The Coral Capital Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Welcome to another episode of The Coral Capital Podcast, a show where we bring on guests from tech, business, politics, and culture to talk about all things Japan.

In this episode, economist and long-time Japan optimist Jesper Koll breaks down how Japan is faring amid rising global protectionism, demographic shifts, and geopolitical uncertainty. A resident of Japan since 1986, Jesper has spent decades at the forefront of Japan analysis and investment, having served as chief strategist and head of research for JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch. He currently advises Monex Group, sits on the Japan Catalyst Fund’s investment committee, and serves on multiple high-level advisory boards, including Governor Yuriko Koike’s.

Jesper warns that a Trump 2.0 presidency could trigger a double whammy for Japan: a weaker dollar slashing Japanese corporate profits and an aggressive U.S. tariff regime pushing China to dump exports into Southeast Asia—hurting Japan’s industrial giants in the process. But he's still bullish on Japan.

Why? Jesper sees Japan as “capitalism that works”—a system quietly modernizing under the radar. From record M&A and MBO activity to a younger generation of CEOs open to change, Japan is entering a new phase of productivity and openness. He highlights the ongoing shift to performance-based pay, increased immigration, and growing startup dynamism as key signs of this transformation.

• Why a weaker dollar is Japan’s silent earnings risk: With two-thirds of Japanese listed company profits coming from overseas, a 10-yen appreciation can slash earnings by 8%. If Trump 2.0 weakens the dollar, Japan takes a hit—fast.
• Japan isn’t insular—it’s hyper-globalized: Despite its reputation, Japan generates a higher percentage of corporate profits overseas than the U.S. or Germany. From Daichi Life to Toyota, Japan’s biggest firms are already global players.
• The real threat of Trump’s China policy is deflation via the Global South: U.S. tariffs could force China to dump excess goods into Southeast Asia, undercutting Japanese firms not just on price, but now on quality too.
• Made in Japan = 30~40% price premium: Companies like Shiseido are relocating production to Japan not for politics, but for branding. “Brand-shoring” is about value, not alliances.
• Why energy—not labor—is Japan’s factory hurdle: Labor can be automated. The real constraint on manufacturing in Japan may be uncertainty around energy costs and nuclear policy.
• Japan’s brain gain is real—and measurable: While the population shrinks, immigration is quietly surging. Every day, 1,200 people get 3-year work permits. Companies are adapting with performance-based pay, not seniority resulting in higher talent liquidity.
• Record M&A and MBOs aren’t a coincidence: As Japan’s CEOs get younger and legacy-heavy firms face succession issues, a wave of corporate transformation is underway. “Metabolism,” Jesper says, is up.
• What Japan needs most is inheritance tax reform: MacArthur’s anti-zaibatsu policies made sense post-WWII. But now, without reform, Japan risks losing its $4.5T+ generational wealth transfer to debt paydown instead of innovation.
• Japan ‘s “capitalism that works”: A system that’s democratic, fair, globally integrated, and quietly undergoing a transformation from within.

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For founders building Japan's next legendary companies, reach out to us here: https://coralcap.co/contact-startups/

If you're interested in joining a Coral startup, join our talent network here: https://coralcap.co/coral-careers/

Welcome to another episode of The Coral Capital Podcast, a show where we bring on guests from tech, business, politics, and culture to talk about all things Japan.

In this episode, we’re joined by Claire Hughes Johnson, Corporate Officer and Advisor at Stripe, and the company’s former Chief Operating Officer. From 2014 to 2021, Claire played a pivotal role in scaling Stripe’s operations, growing the team from under 200 to over 7,000 employees while leading a wide range of functions including sales, marketing, customer support, HR, and risk. Prior to joining Stripe, Claire spent 10 years at Google, where she led several business teams, including Consumer Operations, AdWords Online Sales & Operations, Google Offers, and served as VP of Google’s self-driving car project.

Claire is also the author of Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building, a Wall Street Journal bestseller that has quickly become a must-read for startup founders and operators. The book is now available in Japanese, and we cover key topics from it, including:

• Why title inflation is a ticking time bomb: Offering inflated titles early on might help close a hire—but it almost always backfires later.
• Self-awareness as a leadership foundation: The most effective leaders deeply understand their strengths and blind spots. Without that baseline, building a truly complementary team—or scaling yourself—is nearly impossible.
• Scaling culture across borders: Going global means more than just localization. Stripe built a culture understanding program that mapped national differences against company values—allowing local teams to adapt while staying aligned.
• How defensive processes kill velocity: Startups often overcorrect after mistakes by layering on rigid processes. The better approach is to build a process that creates repeatable excellence.
• Navigating team transitions with empathy: Not everyone grows at the same pace as the company. Having tough conversations early—framed as shared observations rather than judgments—can turn painful exits into respectful transitions.
• AI is reshaping company building: With AI amplifying productivity in roles like engineering and support, teams can stay smaller—but the talent bar rises. That makes hiring, management, and retention more critical than ever.

