JP EN

COLUMN

[Entrepreneur Interview #09] Yume Oki (The Salons Japan) – Part 2

  • Interview
2025.02.17

Aiming to Improve Services to Solve Problems in the Beauty Industry While Supporting Two Founders

Last year, our company entered into a strategic capital and business alliance with The Salons Japan, Inc., which leases private salon studios for professional beauticians, and we began our journey together as partners in the Venture Ecosystem.

☆You can see the press release regarding this strategic capital and business alliance with The Salons Japan Inc. on the following page:
https://d-pops-group.co.jp/en/column/the-salons-japan/

For this article, we interviewed Yume Oki, the first employee at The Salons Japan supporting the company’s two founders. (This interview was conducted in January 2025.)

This is the latter part of the interview. To read the first part, click the link below.
https://d-pops-group.co.jp/en/column/the-salons-japan-interview2-first-part/

◆Changes Since the Company’s Founding

Sugihara:
As the longest-serving employee, what changes have you observed from THE SALONS’ initial launch to now?

Oki:
This is something that our founders (President Shimizu and Director Kuboshima) have also mentioned, but for a while, we definitely went through a period of what you might call stagnation—a time when things just stayed the same day after day.

This was partly because we hadn’t focused on increasing our staff and were operating with a bare minimum team. Another possible reason that we were not changing anything was due to the lack of competing services emerging. Recently, the increase in team members has been a really significant transition for me.

With more people, I have the strong sense we are now able to tackle things that were previously just out of reach. They all only just joined us, so I truly hope they continue to stay in our company.

Although we had a period of stagnation, we continuously focused on solving problems as we opened each new location, as I mentioned before. We steadily fixed issues, so if something didn’t work at one location, we made sure to change it when opening the next location. We were proceeding slowly, but surely.

The timings for our recent fundraising and our increase in staff were almost simultaneous. Since then, the way we take on challenges and our mindset itself have suddenly transformed.

◆Changes After the Strategic Capital and Business Alliance

Sugihara:
D-POPS GROUP and The Salons Japan entered into a strategic capital and business alliance in June 2024. Have you felt any changes since the investment?

Oki:
Yes, of course, there was a lot of buzz at the outset of this investment. But since this was our first time to receive investment after operating solely as a private company, I felt like saying “Finally!”, and at the same time, I had a sense that everyone was placing high expectations on us.

Furthermore, although I’m still just a general employee, I do participate in board meetings as a secretary. I highly appreciate the chance to hear the opinions of those from different industries regarding aspects of our business that we, from an internal perspective, haven’t seen the need to change. Their positive evaluations of our strengths are also a big confidence boost. So, getting to participate has been a truly enriching experience.

I have also started to be involved in meetings with banks, and I genuinely feel that their assessment of us has changed. In addition, D-POPS GROUP’s President Goto has introduced some real estate companies to us, and when they showed us some of the properties, I was able to accompany them. He showed us how to see them from a different angle, which has allowed us to increase the number of our parameters we have for finding potential properties. I feel our perspective on business growth has definitely shifted as a result.

Sugihara:
Speaking of buzz, since the rest of our group’s companies are in different industries, we didn’t feel the impact directly. Was there a buzz in the beauty industry?

Oki:
Yes, after the press release was published, we received congratulations from a lot of different people, including some who are quite prominent in the beauty industry. Some were even surprised, as they hadn’t realized we had been operating purely on our own until that point.

Also, the fact that D-POPS GROUP was the company that backed us was also a bit of a sensation, and I heard that some of President Shimizu’s business leader acquaintances even asked him to introduce them to President Goto.

◆On President Shimizu and Director Kuboshima

Sugihara:
Your two founders are quite rich in personality! President Shimizu is a beauty professional, a boxer, and a licensed real estate agent, while Director Kuboshima happens to be a long-time friend of mine. What are your impressions of them?

Oki:
Their personal airs and ways of thinking are different. President Shimizu is the type who immediately sees the problems in front of him and fixes them quickly. Director Kuboshima is usually calm and has a very cool-headed perspective, always thinking about the long-term. I often feel that the reason they are so successful is precisely because they have these two different ways of thinking.

However, outside of work—for instance, when they go out for a drink—they both seem to genuinely enjoy themselves. The fact that they can clash at work but maintain a strong personal friendship seems to be the secret to their success. In meetings with them, I’ve personally heard President Shimizu say “I’ll let Director Kuboshima manage our finances,” and Director Kuboshima say “I’ll leave the beauty professional matters to President Shimizu, because he understands them best.” It’s amazing that they have that level of mutual respect and trust.

◆Team Atmosphere

Sugihara:
I hear the team has grown recently. How is the team atmosphere now?

Oki:
Since I joined in the company’s early days, I feel like one of my roles is to convey my opinion when the situation calls for it. However, I really appreciate that our newly-joined members are generally calm, soft-hearted people, who aren’t the type to jump into conflict.

But rather than being just kind and gentle, they all have a strong sense of responsibility, too. They believe that what they are doing is their personal duty, and they fully commit to it. I am so glad that we have attracted people with those qualities.

Sugihara:
Indeed, everyone seems to have a quiet and peaceful aura, but I can tell that they also have a highly professional business-sense.

Oki:
Exactly. They take total ownership of the tasks they are in charge of, so I can confidently entrust things to them. Our SNS manager, for instance, noticed a problem after having a simple, casual conversation with me, and immediately updated our social media without me having to say anything. Another member noticed my workload was heavy and told me, “I can handle this part myself, so don’t worry about it.” The strength of our team is definitely improving!

Sugihara:
The potential for expanding your company is certainly increasing. We just talked about how your two founders are highly individual, and you yourself possess many talents. I heard that along with keeping a busy work schedule, you are a Frescoball player, as well!

