Rising - Episode Guide

The number of foreign tourists to Japan reached its all-time high in 2014. Tourism is now Japan's key to economic growth. Kentaro Suda is CEO of a travel company specializing in inbound tourism. Realizing the fact that 80% of tourists to Japan come from other Asian countries, he linked up with over 1,400 travel companies across Asia and quickly raised his company's profile - in 4 years, the company went from just 2 customers to 67,000. Learn Suda's secret behind this remarkable growth.

Hyogo Prefecture is home to a medical team that rides the helicopter to save lives in mountain communities that do not have access to advanced emergency treatments. Dr. Makoto Kobayashi's Air Ambulance team has been making the most number of emergency calls in Japan since they started operation 5 years ago, and the survival rate of patients with severe external injury have increased 5 times. Dr. Kobayashi's innovative ideas are helping to win the race against time in life-or-death situations.

With exhibitions and events both in Japan and abroad, the moving calligraphy of Shoko Kanazawa is attracting global attention that has seen her invited to New York to help raise awareness about Down Syndrome. Shoko learned the art from her mother Yasuko, and though life now is happy for the pair, fears for her disabled daughter's future once drove Yasuko to thoughts of ending it all. In this program, we introduce a mother and daughter striving to dispel misconceptions about disability.

For 5 generations, the family of Kosuke Kuji has run Nanbu Bijin, a famed sake brewery in Iwate Prefecture. Yet, as domestic sake sales have stagnated over the last 20 years, Kuji has travelled the world to develop overseas markets. Sensing an opportunity in the 2013 addition of washoku, or Japanese cuisine, to UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage list, Kuji is turning to new markets such as Australia in a bid to fulfill his dream of raising a cup of sake with people all around the world.

Agriculture in Japan faces many issues including an aging and declining workforce. Hiroki Iwasa, the representative of a farming corporation, is trying to change the industry. Using smart agriculture, he is revolutionizing strawberry production to grow luxury fruit selling for 1,000 yen each. By transforming farmers' experience and intuition into concrete data controlled by computer, he has built a system allowing all farmers to efficiently cultivate high quality produce. We follow his efforts to turn Japanese agriculture into a world-leading industry.

Mitsuru Izumo is the CEO of bio-venture firm Euglena, named after a microorganism with enormous potential as a future food and energy source. Euglena is rich in nutrients and can also be processed to make bio-fuel. As a freshman at the University of Tokyo, Izumo visited Bangladesh where he was shocked to find many children suffering from malnutrition. He vowed to help them. After extensive research, he discovered a way to mass-produce euglena. Now, he is on a mission to save the world with his discovery.

What kind of life awaits Japan's estimated 10 million baby boomers as more and more of them enter retirement? Mio Katagiri is the representative of Ginza Second Life, a firm that supports seniors who wish to continue working despite their advancing years. Katagiri's background in law and finance, along with a desire to assist the older generation, has helped to create a business that has so far helped some 650 companies get off the ground, and is attracting attention from all over the world.

Medical tests at just 500 yen per criterion; on-the-spot results; and advice from a trained nurse: all features of the "self health check", a revolutionary healthcare business founded by Takashi Kawazoe. With plans for expansion into India in Autumn 2015, Kawazoe is already turning his attention to markets outside Japan. We follow this young entrepreneur, whose innovative system aims to provide opportunities for newly graduated nurses, and also offers an on-call home nursing service.

With many traditional Japanese crafts facing decline, Rika Yajima founded a brand seeking to preserve such artisanship in a novel way: offering traditionally made goods aimed at children and babies. Combining aesthetic refinement with functionality, her range includes baby clothes given anti-UV, insect-repellent and thermal properties by ancient indigo-dyeing techniques; and the "unspillable" dishware series, featuring bowls with an inner ridge to help children nudge food onto their spoons.

Japan's unique yuru-kyara costumed promotional mascots are in the midst of a boom. And the maker behind many of the movement's biggest stars is Kigurumi.biz, led by Hiromi Kano. Her highly skilled staffs have a love for their work that gives birth to lovable characters, and with Japan's yuru-kyara attracting increasing global attention, the firm is also starting to receive orders from overseas. We follow Kano and her team as they take costumed Japanese cuteness to the world.

