The ICT Startup League goes beyond the simple framework of entrepreneurial support to provide a platform for competition and co-creation, aiming to produce world-class startups from Japan, regardless of age, gender, region, or background. Through "oshi-katsu" (fan-like) support, an accompanying community, and the intersection of diverse talent from regional and international areas, it continues to take on the challenge of changing society from a global perspective.

Mr. Taisuke Alex Odajima, CEO of EDGEof INNOVATION LLC and a steering committee member of the ICT Startup League, experienced the excitement of the iPhone's early days. He now serves as a bridge between the global startup ecosystem and Japan, advancing projects with startup-related organizations in over 20 countries.

Why should Japanese startups aim for the global stage? What must be done to prevent Japan's talented individuals from flowing overseas? We asked him about the real sense of crisis born from facing many entrepreneurs and supporters on the front lines, and the potential that lies beyond it.

First, could you tell us about your career and your current activities?

Odajima: I was born and raised in Tokyo to a French and Japanese family. I believe this bicultural home environment has greatly influenced my current work. In my early career, I was a systems engineer and worked in the game industry, but a major turning point came in 2008, just before the iPhone was released in Japan. Right after I went independent, I happened to meet Taizo Son, the younger brother of SoftBank's Masayoshi Son.
At that time, the iPhone wasn't as widespread as it is today, and it was struggling in Japan where feature phones had become overly advanced. SoftBank couldn't do a large-scale promotion. So, there was a movement to "create a lot of apps to build excitement for the scene itself," and I jumped right into the middle of that early-day fervor. I created my own tools to analyze App Store data from around the world and ran a monthly community for individual developers. It was a chaotic environment where no one knew the right answers yet, full of ambitious go-getters, and there I learned the realities of launching a business firsthand.
Through that experience, I had the opportunity to be present when Masayoshi Son invested in overseas venture companies. When founders of promising overseas startups came to Japan, I helped with market research and acted as an interpreter from the lowest position. Being present at the very moment an investment was decided, I witnessed the dynamism of the intersection between the world and Japan.

So you truly witnessed the dawn of Japan's startup ecosystem.

Odajima: Perhaps so. After that, I handled various cross-border projects. For example, I acted as a bridge for Chinese game companies, where labor costs were soaring, to outsource to relatively cheaper and higher-quality Japanese creators. I also managed a project where an Israeli company teamed up with a Japanese development studio. When VR started to take off, I traveled to the West Coast, mainly Los Angeles, many times for a Japanese investment firm to conduct due diligence on local VR technologies.
Then in 2018, the next major turning point arrived. I co-founded the innovation hub "EDGEof" in Shibuya. We renovated an entire building next to Tower Records in Shibuya, creating a cypress tea room and Japanese garden in the basement, and installing an artificial sun on the ceiling. It became a gathering place for innovators from around the world, and in two years, about 20,000 people from over 50 countries visited. I was also fortunate enough to welcome the King and Queen of Sweden and speak with them directly about Japan's ecosystem. Through this experience, I built a network with various people from different countries, which has become the foundation of my current activities.
The building closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but leveraging that network, I now have two main activities. One is as the Japan representative for "Start2 Group," a cross-border accelerator, where I support the entry of overseas startups into Japan and the overseas expansion of Japanese companies. The other is as the Operations Manager for "Endeavor Japan," an entrepreneur community with a presence in 46 countries, where I help connect Japanese entrepreneurs to top global networks and accelerate their growth.

Having seen fast-growing startups from around the world, what do you believe are the common conditions for success?

Odajima: Ultimately, it all comes down to "people." This is universal. As a quality for an entrepreneur, first is "tenacity." No matter how cornered they are, they never give up. But just being stubborn isn't enough; you also need "flexibility." They aren't picky about the methods as long as they achieve their goal. If something doesn't work, they can quickly move on to the next thing. This quality of being "unyielding yet flexible" is common among successful entrepreneurs.
Another key trait is the "ability to get others involved." Whether they're forceful or charming, their types vary, but they have a knack for creating a support group of people who want to help them. This is extremely important. I also think they need a sensibility to take risks that ordinary people would hesitate to take.
And "timing" is also crucial. No matter how great a product is, it's meaningless if the world isn't ready for it. For example, ZOOM's biggest tailwind was the unprecedented situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. There was also a subtle background factor that VCs in San Francisco were starting to find commuting tedious due to traffic. Being able to ride such "waves" of societal change and market momentum is key. While luck plays a big part, being constantly sensitive to the world's movements is also an important ability for an entrepreneur.

The importance of "community" is often discussed in the startup ecosystem. What is the difference between a good community and one that is not?

