs. These stories provide inspiration, and good questions lead to discovering seeds of new ideas for each other. After the formal event the participants move to a drinking establishment, where the presenters face nothing but more questions in what amounts to a second round of climactic interaction.

So far, we have had presentations from Mr. Tameto, CEO of BLUEISH, and Mr. Furuta, CEO of Payke. We hope to hold study sessions like these approximately once a month, inviting many of the companies within our Ecosystem to present and organizing them around certain topics.

Furthermore, as measures to help the entire Ecosystem grow and persist, regardless of investment ratio, we are considering adding the following activities in the future:
 

B. Exchange

We want to facilitate exchanges and information sharing between members of different companies who hold similar positions or roles (CxOs, engineers, marketers, etc.) to inspire each other. We aim to create systems that enable short-term secondments, temporary relocations, and even personnel transfers within the Ecosystem.
 

C. Mutual Aid

If there is a temporary shortage of personnel at Company A, such as during the launch of new routes or systems, personnel from Company B—which has sufficient staff at the time—can be sent to Company A to help them. In the same way, if Company B finds themselves in the same situation, Company C can send personnel to aid them, too.
 

D. Alumni Network

Eventually, within our group, there will likely be executives who successfully exit through IPOs or profitable business transfers. Other members may graduate from our group’s companies. However, if they continue to hold onto our group’s philosophies and personal values like integrity, humility, and gratitude, these alumni remain our friends and allies. They may participate as lecturers in our study sessions or serve as temporary substitute executives to rebuild underperforming companies.
 

Above, we have briefly introduced D-POPS GROUP’s investment policies and the group’s investment activities in FY2024. This is just one part of D-POPS GROUP’s efforts to realize a Venture Ecosystem.

We appreciate your continued support and encouragement.