Although Japan's long-established fresh fish industry is said to be worth around 3 trillion yen a year, a lack of new blood has recently brought the sector close to stagnation. But help is at hand in the form of innovator Masanari Matsuda (35), who has introduced tablet computing to circumvent lengthy supply chains, cutting the time from trawler to table to as little as one day. We learn about the unique business model of the man striving to bring Japan's consumers the world's freshest fish.

Takako Yamada runs an online English school based in the Philippines. Licensed local instructors teach students in Japan via videotelephony, and the company also offers scholarships to train young instructors from disadvantaged backgrounds. Yamada's aim is to build a society in which anyone can fulfill their dreams, and one new project aims to teach vocational skills. We follow Yamada as she works hand in hand with her Filipino staff to give impoverished young people a brighter future.

Becoming a sushi chef once took long years as an apprentice. Makoto Fukue turned this world on its head in 2002 when he opened Tokyo Sushi Academy, Japan's first vocational college for sushi chefs. A staff of experienced pros has so far equipped some 3,000 graduates from around the globe with the skills to preserve the Edomae sushi tradition. 2013 brought a Singapore branch, and with a second Tokyo school opening this fall, we meet a business on a mission to preserve Japan's culinary heritage.

The 1989 Hollywood hit Back to the Future Part II, saw a time-travelling DeLorean return from the year 2015, fitted with a device to use trash as fuel. Fast forward to the real 2015 to meet Masaki Takao, the man who made this technology a reality by recycling discarded clothing to make biofuel as well as developing recycling techniques, Takao has enlisted retailers and the government to engage the public in a groundbreaking garment-collection scheme. Now he hopes recycling can change the world.

Recent years have seen Japan's fisheries hit by issues like global warming, overfishing, and a lack of new blood, with overall catches down to a third of their one-time peak. Professor Masaaki Wada is a pioneer in the field of Marine IT, using the latest technology to facilitate sustainable fishing. Schemes including the use of tablet computers to promote data sharing among fishermen have brought a sharp recovery in diminished stocks, even attracting requests of assistance from outside Japan.

A groundbreaking meals-on-wheels service provides the sick with bento meals tailored to their individual medical requirements by trained dieticians, who also offer over-the-phone nutritional advice. We meet Kosuke Abe, who came up with this business model that moves dieticians from a supporting role to center stage. Driven by the motto "food comes first", he is committed to demonstrating how nutrition can improve a patient's condition before the need for medical treatment.

Yuya Nakamura is President and CEO of a company currently drawing attention from around the world through the development of compact satellites. The advantage of the firm's microsatellites is their low cost, with the process from design through to launch said to require only one tenth of the budget typically needed for the larger devices familiar in years gone by. Nakamura's company has breathed fresh life into an industry that was once the preserve of state-funded projects.

Hirofumi Seo uses cutting-edge computer graphics to visualize the most complex medical data. After securing the University of Tokyo President's Grand Award for his work as an expert forensic witness, elucidating exact details of victims' wounds, in 2015 he won a category prize at leading CGI conference SICGRAPH, for his digital recreation of the human heart. Seo now seeks to revolutionize clinical practice with a virtual surgery simulator to train physicians to perform tricky liver operations.

In 2010, Toru Tokushige founded Terra Motors with the goal of being largest producer of two and three-wheeled electric vehicles in the world. Operating from a tiny office, he managed to capture the Japanese market after only 2 years and is now expanding into countries throughout Asia where vehicle exhaust is a major environmental problem. Tokushige personally leads sales team around the world, leading to skyrocketed sales in Nepal. Meet the man behind this "mega venture".

Kohei Hayamizu is the founder of Soundpower, a company trying to solve the energy problems facing the global community through entirely novel means. His kinetic energy generation system converts the vibrations from everyday actions like walking and driving into electricity, for the ultimate in locally produced, locally consumed clean energy. Recent projects harness this technology to boost security both in Japan and overseas. Meet a man striving to help create an energy-harvesting society.