Oki:
Yeah, I play Frescoball. Most people might not be familiar with it, but it’s a beach sport that originated in Brazil. Despite being a ball game where players face off against each other, your opponent is not an enemy, but a partner with whom to keep a rally going, so it’s a very peaceful sport. The competition lies in accumulating points, and you’re judged subjectively on your level of cooperation and aesthetic quality, among other things.

Sugihara:
That sounds like a wonderful sport. Do your practices also take place on the beach?

Oki:
Where there’s no beach, we practice in parks or gyms. The tournaments, however, are held on the beach.

Sugihara:
There are tournaments, too??

Oki:
Yes! There are international tournaments, and this year, it will be held in Japan! Our company’s Director Kuboshima is actually the president of the Japan Frescoball Association.

Director Kuboshima is also the president and CEO of RYOGEISYA Inc., an IT culture company that does many different things. Despite doing so many different things, they aren’t scattered. Rather, they dedicate focus and delegate workers to each area of business.

◆On THE SALONS Shinjuku, Opened in January 2025

Sugihara:
Well, the Shinjuku location opened in January 2025. Have you been receiving tenant applications?

Oki:
We sure have! Out of the total 17 salon studios, 8 studios are currently filled (as of February 17, 2025). The actual viewings only started yesterday, but there were people who had already decided to move in before seeing the location.

Sugihara:
It’s surprising that so many people decided to move in before viewing the facilities themselves.

Oki:
Yes, it is. Those contracts are already confirmed, and when we started to show the studios yesterday, two or three groups already came and are considering whether to move in. There has recently been a trend of people deciding before construction is even finished, which we are very grateful for, but I think most people prefer to decide after seeing the actual location. We hope to finalize more contracts through in-person viewings, ideally by the time we start operations around February.

By the way, for the first time, two of the studios we prepared are designed for manicure services, and both of those studios are already contracted.

Sugihara:
In addition to the manicure studios you just mentioned, do beauty professionals in THE SALONS provide any other services besides hairdressing?

Oki:
Yes, we also have tenants who focus on the eyebrow and eyelash business. Of course, there are also aesthetics salons, and some salons do other beauty-related businesses like chiropractic whole-body treatments and Korean Golki massage. Since we have various types of salons on one floor, not just hair salons, I think some customers may very well look at the different shops and signs and encounter a kind of space they’ve never seen before but find interesting.

◆On THE SALONS Shinsaibashi, Opening Spring to Summer This Year

Sugihara:
After Shinjuku, the Shinsaibashi location in Osaka will be your first expansion outside the Kanto region, opening sometime this spring or summer. What is the location like, and what clientele are you targeting?

Oki:
We’ve always considered expanding to thriving major cities outside Kanto, such as Fukuoka in Kyushu, and Nagoya in Tokai or Osaka in Kansai. We are very pleased that we were able to secure such a great location in Osaka.

Shinsaibashi is an area that already has many hair salons, and we have been receiving inquiries from people in that area even before the opening announcement. I look forward to telling them about the opening we have planned and asking for them to place an official inquiry.

The location is also close to Midosuji and the luxury brand district. I've heard from people operating in the Kansai area that Shinsaibashi is a great town, so I believe it is a superb location. It faces a main street, is close to two stations, and the ability to put up a large sign on the 3rd floor was a key point. The Shinsaibashi location will also open nail units, just like Shinjuku, so we encourage inquiries.

Sugihara:
Do you have any ideas for future services you’d like to launch?

Oki:
The background behind me joining The Salons Japan was my attraction to a service that could solve the problems faced by beauty professionals in the industry. So, the core premise is to continuously create better services for problem-solving.

The most common issues are related to managing a business and opening street-level storefronts. They are professionals in the beauty industry, but they naturally lack knowledge of real estate and business management in the beginning. I personally hope we can create an actual system that allows our tenants to seek advice from us more easily.

I also hope our services can evolve so that after our tenants build up their acumen at THE SALONS and open a street-level shop on their own, they will say “I’m so glad I came from THE SALONS”, or “I was able to open a shop like this because of THE SALONS”.

Actually, when some of our former tenants have decided to leave THE SALONS to open up their own shops, they’ve run into real estate problems, so I would also like to make a support system to help them avoid such troubles.

◆“Realizing a Venture Ecosystem”

Sugihara:
D-POPS GROUP has a vision of “producing numerous growing startups that bring transformation to society”. In short, we aim to realize a Venture Ecosystem. What are your thoughts on building this Venture Ecosystem?

Oki:
Well, until these investment discussions began, I personally was unfamiliar with the term “Venture Ecosystem”, but after this conversation and reading your website, now I know about it.

As I mentioned, we are already feeling the impact of the investment, so my hope is that by actively incorporating the input we receive, we can establish a positive feedback loop.

Since we haven’t formed many connections with the other group companies yet, I also would like to see some initiatives that foster deeper relationships between The Salons Japan and everyone else in D-POPS GROUP. Even though we are a unique entity within the group, I hope there will be more chances for us to connect.

◆5-Year and 10-Year Goals

Sugihara:
Yeah, let’s work on those kinds of initiatives! Now, could you share the ideal vision for The Salons Japan—and for you personally—10 years in the future?

Oki:
I believe that THE SALONS is a good service, and I believe it is beneficial for the beauty professionals who have moved in.

Since I cannot recommend a service that I personally do not believe is good, my vision for 10 years from now is that THE SALONS’ services will have further improved and become a system that leads to solving problems within the beauty industry.

Looking 10 years out is difficult, but President Shimizu has a goal of opening 30 locations in the next 5 years, so I hope we can work together as a team to achieve that. I believe that the investments in our company have increased our strength, and we want to continue working hard to make our services even more desirable to our customers.