Written by D-POPS GROUP Advisor Genta Sugihara

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Startup Management Lessons Inspired by Japan’s 100 Famous Mountains, Part 1: Define Your Summit, then Prepare
At D-POPS GROUP, our corporate mission is to multiply the number of growth companies (so-called “unicorn companies”) that will revolutionize society, and our core value is to grow and learn together through sincerity, humility, and gratitude. Last summer, Genta Sugihara, who serves as an advisor to this company, climbed Mt. Tate. The experience inspired him to set a personal goal: “Conquer all of Japan’s 100 Famous Mountains while wearing our company’s iconic unicorn T-shirt.” Since then, he’s been steadily climbing mountains across the country in between his work commitments. In an effort to embody our value of growing and learning together, our goal for this series of articles is to reflect on the successes, failures, planning, preparation, judgment calls, and even crucial decisions to retreat that Advisor Sugihara experienced during his climbing journeys, and to draw parallels with startup management and organizational leadership. Both mountaineering and business management share a common thread: they require setting a target peak, creating a clear plan (strategy), preparing thoroughly, and moving forward step by step. We hope this series will be an inspiration for your own work and personal challenges. In this first installment, we will compare startup management to mountain climbing, focusing on the importance of having a vision and the preparation required to achieve it. 1. Define the Summit (Goal) to Climb: Challenges Without a Vision Won’t Last People often start walking to lose weight, or they might climb a small hill to get a view of the city while traveling. These are excellent forms of exercise for health or tourism. However, they aren’t quite what I would call a challenge. Once you complete a real challenge with a clearly defined peak or a specific set of mountains, you’ll have far greater joy, learn more lessons, and gain a deeper life experience in general. Startup management is very similar. If your only motivation is a vague desire to “become a CEO” or “get rich”, it will be difficult to bring up a major business that creates value for society. To establish a business, you must paint a clear vision and outline concrete goals. This applies not only to business owners but to all professionals and workers. Having a clear target, such as a specific career path or becoming an expert in a certain field, is what drives people to actively seek out the learning and experience necessary to achieve it. To share a personal story: until a year ago, I was just a casual hiker. I climbed low mountains like Mt. Takao or Mt. Oyama simply to burn some calories. However, last summer, I visited Toyama Prefecture for the first time and, without fully realizing how steep it would be, climbed the highest peak of Mt. Tate. That day changed my life. Exhausted and lightheaded from the thin oxygen, I finally reached the summit. Looking out at the 360-degree panoramic view of the surrounding peaks, a sudden wave of emotion hit me: “I want to challenge myself with even tougher mountains.” Then, one day, I came across a book titled Japan’s 100 Famous Mountains. I read it in one sitting, and when I finished, the entrepreneurial spirit inside me had been totally reignited. I established a clear goal for myself: “Summit all of Japan’s 100 Famous Mountains by around 60 years old.” Note: Advisor Sugihara is 58 years old at the time of publishing.   (Pictured: the panoramic view from the summit of Oyama Peak on Mt. Tate, and the cover of Japan’s 100 Famous Mountains that inspired my new goal) Since that day last August, I have been climbing steadily. As of writing this article, I have successfully reached 41 summits. When I started, I was a complete amateur and would end up exhausted even on low hills. Over time, however, my physical stamina built up, allowing me to take on higher and steeper peaks. 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Tsurugi, or a multi-day trek like Mt. Poroshiri, they will not only fail to reach the summit, but they will also put their lives in danger and ultimately place a massive burden on those around them. To stand on top of your target summit, you must build the appropriate physical stamina. You also need proper climbing techniques, such as knowing how to navigate rocky terrain or climb using chains. Attempting a climb without these preparations isn’t praised as courageous or bold; rather, it’s a display of immaturity and recklessness. Business professionals also require physical and mental stamina. However, in this context, I’d like to make a comparison from an entrepreneurial perspective. For a business, especially a newly-launched startup, one could consider its working capital to be equivalent to “stamina”. You might be able to start a small business through your personal savings alone. 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Water is also an incredibly precious commodity on a mountain. However, having more gear is not always better. If you pack everything imaginable and your backpack ends up weighing dozens of kilograms, your body will not be able to carry the weight. There is simply no need to bring more gear than what is required for the level of the mountain you are climbing.   (Gear prepared for climbing three consecutive peaks.) When leading a startup company, securing management resources is one of the most critical challenges. A large portion of these resources consists of personnel. For a manufacturing business, this would also include factories and machinery. Beyond just people and equipment, internal systems and operational frameworks are also vital resources that support the business. R&D, sales, finance, legal, customer success, security: as a business grows, the number of things it needs to handle also increases. If you are in the manufacturing sector, capital investment becomes a necessity, and there will be times when you want to enlist the help of external experts to design your organizational systems. However, if you continue to hire, purchase, or outsource just because you want to, your working capital will quickly dry up. This is very much like draining your physical stamina during a climb by carrying a backpack that is far too heavy. A sense of balance is essential to securing resources that are “necessary and sufficient” for both the scale of the business you are operating and the goals you are aiming for. What early-stage startups need is not to have everything. Rather, what they need is to gather trusted individuals to sail in the same boat, building a lean, highly skilled team where everyone brings their own unique strengths to the table.     