With mottainai, the Japanese word for "waste", gaining currency around the world, one Japanese entrepreneur is using the term as the inspiration for an innovative web-based business. Akiko Nishiura runs a website which finds uses for dormant urban spaces, such as residential driveways, the entrance spaces of buildings, and shops outside of business hours. By utilizing these wasted spaces, Nishiura seeks to boost the Japanese economy with a firm that deals in untapped potential.

Japan's corporate culture has a reputation for discouraging independent thinking. Daichi Konuma created International Corporate Volunteering Program. It connects workers from some of Japan's most recognizable companies with over 200 NGO's in 8 emerging countries in Asia. Participants use their professional skills to develop solutions to that country's needs. By fusing global corporate social responsibility with human resources development, Konuma is pioneering a new field of opportunities.

When the Olympic games come to Tokyo in 2020, robot taxis may already be a common sight. Led by Hisashi Taniguchi, robotics venture company ZMP caused a major stir by announcing a collaboration with the company DeNA to bring these futuristic vehicles to market. Taniguchi is also involved in schemes featuring self-piloting drones and robot carts designed to reduce injuries in the shipping industry. We follow his efforts to promote safe, fun, convenient lifestyles through robotics.

As Japanese tea grows in popularity around the world, more and more people from overseas are being drawn to a plantation on the outskirts of Kyoto. From a base in Wazuka, an area famed for high-quality ujicha tea, Akihiro Kita runs a business that sells to 65 countries around the world. The firm uses online content, seminars, and a 3-month intern program that offers the chance to get hands-on experience of tea-picking and tasting to spread the appeal of Japanese tea around the world.

With Japan's population aging, around 2 million adults now use diapers, and incontinence management is a major burden for many elderly citizens and their carers. We follow the work of professional carer Yoshimi Ui, who is developing a bed sheet equipped with odor sensors and wireless technology to automatically monitor discharge within a patient's diaper. By relaying regular updates to carers, this revolutionary device removes the need to regularly check a patient's undergarments directly.

To many in Japan, industrial waste disposal carries an image tarnished by practices such as illegal dumping. Since inheriting her family recycling business aged 30, Noriko Ishizaka has overseen reforms intended to transform the firm's reputation. A new eco-friendly plant, an employee training drive, superb recycling technology and a commitment to regreening have won praise in Japan and overseas, and earned the trust of local residents. We follow this company's change from pariah to paragon.

In recent years, economic pressures have seen numerous Japanese watch brands send the production of their devices overseas, forcing the closure of domestic plants that had long upheld Japan's watchmaking tradition. To preserve this heritage, Hiromitsu Endo enlisted plants that had lost major contracts to launch a brand rooted in the appeal of the "Made in Japan" mark. With some 6,000 custom designs, and the creative use of traditional crafts, the brand is winning many fans in Japan and overseas.

Orihime is a desktop avatar robot that can be controlled remotely from anywhere in the world. Its creator, Kentaro Yoshifuji was inspired by his own childhood experiences of suffering from loneliness to produce a robot to connect those unable, through physical illness or anxiety, to leave their homes and interact with others. Unlike AI-equipped robots, Orihime is human controlled, allowing users to participate by proxy at conferences or school, with eye-tracking controls under development for those with full paralysis.

With many children across Japan unable to find a place in nursery daycare, Hiroki Komazaki, CEO of NPO Florence, is leading efforts to meet the childcare needs of working families. From 2010, using empty urban properties, he launched daycare centers with space for 10 kids, successfully pushing for nationwide licensing for nurseries with fewer than 20 places. His other innovations include Japan's first home daycare service for sick children, and services for kids with disabilities.

In Bangkok, Thailand, a Japanese-style dry cleaning and laundry service is currently attracting widespread attention. Driving this success are the efforts of local factory manager Makoto Seino, and sales representative Toshiyuki Abe. The firm's superlative service combines Japanese methods with skilled local operators and the latest machinery. We follow 2 men embracing a foreign culture to promote Japanese-style cleanliness overseas.

Toshihiro Nakamura founded a social business providing simple, durable, affordable technology to developing countries. The goal is to improve lifestyles, while boosting both productivity and incomes.