◆Message to Readers Visiting Our Website

Sugihara:
30 locations in 5 years. A goal like that is quite aggressive, but also excellent. Finally, could you share a message for our online readers?

Oki:
I guess most people who read this interview will be unfamiliar with THE SALONS. THE SALONS is a service that can solve the issues within the current beauty industry, which is often perceived as demanding and having poor working conditions.

Also, the beauty professionals who move in are truly good human beings, and there really isn’t much trouble in our salon studios. Our tenants are independently minded and successful in sales. As I mentioned earlier, they’re also very dedicated to learning, and I personally feel that they are all great people.

I would love for you to look up THE SALONS and visit one of our locations. Wherever you visit, you will find wonderful beauty professionals at every salon!

 

Interview conducted by D-POPS GROUP’s advisor Genta Sugihara.

 

The Salons Japan

Company President and CEO: Hidetoshi Shimizu
Address: 2F Kid Ailack Building, 2-43-11 Matsubara, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo
Established: November 30, 2018
Website: https://www.thesalons.co/

Related Articles

[Founder Interview #4] Tsuyoshi Tateishi (SpeakBUDDY) – Part 1
From 280 Points on TOEIC to a Perfect Score and 5,000 Hours of Studying, Forming a Belief in the Necessity of AI English Conversation In December 2025, D-POPS GROUP invested in SpeakBUDDY Ltd., the developer and operator of the “SpeakBuddy” AI English conversation app. (Read more about it here.) How did someone who was once considered the worst English student in his grade go on to build a cutting-edge, AI-powered English conversation service? In this three-part series, we look into the entrepreneurial journey of SpeakBUDDY’s founder Tsuyoshi Tateishi and the future he envisions for language learning. In Part 1, we explore his incredible transition from a low TOEIC score of 280 to 5,000 hours of dedicated study, his experiences at a foreign investment bank, and how a trip around the world sparked the idea for AI-driven English conversation. (This interview was conducted in March 2026.) ◆“Worst at English in the Entire Grade” Sugihara: To start off, could you tell us what gave you the initial push to develop the SpeakBuddy app? Tateishi: First of all, the biggest reason I chose the field of English was because I was actually terrible at it during my student years. English requires consistent, cumulative effort, but I hit a wall in my first year of junior high school and just couldn't keep up with my classes after that. By high school, my teacher told me I was "the worst at English in the entire grade." Sugihara: So the student who was the worst in his grade became the CEO of an English conversation app company, ha ha! Tateishi: Exactly. That was my reality in high school, but the turning point came during my job hunt in university. I received a tentative offer from a foreign investment bank, and starting my career there was what finally forced me to start learning. Sugihara: It was a foreign-owned firm, so didn't they interview you in English? Tateishi: Oh, they did. The final interview was in a boardroom with the then-CEO of Citigroup Global Markets Japan and a row of executives from various departments. At the time, they were testing whether candidates could handle that kind of pressure. Since investment banking is a business where people are the only real assets, they were looking for character. That 10-on-1 interview was mostly in Japanese, but at the very end, the HR Director said, “Alright, I’m going to ask you a question in English, so please answer in English.” Up until that point, all the interviewers were Japanese, so they were probably assuming, “He graduated from Keio University, so he can probably handle it.” But in fact, my English was non-existent. My TOEIC score was only 280, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to understand any questions if they asked me in English, so I had prepared exactly one response in my head: “I can’t speak English. But I will study hard. So, no problem!” I said it with total confidence, but in fact, that single sentence was the only English I had learned. Back at that time, just memorizing that one phrase had been a struggle for me! The entire room of interviewers froze. Everyone was like, “Wait, what? You applied here with that level of English? This is a foreign firm…what are you expecting to do?” However, this was during my third year of university, so I told them, “I still have one year until I graduate.” At the time, I had just become the youngest person that year to pass the CPA exam at age 20. I was studying 14 hours a day…other than study and sleep, I would spend only two hours a day to shower, eat, and commute. I was used to finishing an entire textbook in a single day. So, I truly believed it when I told them, “I have a year, and that’s enough time for me, seriously.” At the time, I figured if I could get a 750 on the TOEIC, I would be basically fluent. Compared to the CPA exam, where if you fail, you have to wait another year, I felt no pressure at all. When I said, “I’ll start tomorrow”, they looked at me and said, “You do look like the type of guy who would actually do that.” Still, I walked out thinking I had definitely failed the interview, since it was a global firm and I couldn’t speak a word of English. But later that day, someone from their HR called me. Apparently, the CEO had been my biggest advocate. He told them, “Hire that guy.” The HR worker asked me, “What on earth did you say to the CEO?” Now, what I had told the CEO was this: “I might not speak English now, but through my CPA studies, I realized there isn’t that much difference in the capacity of human brains. It’s all about having grit. I know for sure that if I put my mind to something, there’s nothing I can’t achieve, and I will absolutely get this done.” The CEO decided, “Let’s hire one interesting guy like this”, and that’s how I got the job. ◆The Problem for Japanese Who Study English for 5,000 Hours Tateishi: Over the following years, I reached a perfect score on the TOEIC, passed the Eiken Grade 1 (the highest level of Japan’s most popular English proficiency test), and logged a cumulative total of approximately 5,000 hours of English study. Through those 5,000 hours, I had a painful realization: learning English would be far more difficult than I thought it would be when I was job hunting. I realized that this might be the single greatest challenge facing the Japanese people. I struggled with it while at that foreign-owned firm, and even after I moved to a Japanese brokerage, I was stationed in Hong Kong where I had to use both English and Chinese. If you can't use the language, you simply cannot do the job. I learned enough Chinese in Hong Kong to handle daily conversation, but if people ultimately can't understand what you're saying, you can't conduct business. Japanese people are excellent workers, but just because their English isn't great, my compatriots were being looked down on by people from headquarters or other overseas branches, and I couldn't stand it. During global training sessions and such, Japanese participants may not be able to speak English at all, but when it comes to the actual work output, they are consistently the best. Changing the reality that Japanese people