Opportunities / Advantages

It’s easier to be an attractive startup using new technology.

There’s still a large base of strong technology talent within the depths of enterprise technology companies like Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic. These environments are less amenable to allowing new technologies like Golang, Node.js or services like GitHub, Datadog, or even Slack being used in production environments. Can you imagine trying to hire top engineering talent in the Bay Area for a team using CVS for source control management (or no SCM at all)? And yet, that’s still the case with traditional tech companies in Japan. Young engineers who’ve joined the established, big-name companies to appease their risk-averse families are realizing their entrepreneur peers are zooming ahead experimenting with and adopting newer technologies that are becoming defacto processes and tools in leading technology companies. And so these young, talented Japanese engineers perk up with puppy-dog eyes when they hear the possibility of using new tools and programming languages they’ve only read about. Done right, new tech and services can be a seriously competitive edge in building the right engineering team in Tokyo.

Awesome hack-a-thon locations — from temples to onsens to remote islands.

Hack-a-thons are not only fun, they’re important functions in growing a healthy engineering team. But why is Tokyo an ideal city for them? Because there’s no other city with the combination of 100Mbps internet available on serene Zen temple grounds accessible within an hour radius from the city center. With a bit more planning you could take your team to a different island, eat some of the healthiest cuisine known to man, and hack away.

A less diverse workforce.

The irony of a broadly less diverse work environment is that those who value it have a better chance of reaping the benefits. There’s less competition for the “eccentric” — the bilingual, tech-talented, sociable, engaging entrepreneur. It’s a lot easier to stand out and be helpful if you’re able to bridge languages & cultures. If you’re a foreigner in Tokyo, you can have an edge (whether it’s sharp or dull is up to you); who cares if you’re a foreigner in the Bay Area? The wave of US-educated Chinese returning to their home-country highlights a similar point. This advantage probably has the shortest lifespan though.

Measured simply by time-commitment, the Japanese workforce is more loyal.

Obviously there are a number of factors both controllable and not that affect workforce mobility, but in general I’ve found Japanese employees to be more loyal to their existing environment. Which means it can take longer to bring a desirable candidate in, but also means you’ll generally be given a few months notice if someone decides to leave. There are fewer surprises and less scrambling from the 2-weeks (and often less!) notice common in the Bay Area. There’s a flip-side to this of course, covered under disadvantages.

Tokyo is the world’s most livable city.

Clean, safe, world-class service, friendly people, something for everyone — Tokyo is the world’s best-kept secret (for now … ;) Enough has been written about the people and culture so I’ll just say no city is perfect, but if you can navigate the language, Tokyo is close to it.

Tokyo’s density allows for 2–3x the number of meetings per day.

In Tokyo, you can have a string of 1-hour meetings with 30min. between each. Start with a power-breakfast at 8AM, your next meeting at 9:30AM, then 11:00AM, 12:30PM, 2PM, 3:30PM, 5PM, 6:30PM, 8PM (dinner meeting). That’s 9 meetings. Yes it’s possible — I’ve done it before. I don’t recommend repeating this daily, but if you’re fundraising or hustling in sales, at least it’s possible. In the Bay Area there’s a lot of driving, even when many of the VCs are on Sandhill Road. When we were fundraising our seed round back in 2010, we maxed out at 4 meetings / day. You could probably do 5–6 meetings in San Francisco city proper, but you’ll likely be frazzled and sweating towards the end. More recently thanks to Uber you don’t have the stress of finding parking every time, but the traffic can still suck and be unpredictable. Tokyo’s impeccably reliable by-the-minute public transportation means you can pack-in a string of in-person meetings like no other. And nothing replaces f2f meetings when large sums of money are involved.

World-class cuisine — ramen, sushi, yakitori, shabu shabu

Tokyo has the most number of Michelin stars for a single city. And that’s not counting the chefs who declined to be listed because of the Michelin Guide’s tourist-friendly requirements that these chefs couldn’t be bothered to comply with. According to Anthony Bourdain, if you told any chef they would have to spend the rest of their life eating all meals in one city, all chefs would choose Tokyo.