Japanese phones had mobile payments and TV years before the iPhone, then vanished. That pattern has a name.
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Japan Company Stories
Expert guides, analysis and tool comparisons on Japan Company Stories from the kurums.com Startup desk — written for business decision-makers and updated as the market moves.
- 55 guides
- 11 subtopics
- Updated Jul 25, 2026
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Japan’s Transplant Factories: Exporting a System
Japanese transplant factories proved production systems were transferable engineering, not cultural artifacts.
Deming and Japan’s Quality Revolution
American quality ideas that America ignored transformed Japanese industry, then returned West decades later.
Kaizen: Why Small Improvements Beat Big Reorganizations
Kaizen compounds thousands of tiny frontline improvements into advantages that reorganizations never achieve.
Monozukuri: The Japanese Philosophy of Making Things
Monozukuri treats manufacturing as craft rather than cost, explaining both Japanese quality and Japanese over-engineering.
Sakana AI: Tokyo’s Bet on a Different Kind of AI
Sakana AI put world-class AI researchers in Tokyo and bet on efficiency over brute-force scaling.
SmartNews: A Japanese App That Tried America
SmartNews became a rare Japanese consumer unicorn and made a serious run at the American market.
Preferred Networks: Japan’s Industrial AI Champion
Preferred Networks bet that Japan’s AI advantage lies in factories and robotics rather than consumer apps.
Mercari: Japan’s Flagship Startup Success
Mercari made selling used goods effortless in Japan, then discovered the formula did not export easily.
Why Japan Has So Few Unicorns
Japan’s startup shortage is structural, not cultural cliche, and several of those structures are now changing.
Why Warren Buffett Bought Japan’s Trading Houses
Berkshire bought all five Japanese trading houses, funded with cheap yen debt, and reframed global views of corporate Japan.
Nomura: The Bold Bet on Lehman Brothers
Nomura bought Lehman’s Asian and European arms days after the collapse, then wrestled with the culture clash.