are brilliant but are dismissed because they can’t communicate in English became my core motivation. I spent 5,000 hours to get there, but that’s not a realistic path for everyone. I want to use the power of technology to drastically shorten that time. This is the fundamental reason I chose the field of English education and began developing SpeakBuddy. ◆Making a “Doraemon” Who Can Speak English at Home Sugihara: Did you always have the desire to be an entrepreneur, even as a student? Tateishi: I did. I remember asking during my job interviews, “If I work at this investment bank, will it help me when I start my own company later?” But after seven years of intense, high-pressure work, I had completely forgotten that dream. However, as my desire to create a service that truly helps society grew stronger, I remembered, “Oh right, I actually wanted to start a company!” So, I quit as soon as I returned from my overseas assignment. I decided to quit first, and think of a business plan later. So, with my back against the wall, I finally went on the world tour I had always wanted to do, and I mapped out my business plan while traveling. While hopping from country to country, I was also teaching myself app development. The English learning app I built during that trip actually reached number 1 in the overall App Store rankings. Sugihara: Hitting an overall ranking of 1 is incredible! Was that app the prototype for what SpeakBuddy is today? Tateishi: Yes, I’d say that was the prototype. During my world tour, I also did a short-term study abroad program. Even when you are overseas, you find yourself wanting someone to practice English conversation with. But making friends in English out of thin air is incredibly difficult. People always say, “Just get a foreign boyfriend or girlfriend”, and I actually tried to do that while I was abroad, but it’s not as easy as it sounds, ha ha! While I was abroad, I thought, “If only I had a Doraemon* at home who could speak English with me, that would be enough.” That desire to create a Doraemon who speaks English was the starting point of our service. *Note: ‘Doraemon’ is a beloved character from a Japanese children’s cartoon who always helps the other characters with their various problems. I included a voice recognition feature in that first app, and I’m proud to say it was likely the first app in Japan to feature English voice recognition. However, back in 2014, the accuracy was still quite low. But over the next year or two, I felt the technology improving at an exponential rate. I became convinced that in the future, I would be able to create a real AI English conversation partner. In 2016, I stopped everything else I was working on and focused all my resources on AI English conversation. ◆The Problem with AI-related Branding in 2016 Sugihara: When you released the precursor to your current app back in 2016, were you already using the word ‘AI’? Tateishi: Yes. Even at the 2016 launch, we were calling it ‘AI English Conversation’. Since we had no capital at the start, we began with a crowdfunding campaign. It went surprisingly well—we raised about 4 million yen—and we were already positioning it as an AI-driven service even then. Sugihara: The speed of AI adoption and evolution lately is staggering. While language models have developed explosively in the last year or two, you were really at the forefront. Tateishi: We were the only ones in that space back then. But honestly, the immediate aftermath of the release was a struggle. People in 2016 were very vocal with their skepticism, asking, “Where exactly is the AI in this?” They’d complain, “I’m talking, but this doesn’t recognize my voice at all!” Back then, AI conversation meant little more than speaking to a character with an electronic voice. The conversational AI was still in its infancy, with a simple tree structure where we programmed specific responses to specific phrases. You couldn’t engage with it via truly free conversation like we have now. In the end, because we were getting so many reviews asking “Where’s the AI?”, we actually removed the word ‘AI’ from our branding around 2017. Having AI in the title seemed to raise expectations so high that it led to people leaving 1-star reviews, so we decided to take it out for a while. Then, around 2019, speech recognition technology started to improve dramatically. We also built our own proprietary speech recognition engine, which boosted our accuracy significantly. From that point on, the quality of our conversational AI was able to truly shine. Sugihara: When I try using features like BuddyChat now, the AI responds naturally even if I say something completely random or trivial. It clearly isn’t just simple pattern recognition anymore. Tateishi: Yes, it can handle tangents and keep the conversation going. I feel like I can finally say “This is AI” with my head held high. Back in 2015 and 2016, we were right in that peak of inflated expectations on the hype cycle, which was followed by a valley of disillusionment. During that valley, people kept telling me, “AI is a joke; it’ll never work.” But gradually, it became the real deal. Sugihara: For someone who has been working on this for a decade, do you feel like it's about time for the AI boom to finally sweep across the world? Tateishi: In a way, yes. It feels like things are moving exactly as I expected, though there’s a bit of a time lag in terms of when the world finally noticed. To be honest, even with GPT, we were looking at GPT-2 and saying, “This is going to be incredibly useful.” So by the time GPT-4 arrived, our reaction was like, “Well, it’s already been impressive since the beginning.” It’s only been in the last few years that speech recognition, Natural Language Understanding (NLU), and personalized teaching methods have finally synced up. Because the level of inference has jumped so significantly recently, we can now provide high-level free talk like BuddyChat. It feels like the times have finally caught up with SpeakBUDDY. ~To be continued in Part 2~ Interview conducted by D-POPS GROUP's advisor Genta Sugihara. SpeakBUDDY, Ltd. President and CEO: Tsuyoshi Tateishi Address: 3F +SHIFT Nihonbashi Sakuradori, 3-14-3 Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo Established: May 2013 Website: https://www.speakbuddy.com/en Next, in the second part of the interview, we discuss: ・The four pillars of SpeakBUDDY's competitive advantage ・Where SpeakBUDDY differs from Duolingo and Speak ・Rapid growth in the corporate market and feedback from business clients ・And other topics Be sure to check it out here: https://d-pops-group.co.jp/en/column/speakbuddy-part2/
  • Interview
2026.04.15
[Member Interview #1] D-POPS GROUP President’s Office Member Shane Hetrick