At-home medical care. But unlike traditional on-call emergency care, this service sees doctors and nurses visit patients regularly, as part of a treatment plan. With some 26% of Japan's population now aged 65 or over, more and more elderly patients are limited to their homes. Physician Shinsuke Muto is revolutionizing home health care, with clinics whose dispatch staff utilizes communications technology to optimize efficiency, and similar schemes in tsunami-hit Ishinomaki and aging Singapore.

In Switzerland this fall, athletes and the technologies behind their prosthetic limbs were put to the test at the world's first Cybathlon. The competition attracted researchers from around the world. Masahiro Kasuya brings 2 innovative technologies: a prosthetic hand that allows control of each finger individually and a technology that allows people paralyzed from the waist down to pedal a bicycle. Meet the young researcher who hopes to eliminate physical barriers from around the world.

To rent an apartment in Japan, tenants have long needed to name a guarantor - usually Japanese, with a steady income. But this rule, intended to safeguard owners against non-payment of rent, can exclude non-Japanese from the housing market. Hiroyuki Goto runs a firm striving to promote Japan's internationalization with a guarantor service for international students, and multilingual support that helps foreign clients navigate complex garbage-disposal rules and other potential difficulties.

As diets in Japan become increasingly Westernized, obesity and lifestyle diseases are on the rise. Average daily intake of fruit and vegetables is well below the recommended minimum, and falling year by year. Ryozo Kawagishi is the CEO of KOMPEITO, a business changing attitudes to fresh produce by providing fruit and veg for office workers to snack on during break times. And with its update on traditional Japanese medicine, this service is also providing a boost for farmers nationwide.

Japanese whisky is currently undergoing a boom in popularity around the world, with numerous buyers willing to pay high prices when prime examples come up for auction. In 2008, Ichiro Akuto founded a small distillery in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, and the drinks produced there in limited quantities owe their distinctive flavor to the local environment, as well as to Akuto's own experimentation with techniques and materials. We follow an innovator who is taking Japanese whisky global.

Taro Nakamura develops robots based on imaginative imitation of living organisms. His expertise is in great demand from numerous firms and government funded research programs thirsty for innovation, and he currently has over 20 individual projects in progress. We focus on his development of an earthworm robot, the first of its kind, designed to traverse the narrow, twisting tunnels of Japan's aging water infrastructure, and other projects including robots with man-made muscle fibers.

Despite their superior workmanship, recent years have seen Japan's apparel factories losing work to lower-cost ones abroad. Entrepreneur Toshio Yamada has teamed up with those factories to create a new, Japan-based clothing brand. Yamada's innovations include selling directly to consumers online and funneling profits back into factories, allowing them to experiment with new techniques. Yamada's goal is to push Japanese factories to the forefront and create a clothing brand recognized worldwide.

With high labor costs and little space, Tokyo's local factories are at a disadvantage compared to those abroad. But one metalworking factory in Tokyo has attracted attention from as far away as MIT. Keiichi Hamano has transformed his long-standing factory into a space where startups can develop new, world-class ideas. Innovations that have emerged from the space include a typhoon-resistant wind turbine, a wheelchair that can navigate difficult terrain, and a solar panel-cleaning robot.

LED grow lights for use in agriculture are currently in the spotlight. Not only do they enable vegetables to be reliably grown all year round, for crops produced in a sterile environment they allow the elimination of agricultural chemicals. And fine adjustment of this lighting even enables regulation of a crop's nutritional content. We follow developer Seiichi Okazaki, a man hoping to harness the cutting edge of veg for a future food revolution.

Paper: even in our digital age, demand for this material continues, and at great environmental cost. But one man is gaining attention for using Japanese technology to create a new kind of paper from... stone. The man who made this limestone-based paper possible is Nobuyoshi Yamasaki. Yamasaki, whose goal was to create "a business that helps society", has been hailed as a revolutionary. Why did Yamasaki spend 6 years chasing this epoch-making goal? Join us and find out.

In 2013, from earthquake-hit northeastern Japan, Hiroyuki Takahashi launched a new kind of food magazine. Packaged together with local ingredients, the publication offers insights into producers' philosophies alongside the chance to try their wares, while you can also order produce via a dedicated social network and app. The model proved a hit and has since spread across Japan, spawning over 30 similar magazines linking other provincial areas to consumers in the major cities.