This concludes Part 1 of “Startup Management Lessons Inspired by Japan’s 100 Famous Mountains”. I myself am still only halfway toward my goal of conquering all of Japan’s 100 Famous Mountains. That is exactly why, rather than sharing a polished success story, I want to use this series to be as candid as possible about the hesitation, mistakes, decisions, and lessons I encounter along the way. By using this challenging goal as a framework, I hope to reflect on the mindsets and decision-making processes that apply directly to startup company management and organizational leadership. The next installment’s topic will be “Detailed Planning, Steady Execution”, in which we will explore the necessity of strategies and plans for achieving goals, balanced against the vital importance of steady, day-to-day work. D-POPS GROUP Advisor Genta Sugihara Note: Previously, we published an article titled “Mountaineering and Leadership”, but that was more summarized; this new series will dive into much greater detail along with my progress in climbing Japan’s 100 Famous Mountains. 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However, even if the quantity sold remains the same, revenue increases if the individual sale price is raised through up-selling. As shown in the previous examples, even if the total quantity sold decreases, the higher unit price can result in higher overall revenue. (If the unit price is doubled, revenue will be higher as long as more than 50% of the original volume is sold.) By understanding that quantity and unit price are the core elements of sales, you can increase revenue more efficiently. It is common for businesses focusing solely on volume to resort to discounts. However, to match the ¥20 million in revenue generated by 100 up-sold units at ¥200,000 each, you would need to sell 250 units of a ¥100,000 PC if it were discounted by 20% to ¥80,000. Even more critical is the impact on gross profit (revenue minus cost of goods sold). Let’s examine the previous examples through the lens of profit, assuming a consistent profit margin of 30%. 【Examples】 Standard: 100 PCs sold at ¥100,000 (Cost: ¥70,000) = ¥10M revenue, ¥3M profit. Up-selling: 100 PCs sold at ¥200,000 (Cost: ¥140,000) = ¥20M revenue, ¥6M profit. Discounting: 250 PCs sold at ¥80,000 (Cost: ¥70,000) = ¥20M revenue, ¥2.5M profit. (The above illustration contrasts up-selling with discounting. Compared to the standard case (top), upselling (middle) achieves double the profit margin, while discounting (bottom) results in an extremely low profit margin.) If you resort to discounting to boost sales, even if you successfully increase the quantity sold and total revenue, your actual profit will decrease compared to what it was before the discount. Understanding that gross profit is composed of the relationship between revenue and the cost of goods sold allows you to increase that profit more efficiently. If one recognizes that discounting lowers profit and instead tries to increase sales volume through other means, typical measures include increasing advertising spend for e-commerce, opening more physical stores, or expanding the company’s sales force for B2B operations. While these measures may increase gross profit, the corresponding increase in expenses makes it very likely that the resulting operating profit will actually decrease. As we can see from the examples above, the most effective means of increasing both sales and gross profit is ultimately to focus on up-selling by clearly communicating the value of a product’s features and quality to the customer. 4. The Difference Between Up-selling and Cross-selling Does this mean you should simply propose the highest-priced items possible to every customer? Not necessarily. For instance, if someone comes in to buy a compact economy car and you immediately suggest a Lexus, you likely won’t make the sale. Unless an up-sell presents specific benefits aligned with the customer’s budget, it becomes forced, which lowers customer satisfaction and negatively impacts business. When there are limits to up-selling high-performance or high-quality models, the cross-selling we explained in the previous article becomes the driving force for increasing sales. As a brief reminder, cross-selling is the technique of increasing sales by proposing additional related products or services to go with the customer's purchase, thereby increasing the number of items bought and the average transaction value. [Using the example from the previous section] Selling 100 PCs at ¥100,000 each results in ¥10 million in sales. At a 30% profit margin, the profit is ¥3 million. If you up-sell 60 of these to ¥200,000 PCs while selling the remaining 40 at ¥100,000, your total sales for 100 units become ¥16 million. At a 30% margin, your profit is ¥4.8 million. If you only use up-selling, the process ends here. However, if you also sell peripherals such as wireless routers, storage devices, mice, and security software (assuming a combined price of ¥30,000) to 50% of your customers (50 sets) at a 50% profit margin: 50 sets × ¥30,000 = ¥1.5 million in additional sales and ¥750,000 in additional profit. Adding this to the PC sales results in a total of ¥17.5 million in sales and ¥5.55 million in profit. Compared to simply selling 100 standard PCs at ¥100,000 each, you can achieve 1.75 times the sales and 1.85 times the profit with a combination of up-selling and cross-selling. (The above illustration compares the revenue and profit of selling 100 of the standard units (left), 60 of the up-sold units (middle), and 60 of the up-sold units plus 50 sets of cross-sold items (right).) As we discussed in the previous section, sales are composed of unit price and quantity. Up-selling is effective at increasing the unit price, while cross-selling is effective at increasing the quantity of sales. By understanding that sales result from the combination of these two elements, and by maximizing and optimizing them through up-selling and cross-selling in a reasonable manner, you can increase sales dramatically and more efficiently than by simply selling more products. Furthermore, because neither method relies on discounting to drive volume, you can reliably increase not just sales but also gross profit. I trust you now understand that up-selling and cross-selling are methods that yield immense results for both sales and gross profit without requiring extra expenses or