Overcoming the Language Barrier to Create a More Global Venture Ecosystem ①First, please tell us about where you’re from and your background. I was born in California, but while growing up, my family moved about a dozen times to various other places in the western part of the US as well as spending seven months in South Korea. As a result, my parents, my younger brother, and my two younger sisters were the only stable figures in my life, so I had to get used to constant change from an early age. In fact, I can confidently say that learning how to deal with so many transitions had a significant impact on my life. After moving to the city of Pullman in Washington to attend Washington State University, I earned a dual degree in microbiology and genetics and cell biology. In my freshman year, I became an active member of a Christian community for university students, and even after finishing my studies, I decided to remain in Pullman and volunteer with that group for two years as an intern and then one year as a staff member. Throughout this period, I enjoyed getting to hang out with friends often, not having many responsibilities, and ultimately realizing my life’s passions. I also gained a number of critical skills which I would soon utilize in my career: developing relationships with people from both similar and different cultures, guiding and coaching university students through strategizing how to tackle their personal problems, facilitating group discussions, and—perhaps most importantly—learning how to learn. ②How many years ago did you arrive in Japan? What was your reason for moving here? Towards the end of my time in Pullman, I started to meet more and more international students from various countries, and even met a student from Kansai Gaidai University in Japan, who even became my roommate for one semester. All of them suggested very seriously that I would make an excellent English instructor, and I became quite interested in the idea of starting a brand new adventure. Looking back on it now, I suppose I had also grown restless in my relatively safe and predictable life. First, I began working part-time at my university’s affiliated TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) program for about half a year, and then started to look into different options to live abroad as an English instructor. In the end, I was offered a full-time position as a dispatch worker through a small English teaching company in Japan, and in August 2015, I moved into a Japanese family’s house in Tokyo. I had met their son while he was studying abroad at my university, and his parents graciously offered me a place to stay when they heard I would be moving to Japan. I began facilitating English lessons at elementary and middle schools, trade schools, hospitals, hotels, and various other companies throughout the Tokyo area. Some were large classes with 10 to 20 children or young adults, while others were 1-on-1 with businesspeople, and I soon became capable of teaching English to Japanese people of all ages. ③Why did you join D-POPS GROUP? During my first year of teaching English full-time in Tokyo, I encountered a local branch of the same Christian university student organization in which I had been involved before. They were low on staff, so I volunteered for them and moved into their community house while continuing to teach English part-time at various places. I met a young woman from China through this group, we got married, then we had a daughter and were expecting a baby boy. During the months leading up to his birth, I was actively searching for a full-time job to provide for our family's finances, since my wife would soon go on maternity leave and she was our main breadwinner at the time. Then, a recruiting partner of D-POPS GROUP found my profile while looking for someone with English teaching experience and a Japanese driver's license to be hired as an English-speaking chauffeur for the CEO, and offered me an interview. While I was somewhat intrigued by the prospect, the position was very different from what I had been searching for. However, once I met President Goto at the interview, something inside me changed. I was deeply impressed by how he listened to me and was genuinely interested in me as a person, and when he spoke, I immediately believed in his vision. So, last November, I decided to join D-POPS GROUP and play even a small part in creating a society that will support my children to take risks, learn, and grow. ④What kind of work are you doing at D-POPS GROUP? I was originally hired to help President Goto to improve his English through natural conversation while riding in the car. While that is my highest priority, I quickly recognized that within the flexible and swiftly-changing scene of a startup, I couldn't limit my role in our company to such a narrow task. When I’m not driving, I was given the primary task of translating the articles on our company website from Japanese to English. From time to time, I also get to use my native English skills for corresponding with foreign guests and welcoming them to our office. As much as I can, I try to help out the other members of the President's Office, too. After all, the more work they can delegate to me, the more work President Goto can delegate to them, which frees him up to do more of the things that only he can do. I receive and send letters and packages, order various supplies, issue entry passes to our office, and handle other light administrative tasks. ⑤As you drive President Goto around and help him practice his English in the car, have you gotten used to driving in Tokyo? Has President Goto’s English actually improved? Ha ha… The car that President Goto chose for our company vehicle has a number of premium features that make it easier to drive safely in city traffic. It also helps that I’ve been driving for many years, so even though the streets in Tokyo are much more crowded and narrow than the roads in the US, I have been able to get used to driving here. In fact, I am always delighted every time I have the chance to drive President Goto to his various meetings and appointments and learn something from his wise words. And yes, as President Goto is using English more consistently, he is more capable of recalling the foundation that he built as a high school and university student in the US and the UK. All I’m doing is providing him with an atmosphere where he can comfortably practice and supplying him with correct vocabulary and natural English phrasing when appropriate. He has been making steady progress, and is definitely more visibly confident when speaking English compared to a year ago. However, he often likes to encourage me by saying that he wishes his English would improve as fast as my Japanese, ha ha. ⑥You seem to have a proactive stance towards speaking Japanese with everyone around you in our office. When did you learn Japanese? Is the Japanese business lingo that we use here difficult? While I was living with that Japanese family during my first year in Tokyo, they helped me learn the fundamentals of everyday conversation, and I became capable of basic communication. However, after I moved out of their home, my Japanese level essentially stagnated, since the only time I spoke it was in the exact same situations in daily life and did not usually seek out opportunities to study and improve my language abilities. After joining D-POPS GROUP last year, I found myself in a Japanese work environment for the first time in my life, so there have been countless moments where I’ve been challenged and stretched. It’s not just that business Japanese is difficult for me to learn, but also that I had virtually no experience in the business world before starting this job. As a result, while I’m trying to pick up polite Japanese phrases that are commonly used in the office, I’m also learning about the concepts, situations, and systems behind those phrases at the same time. I want to provide as much value to D-POPS GROUP as possible, since I understand that I can contribute to