Startups

Professional foodie Yu Nakamura, 32, has always felt like a free spirit, more comfortable off-piste than on, even if that means traversing challenging terrain. She likes variety, diversity and, perhaps most importantly, the unexpected.

In a few years, perhaps for some the most dreaded household chore may be taken over by robots.Robot startup Mira Robotics unveiled Thursday a machine that performs a range of laundry duties while controlled remotely.

As a declining rural population takes its toll on grape cultivation in Osaka Prefecture, Tomofumi Fujimaru is doing what he can to save its remaining fields from abandonment.

The government is launching a new initiative aimed at growing the number of foreigners who want to use their experience studying in Japan to start businesses here.

Japanese startups soon will be permitted to use stock options for paying outside experts who contribute to new business, under the government's latest proposal to encourage innovation.

Like many Tokyoites, Miki Takara, 53, was sipping beer and indulging in specially prepared delicacies at a bar on a recent Friday evening. But something made this scene in Tokyo’s western city of Musashino a bit different: At this bar, the only thing separating her from a concrete waste pit was a single pane of glass.

As head of a fast-growing organic rose producer, Tanaka routinely checks her farms on the outskirts of Tokyo, picks rose petals herself at harvest time and meets prospective clients during her days in the capital. She does all that while studying economics at university and taking English lessons with an eye on her business’ future overseas expansion.

Investment in startups by major Japanese enterprises nearly doubled in 2018 as businesses turned to outside technologies and ideas to fuel growth in a fast-changing environment.

By the time this year closes, Japan will have witnessed 91 initial public offerings, the second-highest tally in the past decade, to be headlined by the blockbuster debut of mobile carrier SoftBank Corp.

The Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry plans to foster start-ups in the field of nuclear power, providing funds and human resources to researchers who have developed promising technologies, to help them commercialize those technologies.