time. Below is a summary of the differences between the two: [Up-selling] Objective: Increase sales by improving the average transaction value per customer. Sales method: Propose high-value products or services characterized by high performance, high quality, or large capacity. [Cross-selling] Objective: Increase sales by increasing the number of items purchased per customer. Sales method: Create value by proposing the additional purchase of highly relevant products or services. As summarized above, up-selling and cross-selling increase revenue by applying different methods to the two components of sales—unit price and quantity. Because these strategies do not involve discounting, they do not negatively impact the components of gross profit. Furthermore, since they do not increase expenses such as advertising, labor, or rent, the resulting revenue growth links directly to an increase in operating profit, making this one of the most effective means of raising profit. While both methods may seem modest, it is no exaggeration to say that their impact on corporate management is profound. 5. Summary In this installment, we have discussed the effects of up-selling and contrasted it with cross-selling. While both up-selling and cross-selling are seemingly modest techniques, they are methods that can yield immense effects in maximizing sales and profit. For this reason, it is crucial to educate a company’s employees on their importance, on how to present benefits for customers to avoid forced selling, and on how to utilize various technologies for those purposes, as well. Maximizing sales and profit through up-selling and cross-selling before taking actions that involve significant expenses (such as running advertisements, opening new stores, or increasing sales personnel) is key for business managers to facilitate efficient profit generation. I have intentionally addressed cross-selling following our previous discussions on “Inventory Turnover”, “Sales per Employee”, and “Sales per Tsubo”, which focused on cash flow and expenses related to inventory, labor, and rent. If you read these in order, starting with the first article on inventory turnover, the essential points of business management will become much clearer. For those who have not yet read them, I highly encourage you to do so. What we at D-POPS GROUP want to convey through this discussion on up-selling is the same message as before: business is built by people. The customers who purchase products are people, the sales staff who sell the products are people, and those who utilize technology are all people. While I think it is impossible to win in competition and survive in business without commanding technologies like AI, I also think that technology alone is not enough to survive. At D-POPS GROUP, we believe that business success does not happen simply because the technology is good or the management strategy is sound; rather, the intersection of People × Technology × Management Strategies is what truly matters. In accordance with this line of thinking, D-POPS GROUP’s vision is “realizing a Venture Ecosystem”. Our goal is to support startups through investment to help people shine and solve social issues, providing value that goes beyond mere numbers and efficiency. We hope that you enjoyed this article and look forward to working with you in the future. D-POPS GROUP Managing Executive Officer Tetsuya Watanabe
  • Media
2026.05.20
Lessons from Great Business Leaders: “Your Mindset Defines Your Life” (Tempu Nakamura)
To foster a thriving startup ecosystem, we must look back and learn with humility from the legendary leaders who built global enterprises from the ground up. In this series of “Lessons from Great Business Leaders”, we will share the words of the visionaries and thinkers who have influenced us most, reflecting on how their philosophies have shaped our own experiences in business and life. This third installment was written by our group’s advisor Sugihara. 1. “Your Mindset Defines Your Life” – Tempu Nakamura “Whether your mind is positive or negative creates two polar opposite perspectives on life. If your mind is positive, life becomes filled with cheer, adventure, energy, and vigor regardless of the circumstances. Conversely, if your mind is negative, everything in life loses its spirit. If the mind that contemplates life is negative, does not everything end in a pitiful, dark, and miserable state? Since you only have one chance at life, you must live it in the most perfect mental state possible, starting from this very moment.” (Excerpt from Tempu Nakamura: One Thought a Day, edited by the Tempu Society. Published in 2005 by PHP Institute.) 2. Reason for Selecting This Passage On a personal note, I have spent my career since 1990 working consistently within companies that were considered startups in their respective eras. Among these experiences, my time at Daini Denden (the predecessor to what is now KDDI) was particularly formative. It built the foundation of my professional life and forged the entrepreneurial spirit that has served as the emotional bedrock for my continued challenges over the years. I remain deeply grateful for that experience today. Daini Denden’s co-founder, Kazuo Inamori, is a world-renowned leader respected by executives not only in Japan but also in China and across the globe. One of the thinkers who most profoundly influenced Inamori was Tempu Nakamura. While I was there, my superiors and division heads encouraged me to read books on MBA studies or the then-popular “Lanchester Strategy”, but above all else, the very first thing they told me to read were Tempu’s works. While Tempu’s most famous longtime bestsellers are Sharpening Your Soul and Open Your Destiny, I have chosen the compilation Tempu Nakamura: One Thought a Day. It distills his essence into short, concise daily entries that are incredibly easy to read. I highly recommend it to anyone who has heard the name “Tempu Nakamura” but doesn’t have any of his works yet, or for those looking for the right book to revisit his teachings. By the way, it recently became a hot topic that the world-renowned baseball superstar and source of great Japanese pride, Shohei Ohtani, was a devoted reader of Tempu’s books before he moved to the Major Leagues. 