society more this way. To that end, I have undertaken a lot of challenges and overcome almost as many obstacles, thanks to the patience and understanding of my excellent and gracious coworkers, though there are still many more to go. And I want to tell everyone within our Venture Ecosystem that I am always happy to practice my Japanese, so when you see me, please don’t hesitate to say hello! ⑦What differences have you felt between living and working in Japan compared to the US? In my opinion, the biggest way that life in Japan is different from life in the US is the perception of peer pressure. From what I’ve seen over the past ten years, Japanese people seem to be very considerate of other people, to the point that they try to remain aware of the outward behaviors and even the unspoken feelings of the people around them. In addition, they usually have a deep reverence for common courtesy, harmony, and consensus, and would rather inconvenience themselves than voice an opinion contrary to the majority. On the other hand, Americans place a very high value on the personal independence of the individual. From a young age, we are taught that we should think before we copy what everyone else is doing, and we prize uniqueness above uniformity. There are obviously many reasons why these two cultures are so opposite, but I think one primary root may be the lack of livable space in Japan combined with the history of frequent natural disasters here. When the threat of earthquakes, tsunamis, or other dangers is always near, and your neighbors live so close that a house fire can spread to surrounding buildings almost instantly, it becomes critical to maintain amicable relations with all the people you interact with on a regular basis, so that you can rely on their help in an emergency, rather than watch them gleefully loot your belongings as you lay dying. I’ve also noticed some smaller contrasts between Japanese and American lifestyles that our readers may find interesting. For one, Japanese tend to keep their social circles cleanly distinct from each other, so family, acquaintances, and coworkers rarely mix. Americans, however, are much less shy about introducing family to their friends and colleagues who are close to them, so I’ve had to get used to knowing next to nothing about my team members’ personal lives, even though I talk with them all the time. Another is that while most Japanese eat rice at least once a day as part of their diet, Americans aren’t usually loyal to a single staple food, and will even eat meals that contain no staple food at all. Finally, this isn’t necessarily a major difference between Japan and the US, but rather something that’s starting to change in both cultures. Until recently, fathers did not usually take a long paternity leave. However, I decided to take advantage of the Japanese government’s childcare provisions to stay with my wife and children at my parent’s house in the US for much of December and January. My coworkers at D-POPS GROUP were very supportive, and though I’ve heard horror stories of fathers at Japanese companies coming back from paternity leave to find their position relocated or minimized, in my case there was nothing of the sort. ⑧After joining D-POPS GROUP, you have been working on the English version of our company’s website. What are your most important considerations for writing English translations? First of all, I try to imagine the audience who will be reading these translations. They could be executive members of foreign companies thinking about expanding their business into Japan, or venture capital investors looking for a good return from a Japanese startup, or even members of D-POPS GROUP or our partners who simply want to practice their English reading ability. This affects the word choice and overall tone of each article I translate, and also helps me decide how to convey phrases or ideas that have no direct translations. Next, I do my best to paint a clear picture of the mission, vision, and values of D-POPS GROUP and our leaders in such a way that anyone who reads the pages of our website in English will be able to sense them through what parts are emphasized and even through the vocabulary I use. After all, I believe that the energy surrounding us really is special, so I hope to share as much of that spark as possible with our readers. Finally, since I am still quite far from being bilingual, I would not be able to accomplish the task of translating our website without the support of our corporate advisor, Genta Sugihara. Without his wisdom, experience, and especially his deep knowledge of startups and corporate venture capital, you would not be reading this now. Not only with translation, but he has also given me invaluable advice on navigating the unfamiliar world of working at a Japanese company, and I can’t express in words how much I sincerely appreciate him. ⑨In August, we hosted a group of delegates from the Japan-America Student Conference. You helped to create English presentation materials that were oriented towards students, and also did a little bit of interpretation on that day. What were your impressions of all the work that went into making those materials and what you experienced on the day of their visit? That event was my first taste of getting to work more closely with President Goto, and it was definitely awe-inspiring to witness firsthand how much thought and effort he puts into anything he does. He was put in a position where he was out of his element, and I would guess that is not usual for someone at his level of professionalism. But even in the midst of a situation like that, he was able to think strategically about what he could do in the limited time before the presentation, and also what was not possible. For example, I first prepared a script for him that might have seemed quite impressive to an academic audience in an English-speaking country. However, it contained a significant amount of high-level vocabulary he was not familiar with. President Goto pointed out to me that since he did not have a long time to prepare, it would be better for him to focus on practicing fluently speaking words he already knows than on learning a bunch of new words. Then we went back and forth over the next several weeks, refining his script and his presentation slides until he was satisfied with them. This was also an educational experience for me, as I learned that being able to reach a state of 90% perfection in a timely manner is much more important in a business setting than finally getting to the point of 100% perfection long after the deadline has already passed. When the students arrived at the Shibuya Hikarie Building, I had the honor of showing them around various parts of our inspirational office space and explaining their significance in English. Then, after we listened to President Goto and Advisor Sugihara share their lectures, I was supposed to help interpret for the students and our company leaders, but it turned out that between President Goto’s English skills and the Japanese ability that several of the American students had, I hardly needed to say anything. Given my work background in connecting with university students, I was so happy to see a deeper understanding of the value of entrepreneurship dawn on their faces over the course of our time together. ⑩What kinds of activities at D-POPS GROUP do you hope to