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For founders building Japan's next legendary companies, reach out to us here: https://coralcap.co/contact-startups/

If you're interested in joining a Coral startup, join our talent network here: https://coralcap.co/coral-careers/

Welcome to another episode of The Coral Capital Podcast, a show about startups, technology, and venture capital with a focus on Japan and Asia.

In this episode, we chat with Mark Suster, a Partner at Upfront Ventures. Upfront is one of LA’s most prominent venture capital firms, renowned for backing companies like Ring, GOAT, Overture, and even Starbucks back in the day. Mark was previously the founder & CEO of two successful enterprise software companies, the most recent of which was sold to Salesforce.com. Prior to being a founder, Mark was a software developer at Accenture where he lived and worked in Europe, Japan and the U.S. 

In this episode we discuss:

• How Japanese startups can win globally
• Uncovering the truth about unicorn companies
• Top VC firms reducing the size of their funds
• 50% of seed funds disappearing
• Advice for startups considering fundraising
• Love decay - how entrepreneurs and investors can nurture "love"

Welcome to another episode of The Coral Capital Podcast, a show about startups, technology, and venture capital with a focus on Japan and Asia.

This episode is a fireside chat with Ming Maa, the Group President of Grab. Initially established as a taxi-hailing app in Malaysia back in 2012, Grab has evolved into the leading super app in Southeast Asia and the region's first decacorn. It empowers the region's economy through a diverse range of services, including transportation, delivery, and finance. As President, Ming is responsible for corporate development activities, such as strategic partnerships and investment opportunities at Grab. Ming has over 12 years of experience in private equity investment at Softbank Group, Ancora Capital Management, and Goldman Sachs. During his tenure at Softbank, based in Tokyo, he oversaw investments in the ridesharing and e-commerce sectors, including Softbank’s Series D and Series F investments into Grab. 

In this episode, we discuss:

• How Grab started as a for-profit, social enterprise

• What is a super app and how Grab approached its super app strategy

• What differentiated Grab from Kuaidi Dache and OlaCabs

• How hyper-localization wins customers and markets

• How Grab hyper localized to beat Uber

• Experimenting and measuring platform success

• Concentrating on the North Star

• Strategic investments through Grab Ventures

Welcome to another episode of The Coral Capital Podcast, a show about startups, technology, and venture capital with a focus on Japan and Asia.

In this episode we chat with Andrew Chen, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, where he invests in games, AR/VR, metaverse, and consumer tech startups. He is on the boards of Clubhouse, Substack, Z League, Sleeper, Snackpass, All Day Kitchens, Sandbox VR, Reforge, Maven, Practice, and others.

He is a prolific writer on user growth, metrics, and network effects at andrewchen.com and has been cited on Wired, WSJ, and The New York Times.

In this episode we discuss a broad range of topics focused on his book, The Cold Start Problem: How to Start and Scale Network Effects, which was just published in Japanese. We cover:

• What motivated Andrew to write a book on “network effects”
• The power of network effects and and real-world examples
• Why it’s critical to identify the “hard side” of a network
• How Tinder solved the cold start problem
• Why Google+ didn’t take off despite enormous distribution channels
• What are the key metrics that signal network effects
• What was going on behind the scenes when Clubhouse went viral

If you enjoy this episode, please make sure to follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Google Podcasts.

Welcome to another episode of The Coral Capital Podcast, a show about startups, technology, and venture capital with a focus on Japan and Asia.

In this episode, we chat with Richard Pearson, Chief Innovator & UK Director and Shutaro Takeda, Chief Strategist at Kyoto Fusioneering (a Coral Capital portfolio company). Kyoto Fusioneering is a nuclear fusion startup founded in 2019.

Their business model is unique in that they develop and sell key components and technologies for fusion power plants to other companies focused on building the reactors themselves. Since they are selling the “picks & shovels” to those mining for fusion gold, they are able to generate revenue much earlier than other fusion startups.