For social businesses, the need to address social issues while also making a profit means that many young social entrepreneurs falter at the first hurdle. To prevent such good intentions going to waste, Kazunari Taguchi runs a firm that offers investment and expertise that help set such projects on the path to success. We follow a social business incubator that has already helped launch 9 social businesses with a combined annual turnover of around 3 billion yen.

Yasukane Matsumoto is the founder of a web-based printing service that has seen revenues increase 50-fold over in just 4 years. Using a network of small printing firms, the service matches each job request to the ideal printing press, boosting efficiency for customer and printer alike by using factory downtime to produce limited runs. Also offering distribution through haulage firms, Matsumoto's company uses IT to empower small, long-established businesses as part of the sharing economy.

While still a student, Shunji Sugaya started an IT company focused on artificial intelligence and robots for use on the farms of the future. Agriculture in Japan faces serious challenges like an aging population and shrinking workforce. Sugaya imagines robots and drones that reduce labor demands and farms that are run using big data. Today we look at Sugaya and the young engineers at his company in their efforts to shape the future of agriculture and fishing with cutting-edge technology.

There are about 30,000 food-producing companies in Japan. The top 1% are industry giants. The other 99% are small businesses that struggle to compete with the majors on price and get their products sold. Kenta Kurokawa is the founder and CEO of a company that searches regional Japan for the hidden gems of the food industry, and helps them find markets for their great offerings. Several companies he's worked with have created hit products that brought them back from the brink of bankruptcy.

Entrepreneur Yasuyuki Toki and his team won the 2017 Startup World Cup for their revolutionary IoT-based service which tracks and records the physical and mental well-being of children in nursery schools, connecting caregivers and parents. The service, which frees up child-care professionals to spend less time on paperwork and more on providing quality care, also helps prevent sudden infant death syndrome and other issues. Discover the secrets behind Toki's digital child care revolution.

In a small, unassuming factory in Kyoto, one firm is helping save lives. That firm is run by Masatoshi Takeda, who invented a method to build hyper-accurate replicas of the organs of patients, from those with heart defects to liver cancer, who require difficult surgical procedures. Doctors use the replicas to perform simulated surgeries, increasing the chance of success in the operating room. Created hand-in-hand with doctors, Takeda's technology is changing the face of surgery as we know it.

An educational app that's popular with young users. In addition to allowing users to track study hours and study resources, the app also has rich SNS functionality for fostering communication between students. In Japan it's so popular that one in three high school students uses it. The app was developed by Takashi Hirose. His goal? Nothing less than changing the way students study and the educational system in Japan.

Japan is dotted with buildings and houses with centuries of history, but maintaining them can be economically challenging, and many are in danger of being lost. Enter Jun Tarikino, an entrepreneur who rents these structures and gives them new life as wedding halls, restaurants and more. We'll take a look at Tarikino's current project and see how this entrepreneur is using his business talents to preserve these structures' history and culture and pass them on to the next generation.

At some of Japan's most exclusive department stores, colorful African-print bags are gaining a following. The appeal lies in their 4-way versatility: each piece, made from colorful batik fabric, can be used as either a handbag, clutch bag, shoulder bag or tote. Made in Uganda, they are the brainchild of Chizu Nakamoto, who runs a company offering employment to the country's struggling single mothers. Follow Nakamoto's team as they develop new items and expand their business operations.

Around the world, demand for sustainable wind energy is growing. But for traditional wind turbines, strong winds can result in temporary shutdowns, and sometimes even severe damage. Atsushi Shimizu's quest to achieve a global first by creating a functional turbine free from propellers takes him to Okinawa Prefecture and the Philippines, but can he successfully scale up his prototype, and will his groundbreaking idea catch on? We follow the latest advances in wind power generation.

Universal design aims to create an environment accessible to all, regardless of age, or linguistic or physical limitations. As Tokyo prepares for the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, one venture firm working to make Japan a world leader in this area is led by Toshiya Kakiuchi. Wheelchair bound since childhood due to brittle bone disease, this young entrepreneur provides consulting on facilities and services for the disabled, aiming to change preconceptions and facilitate true hospitality.