participate in from now on? My knowledge and experience in the venture capital business is still almost zero, but someday I hope to be a more active participant in the process of welcoming new partners to our Venture Ecosystem. Over the past couple of months, I’ve been given the privilege of facilitating communication between the members of our CVC team and a pair of foreign entrepreneurs who want to more firmly establish their business in Japan. This has been exhilarating for me, and I want to increase my capabilities in this regard. Besides the CVC team, I hope to support any other conversations that take place between members of our Venture Ecosystem and non-Japanese speakers. One of my personal goals at D-POPS GROUP is to utilize my English skills to serve our expansion onto the global stage. In accordance with that, I want to keep myself available as an asset anytime there is a need for a native English speaker. Speaking of which, I'm hoping to start some English-related activities within D-POPS GROUP's Ecosystem sometime soon. If anyone is interested, please feel free to contact me! Beyond this, I’d really like to continue improving my Japanese language and business skills to the point that not only am I a professional English translator for D-POPS GROUP, but also that I prove to be truly useful in other areas. I’m excited to see what I look like after another year of working here!
  • Interview
2026.04.09
[Founder Interview #3] Ayumi Fujimoto (Startup Ecosystem Association) – Part 3
From Startup to Scale-up: Mutual Growth and Realization of an Advancing Ecosystem For this article, we interviewed the Startup Ecosystem Association’s President Ayumi Fujimoto, a leader who shares our vision for Japan’s entrepreneurial future. (This interview was conducted in January 2026.) See Part 1 and Part 2 of the interview here. ◆The Joy of Creating Something from Zero Learned at Google Sugihara: Let’s take a step back into the past for a moment. we actually joined Google in the same year—2007. Back then, Google still felt like a true startup. If a problem arose, people from different departments would huddle together to solve it. We were the pioneers…there wasn’t an atmosphere of an established, incumbent corporation yet. Later on, we both left Google at close to the same time. You moved on to Money Design (a fintech startup), and then to Plug and Play Japan, but the whole time, you’ve stayed in the startup world. I have to ask…what has driven you to consistently choose this career path? Fujimoto: Once you experience that Google era like we did, you never forget the joy of building something from scratch. It becomes much more addictive than working on something that is already established. When I first joined Google, I used to wonder why some of my senior colleagues were leaving so early in their careers. But they told me, “You’ll understand one day. Different phases of a company require different types of people, and I personally love the launch phase.” Now, I understand exactly what they meant. Sugihara: What is your favorite phase in a company’s lifecycle? Fujimoto: For my seniors, it might have been when the company was completely unknown. For me, my specialty lies in the phase where something has just started to sprout, but doesn’t quite have a clear identity yet. I love the process of giving it a name and helping it grow. I tried to replicate that at Money Design, but I eventually ran into a dilemma: a single company cannot keep up with the sheer speed of change in the world today. That’s when I decided to pivot. Instead of running a business myself, I chose to build and steer an ecosystem that could support multiple innovators in order to achieve a lot more. ◆Resolving the Gender Gap Sugihara: So, you chose your current path out of a desire to deepen the role of scale-ups (the growth phase following the initial creation of something from nothing). I also remember you being in charge of the Women Will project back in the Google era. Many of my friends were involved in that fantastic initiative. Could you explain for our readers what that project was about? Additionally, the startup world tends to be male-dominated. How do you view the current lack of female entrepreneurs, and what is your approach to changing this? Fujimoto: Women Will was an initiative that started even before women’s empowerment became a buzzword. The core idea was to use the power of technology to empower women. Startups are inherently places where people use technology to drive change, so there should be immense opportunities for anyone to succeed, regardless of gender or age. While the number of female entrepreneurs and investors has grown steadily over the last decade, the lack of balance remains an issue that’s shared across the world. One specific factor is the bias in fundraising. Female founders are often asked questions that men are not, such as “Do you plan to get married?” or “What about children?” While this could be considered as risk-hedging, we must create an environment where we face the business itself, flatly and without bias. Our association is currently working with the Financial Services Agency (FSA) on a survey regarding the gender gap in the ecosystem. Following the increased attention on harassment issues over the last couple of years, the industry’s sense of crisis is very high. Recognizing that unfair practices are unacceptable is the first step toward improvement. Sugihara: In a single company, you can manage this with rules and KPIs, but changing the culture of an entire ecosystem is a massive challenge. Fujimoto: That is the hardest part. Since an ecosystem isn’t managed by one single person, it’s not enough to just chase a quota like “30% women”. We have to ensure true diversity where more people have access to opportunities. Lately, more event organizers are paying attention to the balance of gender, age, and nationality among speakers. This is a great first step. The supporters of international accelerator programs are now being held strictly accountable for the diversity of their cohorts. I hope to see this approach take root in Japan as well. Sugihara: In the past, female entrepreneurs were often “invisible” unless you were intentionally trying to find them. Fujimoto: Exactly. However, from an innovation standpoint, the data is clear: diverse teams grow significantly faster. There was once an unwritten rule in Japan that a homogeneous team with shared values could move faster in the early stages. Recent studies have debunked this. If you don’t build a diverse organization from the very beginning, you won’t be able to scale the company later. Success in scaling up depends entirely on the organizational environment. It’s no longer just a binary of male vs. female. Broad diversity, including nationality, is an essential element for Japanese startups to leap forward. Sugihara: That is a vital perspective. I’ve seen research showing that companies with diverse public relations and branding are more highly valued. Fujimoto: Our gender gap survey showed something interesting: while women feel they are at a disadvantage, men also expressed feeling a sense of suffocation or an inability to speak their minds in the current culture. It’s not about one side or the other being bad. It’s about mutual understanding. When I think back on our time at Google, we were told not to assume that we fully understood the other