Is a shift towards Japanese hardware startups happening? Hear from Takafumi Horie and Taiga Matsuyama at Tech in Asia Tokyo 2015

In the land of the rising sun, in the midst of social media, ecommerce, smartphone startups, and more, it looks like software startups are receiving most of the attention. But the tide might be changing – a shift toward hardware seems imminent. But where is the Japan hardware startup ecosystem at now, and where is it going?

We’ll try to answer these questions on September 8 and 9, as two esteemed figures Takafumi Horie, founder of SNS Inc., and Taiga Matsuyama, co-founder and managing partner at East Ventures make a rare joint appearance at our Tech in Asia Tokyo conference. The pair will participate in a fireside chat on the future of Japanese hardware (Disclosure: East Ventures also invests in Tech in Asia. See our ethics page).

Takafumi Horie, founder of SNS Inc.

For Japan’s old guard, he’s a reckless businessman with no regard for authority. For the entrepreneurs who made it big in the nation’s first internet wave, he’s a cautionary tale of how quickly everything can go wrong. The Financial Times calls him an “enfant terrible”, but many Japanese entrepreneurs today call him a hero.

Takafumi Horie built online portal Livedoor from scratch and powered it to a market cap of nearly US$8 billion in the early 2000s. But the entrepreneur known for his headline-grabbing lifestyle saw much of that success erased following his arrest in 2006 in what was known as Japan’s biggest financial scandal of the decade.

Prison did not break him and since his release in 2013, Takafumi has been as popular as ever. With 1 million Twitter followers, he now is known as an investor and startup guru. He’s still a founder, however, dedicating a lot of time and energy to SNS Inc, a civilian rocket development company.

Takafumi is a legendary figure in the entrepreneur community and many young founders seek his favor. The surest sign that they’ve won his stamp of approval? An invite to be interviewed by Takafumi on his online talk show, one of the most watched tech programs in Japan.

Taiga Matsuyama, co-founder and managing partner at East Ventures

Taiga is known for his contributions to Tokyo’s startup ecosystem through the Bit Valley Association, one of the city’s events aimed at gathering Japan’s internet startups. He also serves as partner at Kronos Fund, has been actively investing in early and growth-stage companies in Japan and Asia.

Taiga himself does not often seek the spotlight, but his investment track record is littered with breakout stars. Mixi, Gumi, and Mercari, to name a few, are some of his biggest hits. It’s worth noting that Mixi was founded in 1997, Gumi in 2007, and Mercari in 2013. Taiga has been spotting winners since the start of Japan’s first tech boom in the late 90s.

While many investors come to the industry from various backgrounds, Taiga is a lifelong supporter of tech in Japan. In college he helped Taizo Son (younger brother of SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son) get Yahoo Japan off the ground when the company still had less than five employees. At the time, Taiga wanted to join the firm full-time, but such a position wasn’t available. His time was not wasted though. Taiga would later help sell two different companies to Yahoo Japan.

Fast forward to today. Taiga has come a long way from the kid who wanted to join a startup. Now he is respected by billionaire founders and young entrepreneurs across the country as someone who works tirelessly to see the best and brightest of Japan build businesses that can change the country.

We can’t wait to hear insights and predictions from this duo at Tech in Asia Tokyo 2015. Catch them at our conference and if you haven’t purchased tickets yet, you can do so here. Use the code tiatokyo20 for 20 percent off.