Though Japan is a country with a rapidly aging population and millions of vacant properties, senior citizens often struggle to find rented accommodation due to owners' concerns about the risks of elderly tenants dying alone and unnoticed. To address these issues, Ryo Yamamoto founded a unique estate agent catering solely to the over 65s, also working to allay proprietors' fears through outreach initiatives and even a collaboration with a major electronics developer.

The goal: to develop the world's best sports prosthetic leg and win gold at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo. Taking on this challenge is MIT graduate Ken Endo, selected in 2013 among Technology Review's top 35 Innovators under 35. Working alongside top Paralympians to develop prosthetics, Endo also established Tokyo's Blade Library, a facility where amputees can try out high-end prosthetics for themselves. Follow a man working to change established notions of disability.

Miyazaki Prefecture's satsumaimo, or sweet potatoes, are selling fast in other parts of Asia thanks to Makoto Ikeda, the CEO of Kushima AoiFarm. Since he started this company with a staff of 4 family members in 2013, exports have been booming. Now the firm has 68 employees and annual sales of 700 million yen. Interestingly, the type of sweet potato that is popular in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan doesn't sell so well in Japan. We explore what Ikeda has done to achieve sweet potato success.

Up to the 1990's, Japan's home electronics giants led the global market. But recently, unwilling to implement key reforms, they have been slow to catch on to the digital revolution, and products without IoT compatibility are considered old hat. Takuma Iwasa is the CEO of one Japanese tech venture winning fans worldwide with unique, web-ready devices. Targeting the global niche market of early adopters has put this firm in the spotlight, as it strives to create unprecedented consumer electronics.

Kyoto is a long-established center of craft excellence. Hiroyasu Koma's 30-person start-up firm brought that power together to make a high-performance electric sports car. Unlike in the case of gasoline cars, parts for electric cars can be sourced from outside the insular supplier networks that serve major car makers, so even small start-ups can make cars. Koma sells the technology in completed cars to other companies, a feature of his business model where various firms share development costs.

Along Japan's northeastern coast, efforts to develop young fisheries workers by boosting recognition for local marine produce and organizing training have put one fishing collective in the spotlight. Sensing peril for local fisheries after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami of 2011, founder Takuya Hasegawa teamed up with workers to reform distribution channels and pursue sales and promotion activities. Join a group aiming to rear 1,000 local fishermen and women by 2024.

Keiichi Yoshino left a career in finance to open a chocolatier in Kyoto, Japan's former capital. Only 4 years in, his brand has already won international awards and been picked up by an exclusive Kyoto hotel. He uses cacao from Indonesia, the world's number-two producer, boosting the economy by raising quality and prices via guidance for local farmers. Now pursuing a similar scheme in the Philippines, we follow a luxury chocolate brand transforming the fortunes of farmers in Southeast Asia.

Atsushi Yoshida runs a 70-year-old firm specializing in high-voltage lightning arresters. Its devices, produced via research at the world's largest lightning-test facility, protect homes and infrastructure, as well as Japanese icons like Shinkansen bullet trains, the TOKYO SKYTREE and Kyoto's Kiyomizu-dera Temple, with a 70% domestic market share. Now Yoshida is taking this expertise to Rwanda, one of the world's most lightning-prone countries, conducting research and training local engineers.

The last decade has been tough for cattle breeders in Japan. Four-tenths of farms have folded, and the experience needed to succeed limits the influx of new talent. Shinya Kobayashi founded a business to address this situation through the Internet of Things. Cattle are tracked using sensors, and the data analyzed to give farmers powerful insights via their mobile devices, along with digital records on animals' breeding and health. Follow a business using IT to support Japan's cattle breeders.

The key to gold medal success at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games may just be held by Toru Ozawa, engineer with a specialist wheelchair manufacturer in Chiba Prefecture, near Tokyo. Fine-tuned to match each owner's precise needs to the last millimeter, and trusted by top wheelchair athletes around the world, the firm's custom devices have helped win 122 Paralympic medals to date. With 2 years to go until the Tokyo games, we follow a pioneering Tokyo wheelchair maker with sights set on gold.