3. My Own Experiences and Thoughts on This Philosophy Between the 1990s and 2000s, while I was in my 20s and still learning the fundamentals of being a professional, I was suddenly assigned to a new business division, the office preparing to launch DDI Pocket, which would later become their PHS* business. As a member of a launch team with just six people responsible for sales strategy, I worked with such intensity that there was no distinction between day, night, or weekends. Looking back now, I can say it was a workplace that reflected an era when terms like “power harassment” or “work-life balance” did not yet exist. Our supervisor’s orders were absolute, and unreasonable requests were common. *Note: PHS (Personal Handy-phone System) was a Japanese-developed precursor to modern cellphone technology that was popular in Japan in the 1990s, and expanded to various degrees in Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Even though I was thrown into an environment where it would have been easy to harbor discontent or want to run away, I made a conscious effort to look at the bright side of things. I did not avoid difficulties, maintained a proactive stance, and continued to put in effort even when no one was watching. It is no exaggeration to say this was entirely because I treated Tempu’s books as my bible, so to speak. Tempu Nakamura frequently mentioned something in his writings that became representative of his philosophy: “Always keep a positive mindset”, and by making this my habit, I gained a strength that influenced not only that period of my life but my entire subsequent career. It gave me the power to overcome hardships, seize opportunities, and attain numerous priceless experiences. There are a number of recurring themes within the pages of One Thought a Day, and though they’re expressed differently in different places, they all preach the importance of maintaining positivity in one’s thinking and mental state. Here are a few passages that reflect those themes. One’s thoughts create one’s life “Humans’ health and destiny depend solely on where they put their minds.” The difference between a mind moving in a positive direction and one moving in a negative direction is as vast as that between heaven and earth. The power of determination Taken to the extreme, one could even say that having a happy or an unhappy life depends entirely on one’s control over one’s mind. Willpower—in other words, absolute control over one’s mind—could widely be called the driving force that allows one to become a better person. Noble, strong, righteous, and pure The first step in conducting oneself according to the laws of nature is to keep a positive mindset at all times, no matter what happens. A positive mindset means to live nobly, strongly, righteously, and purely. There is almost nothing more important to life and existence than this. Do not voice dissatisfaction or complaints Under no circumstances should you let yourself vocalize dissatisfaction or complaints. If those feelings exist within your heart, your words will never be truly positive. People who complain are constantly looking only upward and never downward. They think everyone else is happy and that they are the most miserable person in the world. (Excerpts from Tempu Nakamura: One Thought a Day.) Encouraged by these words, I was able to spur myself on and approach my work with a forward-looking attitude, which allowed me to deal with situations calmly and read the trends of the times. Subsequently, I was involved in the launch of the mobile internet services of PHS, the launch of broadband at AOL, the music distribution business at Napster, and the creation of mechanisms to improve search engine share at Google. I have walked alongside the history of the internet industry itself. Modern business professionals are tossed back and forth by a flood of information that changes daily. We must chase not only the knowledge required for our daily tasks but also the world’s latest technical information, such as Generative AI, AI agents, and AI robotics. Furthermore, we find ourselves in an environment where we cannot help but feel anxious that our own job might become another profession replaced by AI. It is important to fill oneself with knowledge and information and to possess technical skills. However, what humans possess that is fundamentally different from AI is not information or knowledge, but rather, the mind. Technology and knowledge change with the times and can be acquired later. However, I believe that a forward-facing mind and a proactive way of thinking form a foundation and become a personal wealth that accumulates within oneself, regardless of how the era changes. Right now, I have a small scrap of paper in my wallet that has been there for about 20 years, like a lucky charm. On it, I wrote down my own “Seven Principles for Living”. The first three of these are: 1. Always think about things positively. 2. Always stay hungry to improve and strive for diligence. 3. Do not complain about things out of your control. These have completely become my own words and convictions. Looking back now, I recall that these were simplified expressions I had quoted from Tempu’s books (and Carl Hilty’s Happiness). For sharing this method of proactive thinking with the world, I am grateful to the businessman and philosopher Tempu Nakamura. 4. A Message to Our Readers For this installment, I chose the writings of a figure from a somewhat older era. I also selected him from the perspective of being a thinker who influenced famous business leaders, rather than being a famous leader himself. At first, I wondered if this might be an unconventional choice for this series. However, when I heard that the world-famous Shohei Ohtani read his work, it made me happy to realize that this philosophy is universal, so I decided to introduce it because I felt his words could resonate with both athletes and business leaders alike. We live in an era where the future is increasingly difficult to predict (although this could have been said in every era of human history). I hope that by picking up Tempu Nakamura’s works, you can find the driving force to maintain a positive state of mind and approach new businesses or entrepreneurial ventures with vigor and enthusiasm. May your work, your business, and your life itself be bright and overflowing with happiness! At D-POPS GROUP, we hold the vision of “realizing a Venture Ecosystem”. We are working on building mechanisms that allow groups of companies within our Ecosystem to grow sustainably, as well as providing hands-on support through our team of advisors. ※For more details, please read: “Venture Ecosystem: A Platform for Growth and Sustainability” I hope this article will be of some help to startup founders and business managers. D-POPS GROUP Advisor Genta Sugihara
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2026.05.13
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