person. We made sure never to operate under any kind of unspoken understanding, and we communicated clearly through dialogue to move things forward correctly. In Japan, we often proceed with the assumption that others know what we need, and when things go wrong, we get frustrated. We need to move toward a culture where we communicate under the premise that we don’t automatically understand each other. ◆Japan’s Future Strength: Turning Technology into Business and Communicating It Sugihara: Indeed, it is precisely because a diverse range of personalities come together that we can create exceptional services that reach a global audience. On that note, I’d like to ask a final question about the future. From the perspective of entrepreneurship and new business development, which domains do you believe will hold the key to Japan’s growth moving forward? Fujimoto: I’ve traveled the world, and thought about what Japan’s future strength will be. At this point, I am convinced the answer lies in “deep tech”. Japan’s R&D, technical capabilities, and ideas are world-class. However, our ability to turn that into viable businesses hasn’t caught up. Japan’s big opportunity lies in bridging that gap. A supporter in South Korea once told me: “Japanese people think if they make something good, it will be recognized. But you have to tell people it’s good, or else no one will know its value.” That might be Japanese modesty, but it doesn’t work in startups. If we can strengthen our ability to convey our products and our business acumen, we have enormous potential. The same applies to SaaS. Japanese services tend to stay domestic. But if we can break through the international wall and focus on scaling globally, we have a real chance. Sugihara: To break through that wall, it seems crucial to have a multinational team from the early stages so that launching simultaneously in multiple countries becomes the standard mindset. Fujimoto: I completely agree. In many other countries, that’s already the norm. We must have a sense of urgency—if we spend too much time thinking “Japan first”, we’ll end up falling a full lap behind the rest of the world. I don’t believe every single service has to expand overseas, but there is simply too much you cannot see if you remain closed off within Japan. When a team includes members of diverse nationalities, your speed and perspective naturally shift, and you begin to notice global changes. I feel that this kind of organizational structure will ultimately dictate the growth of Japanese startups moving forward. Sugihara: That’s a very helpful perspective. Moving on to a question about current trends: we often see discussions in the news or in books about specific professions disappearing due to AI. What are your thoughts on this? Fujimoto: The impact of Generative AI is certainly obvious, but if you look back at history, there have always been certain roles jobs that disappeared and new ones that emerged. However, this time, the feeling of being robbed by AI or being replaced by something non-human is particularly strong, which is causing a lot of anxiety. But the most important premise to remember is that everything is always changing. At the same time, isn’t the rise of AI giving us a chance to re-examine what it is that only humans can do? It’s a great time to realize our unique human value and figure out how we want to contribute and what skills we should master. There’s really nothing to fear. It’s much more exciting to think about how to master these tools. Just try using them first! This isn’t just about AI. We need to change our tendency to reject anything new. A mindset of “just try it, and if it doesn’t work, quit” is perfectly fine. The biggest waste of all is to limit your own potential by disliking something without having tried it first. ◆The Essential Quality of a Supporter: Outgrowing the Startups Sugihara: As the social environment shifts and the future is constantly being rewritten, both individuals and startups must adapt to survive. In this context, what is the role of the “scalerator”, a supporter who focuses on scaling up rather than just accelerating the early stage? Fujimoto: Whether you are an incubator or a “scalerator”, the most vital thing is to ensure you are growing faster than anyone else. If the person supporting a startup’s growth isn’t growing themselves, why would a founder want their help? Unfortunately, there are many “supporters” who have never touched a new tech tool or have stopped studying the latest global trends. Being a supporter doesn’t make you superior or omnipotent. As business models and the nature of startups evolve, it is crucial that the supporter evolves at a speed that exceeds the startup itself. If you keep doing the same old thing, you’ll be seen as out of touch, or simply uncool, and startups will leave you behind. We often say that in three years, we’ll likely be talking about something completely different from today. That isn't flip-flopping, it’s positive evolution. To constantly reinvent oneself without fearing change…that is the essential quality of a modern ecosystem supporter. ◆Defining a Startup Ecosystem Sugihara: Finally, could you share your personal definition of a “startup ecosystem”? Fujimoto: By definition, an ecosystem involves the mutual interaction of organic and inorganic elements. Support often feels like a one-way street, from the supporter to the startup, but a true ecosystem requires reciprocity. The startup should be at the center, but they shouldn’t be treated like a guest or a customer. Everyone must act as a stakeholder and a member of the ecosystem. As everyone influences one another, the ecosystem itself grows. The only way to enrich the ecosystem is for every single member to commit to continuous growth. Sugihara: That philosophy aligns perfectly with the vision of D-POPS GROUP. We aim to build a Venture Ecosystem where we aren’t just managing or investing, but growing together as peers. We reinvest the profits from our 25 group companies into the next generation and learn alongside them. Do you see synergy or potential for collaboration here? Fujimoto: I think it’s a fantastic approach. Whether we call them startups or ventures, we are all part of the same foundation of the Japanese ecosystem. The important thing isn’t who is the boss, but the shared attitude of contributing to society through business and developing together. Ideally, this creates a chain of paying it forward, where those who were once supported by the ecosystem eventually become the ones who support it. To be honest, now that government support in Japan has become quite generous, we are seeing cases where people build businesses solely to get subsidies, effectively capping their own potential. This is a massive information loss…a lack of awareness of the speed of the global market. That is why it’s so important for ecosystems to interact and for rich knowledge to spread. When players with a strong philosophy like D-POPS GROUP join hands with us, that contagious mindset becomes the driving force that will truly keep Japan up to date. Interview conducted by D-POPS GROUP’s advisor Genta Sugihara. Startup Ecosystem Association President: Ayumi Fujimoto Address: 15F Toranomon Hills Business Tower, 1-17-1 Toranomon, Minato, Tokyo Established: March 30, 2022 Website: https://startupecosystem.org/home-en
  • Interview
2026.04.07
Back to COLUMN