Ecosystem at a GlanceNovember 2026Published by Openfor.co, from Tokyo

The people behind the work.

Investors, founders, mentors and members we work with every week. Each conversation becomes a feature you can read, with the video beside it.

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Hosted by Erdinc Ekinci and Yu Li Shein

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In their words

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Members at work

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More members on the wallA few of the people building next to them.

Mentors and investors

The people who sit across the table every week.

250+ mentors in 30 countries. More than 80% of them are investors. These are some of the faces members met this year.

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Organisations

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From the Atlas

The reports behind the people.

The Atlas is our open database of who supports founders, country by country. These reports come out of it.

8,742 entries in 62 countries. Open, and corrected by anyone.Investors, mentors, programmes, media, corporates, venues and partner programmes.

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Ecosystem at a Glance

Panel · 69 min · Japan · Selling

Starting a startup in Japan: what every entrepreneur needs to know

Founders and mentors who live and build in Japan share the honest version: the bank account problem, the long sales process, and how to read a polite meeting.

JHJamiel HamptonNaka Industries

Richard OrmanFounderProfile ↗SSandrineFounderMMarieFounderSSydneyFounder

Erdinc EkinciHostProfile ↗

Watch the conversation

8founders, builders and mentors on the panel

Halfset up their company in Japan, half abroad

Many meetingsbefore trust, often with no agenda

01The first walls

The panel started with the practical problems, and the first one was banking. Opening a company bank account is hard, so many founders keep their company and accounts abroad and operate from there. That has a cost: some things, such as a business manager visa, need a local setup.

About half of the people on the panel registered their company in Japan. The others registered abroad and live here.

02Reading a polite meeting

Working with Japanese partners and investors means giving a lot of detailed information up front. Vision matters, and so does being precise. The sales process is long, so patience is part of the job.

One panelist described the hardest skill. Meetings are polite and people agree politely, but you cannot rely on the politeness. You have to watch what is not said, and you have to allow silence. Erdinc added his own view: people say Japanese companies do not trust foreigners, but often it is the foreigners who cannot read the room.

“You have polite conversation, polite agreement, but you can't trust this politeness.”
From the conversationHear it at 31:04

03How trust gets built

It takes many meetings, and often there is no agenda. The meeting exists to keep the relationship going. Bring something new each time, such as a piece of research. Try to guess the objections, because they may not be spoken.

The strongest help is an introduction from someone inside. It makes everything easier in Japan. One more tip: other foreigners working inside Japanese companies are a natural first contact.

Building trust, as the panel described it

Get introduced by an insider
Give detailed information early
Meet often, even without an agenda
Bring something new each time
Listen for the objection nobody says

What to take with you

Sort out banking and visa questions before anything else.
Be precise and detailed from the first meeting.
A polite yes is not a yes. Watch for what is unsaid.
Keep the relationship warm with regular, useful contact.
An introduction from an insider is worth more than any pitch.

This feature is an editorial summary of a public conversation hosted by Erdinc Ekinci. Quotes come from the recording and are lightly trimmed. Figures are the speaker's own. Nothing here is investment advice.