2015 was an exciting year for the steadily-growing Japanese startup ecosystem. The country doesn’t have the huge investment amounts seen in China, the youthful demographics of Southeast Asia, the government support of Korea, or the sheer scale of India. But as the corporate tech sector struggles to innovate and entrepreneurs break away from the safety net of lifetime employment, startups are finally getting noticed on the national and international stage.
Largely gone are the days when outsiders would ask, “Does Japan even have startups?” That’s been replaced by the much more common question: “What are the hottest Japanese startups?” You’ll come across a few of them on this list. Notable funding rounds and the entrance of some foreign heavyweights into the country are on there, too. There may even be a couple of surprises, in the form of profiles or other quirky discoveries that you saw first here on Tech in Asia.
Here are 10 of our most popular stories from Japan over the past year, in no particular order:
Raksul makes printing sexy, more than 30-million-dollars sexy
In a digital world, a startup that focuses on printing might not sound like the smartest idea out there. Well, anyone who’s been to Japan understands that you can’t go to a meeting without a big stack of business cards in your bag. Raksul connects its users to nearby brick-and-mortar printers so they can print namecards and much more for the lowest price, and it raised US$33.7 million to do so.
Read the full story here.
X Japan’s Yoshiki disputes the music subscription model
Japan’s biggest rock god made a surprise appearance at the New Economy Summit in April to talk entrepreneurship with Rakuten founder Hiroshi Mikitani. He also dropped a pretty controversial bombshell about his reluctance to embrace artist-owned streaming services like Tidal – saying instead that ISPs should charge customers who stream more and give that “tax” back to content creators.
Read the full story here.
Line joins the ride-hailing race
Move over, Uber. Japan’s hottest messenger, in a bid to morph into an all-encompassing lifestyle app, added a taxi hailing service to its roster way back in January.
Read the full story here.
Gumi’s ‘IPO hangover’
As Gumi geared up for its IPO, many expected to see the emergence of yet another Japanese mobile gaming unicorn. The company instead was forced to revise a US$10.6 million profit to a US$5 million loss post-exit, largely on poor performance in international markets. Shortly after that announcement, Gumi’s South Korean operation was caught up in an embezzlement scandal.
Read the full story here.
Japan gets its own Xiaomi
UPQ came out of nowhere in August, unveiling 24 consumer electronics products that went from idea to production in just two months. With a budget phone, an action cam, and a slew of accessories included in its initial release, it felt a lot like the Japanese version of Xiaomi.
Read the full profile here.
Stripe enters Japan
Metaps raises a rare series C round to the tune of $36m
Vietnamese-American YouTube celebrity Michelle Phan brings her businesses to Asia
Moneytree raises funding from all 3 Japanese megabanks
Awful startup offers wakeup calls from underaged girls
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