Odajima: In my view, the decisive difference is whether the community is structured in a way that members consider the success of others as their own success.
For example, the entrepreneurs in "Endeavor," which I am involved in operating, have a very strong sense of camaraderie, despite being from different countries and industries. This is because they have a feeling of being "comrades who have eaten from the same pot," having gone through a rigorous selection process together.
When this structure exists, mutual help arises naturally. For instance, if one entrepreneur is seriously contemplating expansion into Southeast Asia, another will offer to introduce their network for free. Why? Because they believe that if their peer succeeds, the value of the Endeavor community as a whole will increase, which in turn will increase their own value. This circulation of the "spirit of giving" is the mark of a living community.
Conversely, if people are just gathered together without such an awareness, the community becomes a mere shell. If you only think about your own benefit, a true chemical reaction will not occur.

Does this theory of community also connect to your reason for participating in the ICT Startup League?

Odajima: Exactly. There are two major issues I'm always thinking about. First, far too few people in Japan aim to become entrepreneurs. Second, those precious few entrepreneurs tend to think, "I'll expand overseas after I succeed in Japan," but by then, it's too late. Even if they aim for overseas later, their business model and organizational structure have been optimized for the domestic market, making it nearly impossible.
That's precisely why I wanted to join this league, where early-stage startups whose businesses are not yet set in stone gather. I wanted to convey the importance of instilling a global perspective from the very beginning, to say, "No, no, let's build a globally-minded structure right now." And I hope this league will become a "real community" where members can rejoice in each other's success, just as I described. That is the primary reason I joined.

Do you believe that Japanese startups have the potential to compete globally?

Odajima: Of course. For example, their strengths related to content are extremely high, and there are many interesting companies. Also, on a slightly different note, there's a Japanese startup that has become a savior for the shrimp farming industry in Thailand by developing a technology to disinfect water with special light without polluting it. So, the technologies and ideas that can make a global impact definitely exist.
However, what is critically lacking are the "mentors" with the knowledge to turn that potential into a successful global business. Even though there are major Japanese corporations skilled in handling intellectual property, there are extremely few people with experience in how to scale that as a startup or how to raise funds from overseas investors.
That's why I believe I have a role to play in this league. It's to help "increase the resolution of the overseas market." Not just a vague term like "overseas," but whether it's America or Southeast Asia, and which segment within that. By helping them identify a high-resolution initial market as a foothold and thinking through the strategy for it together. By being that sounding board, I believe I can make their first step onto the world stage a more certain one.

Are there any other barriers for Japanese startups when they go global?

Odajima: This isn't just a problem on the startup side, but I feel there's an illusion in Japan, something like a "pitch-supremacy" culture. A pitch is merely a way to get someone interested; it's not supposed to be what secures funding on its own.
Top VCs in the U.S. always use established methods like COMPS (comparable company analysis) to objectively analyze a company's value. They would never invest without rigorous due diligence. But in Japan, there are still quite a few VCs who invest because "it seems interesting," with a mindset close to that of the TV show "Money Tigers" (the original "Shark Tank"), without proper analysis. This is because the Japanese VC industry has undergone a "Galapagos-like" evolution, which often results in situations that don't benefit startups, such as giving up a large amount of equity for an unusually low valuation or being put under excessive pressure for an early IPO.

Listening to you, it feels less like individual issues and more like we're arriving at a structural problem within Japan's entire ecosystem.

Odajima: That's exactly right. That's why I think Japan today is very similar to the "Bakumatsu" period at the end of the Edo era.

The Bakumatsu period?

Odajima: Yes. Just like the shogunate and samurai families back then, money is flowing to vested interests that produce nothing, and it's being wastefully distributed. As a result, society resists evolution and becomes rigid. While this happens, foreign countries are getting stronger and stronger, and before we know it, a power gap has emerged that we can't possibly overcome. I feel we are now at a critical point where Japan will be ruined if this continues.
The one and greatest difference from the Bakumatsu period is that back then, talented individuals could not leave Japan. They had no choice but to "change Japan." But now it's different. Truly talented people will leave the country rather than struggle to change a Japan full of cumbersome regulations and old customs. In fact, the brain drain of talented individuals is progressing at a tremendous pace.

How urgent is this sense of crisis?

Odajima: I believe that if we can't change the situation in the next five years, it will be too late to turn back. Right now in Japan, money that should be going towards new industries and innovation is being wasted, much like the samurai of the Bakumatsu period spent money on armor maintenance and ceremonial processions even in times of peace. It feels like a pointless life-support measure for a futureless system.
If we can stop this waste and redirect that money and talent not to protect the old, but to create the new—if we can focus on that one point, Japan still has room to evolve.
As French President Macron says, for a country's economy to survive, startups must be nurtured. The startup ecosystem is not just a part of economic activity; it is the very engine for revitalizing the nation's industrial structure and creating the future. It's necessary for the entire country to share this common understanding. I believe that is the only way to overcome this "Bakumatsu" period.