Japan is uniquely positioned for this industry due to the fact that it has a wide-range of manufacturing and nuclear engineering expertise, as well as companies that can assemble equipment to cater to the needs of the global fusion industry.

In this episode we discuss:

• What is fusion is why it is the holy grail of clean energy
• Why nuclear fusion has yet to be commercialized
• How Kyoto Fusioneering is the Levi Strauss of the fusion industry
• The Japanese manufacturing companies that are behind the nuclear power industry
• Kyoto Fusioneering’s integrated testing facility for fusion power plants
• Advice for deep-tech founders aiming to build a global business

If you enjoy this episode, please make sure to follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Google Podcasts.

Welcome to another episode of The Coral Capital Podcast, a show about startups, technology, and venture capital with a focus on Japan and Asia.

In this episode, we chat with Sho Nakanose, founder and CEO of GITAI (a Coral Capital portfolio company). GITAI is a space robotics startup founded in 2016. Prior to founding GITAI, he successfully built and sold a tech company in India.

Since founding, GITAI has been able to recruit some of the best roboticists in Japan, including the key engineers from SCHAFT, the Japanese robotics company acquired by Google in 2013. In 2021, GITAI’s autonomous robot arm successfully demonstrated two tasks in the International Space Station (ISS): 1) assembling structures and panels for in-space assembly; and 2) operating switches & cables for intra-vehicular activity. GITAI aims to reduce human labor costs in space by more than 90%, similar to how SpaceX revolutionized the space industry by drastically reducing costs.

In this episode we discuss:

• GITAI’s three businesses: space stations, satellites and the moon
• Why it makes sense to send autonomous robots into space
• What are the space businesses that will take off in a short term and long term
• How agile development can reduce the cost of space robots
• Leveraging the talent pool in Japan
• Key ingredients to attract top talent

If you enjoy this episode, please make sure to follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Google Podcasts.

Welcome to another episode of The Coral Capital Podcast, a show about startups, technology, and venture capital with a focus on Japan and Asia.

In this episode, we chat with Sam Rosenblum, a Partner at Haun Ventures. Haun Ventures is a crypto focused venture capital firm founded by former a16z Partner Katie Haun in 2022 with a record $1.5 billion debut fund. Prior to Haun Ventures, Sam was a Partner at Polychain Capital, another leading crypto-focused investment firm. He was also an early team member at Coinbase, where he focused on business development, traveling across the globe to meet both government officials and crypto enthusiasts.

In this episode we discuss:

• Why Sam left Visa to join Coinbase, a fledgling startup with just 30 people
• Global crypto regulations, and how Japan compares
• Why Japanese authorities were so eager to learn about crypto early on
• Differences between Web 2 investments and Web 3 investments
• Will Ethereum ever surpass Bitcoin? Thoughts on “The flippening”
• When will the crypto winter end?

If you enjoy this episode, please make sure to follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Google Podcasts.

Welcome to another episode of The Coral Capital Podcast, a show about startups, technology, and venture capital with a focus on Japan and Asia.

In this episode, we chat with Kathy Matsui, General Partner of MPower Partners, Japan’s first ESG-focused VC founded in 2021. Most people will know her for coining the term "Womenomics" in her groundbreaking report published when she was at Goldman Sachs. Her research put gender diversity front and center of Japanese government policies in the years that followed.

She was chosen by The Wall Street Journal as one of the "10 Women to Watch in Asia" and was also named to Bloomberg Markets magazine’s “50 Most Influential” list in 2014.

In this episode we discuss:

• How and why Kathy came to Japan as a Japanese American
• Her experience working at financial institutions in Tokyo
• Why she loves Japanese office attire
• What drove Kathy to author her influential report on “womenomics”
• Changes Japan has seen in terms of women’s labor market participation
• Tailwinds to raise an ESG-focused fund in Japan
• Why startups should care about ESG
• Practical applications of ESG at startups

If you enjoy this episode, please make sure to follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Google Podcasts.

Welcome to another episode of The Coral Capital Podcast, a show about startups, technology, and venture capital with a focus on Japan and Asia broadly.

In this episode, we chat with Ernest M. Higa, Founder of Domino’s Japan, and essentially the godfather of pizza delivery in Japan.

In this episode we discuss:

• How and why Higa started Domino’s in Tokyo four decades ago.
• The assumptions people had about the Japan market.
• What was localized, and what was not.
• Online ordering in the early days of the internet.
• Future of food delivery and dining.

If you enjoy this episode, please make sure to follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Google Podcasts.