Across Japan, a decline in public transport and small retailers is said to have left as many as 7 million seniors unable to access basic daily necessities. 6 years ago, to address the needs of these "shopping refugees", former magazine editor Tatsuya Sumitomo set up a mobile supermarket service. Now with over 300 trucks, each offering up to 1,200 items, along with clothing and monitor services, his business regularly serves around 40,000 people nationwide, with an average age of 80.

With many up-and-coming nations undergoing rapid development, Japanese construction equipment is finding new popularity around the world due to its safety and reliability. Takayuki Aoki (32) founded an online service that offers overseas buyers affordable access to used heavy machinery from Japan, providing comprehensive information, detailed photos and even a refund policy. Follow a young entrepreneur using information technology to take Japanese construction equipment to the world.

Around the world, one sector relatively untouched by the IT-driven paradigm shift known as the sharing economy has been dining and catering. Miwa Okada is helping to change that with a service that introduces local users to Japan-based foreign nationals who open their homes to offer lessons on how to cook their own native cuisine. We follow an innovative business using food as the medium for cultural exchange and integration between Japan's growing foreign population and their host country.

In January 2018, at the Global EdTech Startup Awards in London, a Japanese firm came through a field of over 2,000 to claim the top prize. Goichiro Arai's company triumphed with an app designed to help students organize and share their study notes, and even create Q&A exercises. Allowing students to study together independently of teachers, and even helping to close the achievement gap between rich and poor, this cutting-edge tool is ready to carry success in Asia over to the global stage.

With 80% of Japan's regional bus routes operating at a loss, Masaru Yajima runs a firm working to revive these vital transport lifelines. GPS and sensors are used to track progress and passenger flow, and this big data is analyzed to optimize routes and departure times. Further innovations like waiting rooms and wholesale local produce at bus stops have helped to attract passengers beyond the typical user base. And this pioneering transport firm is now taking its successful template overseas.

Virtual reality: currently a hot technology in the world of video gaming, and now also on the brink of transforming the medical field. Surgeon Maki Sugimoto has developed a system that uses precise 3D modeling of patients' internal organs to help plan surgical procedures down to the last scalpel incision, maximizing safety. Currently used at over 50 facilities working across the medical spectrum, this groundbreaking technology is also revolutionizing the way young doctors are trained.

A trunk room is rented storage for items you don't often use but just can't throw away. But it's not always easy to keep track of inventory or pick up possessions when you need them. Hayato Matsuzaki launched a service using couriers and carefully photographed cloud-based galleries of stored items to give users round-the-clock access to possessions at the click of a mouse or the touch of a screen, and even letting you give new life to items you no longer want by putting them up for sale.

Long beset by depopulation and industrial decline, these days the town of Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture, northern Japan, boasts a science park that's a honeypot for tech startups and international researchers. Daisuke Yamanaka runs a local firm that has brought an innovative approach to community development. Frustrated by bureaucracy, he turned to partnerships between civil enterprises, also bringing researchers and local government on board to promote truly holistic regional revitalization.

Forced by a shrinking domestic market to venture overseas, Japan's sake brewers face stiff competition from the established dominance of wine. Takuma Inagawa heads a startup that's winning global plaudits with new sake varieties developed to complement global cuisines. From cask aging, to unorthodox additives, he uses various techniques to coax out flavors unlike any traditional rice wine. And having successfully expanded into several markets, he's now taking on the biggest of them all: the US.

For more than 60 years, we have been sending satellites and rockets into space. But this progress has polluted Earth's orbit with a host of man-made space debris, creating a fast-moving "junk belt" that poses considerable risk to probes and spacecraft exiting the atmosphere. One individual working to solve this problem is Nobu Okada, head of a startup harnessing the skills and expertise of universities and technical workshops to develop satellites ready to clean up the cosmos.

In Tokyo's upscale Ginza district is a rice ball shop so popular that lines of hungry office workers are a regular lunchtime sight. As well as the finest ingredients from all over Japan, founder Masayuki Habuki is committed to using rice from his home region, Niigata Prefecture. In fact, his work to promote Niigata rice also includes the production of sake and miso, along with outreach activities like brewery tours and tasting sessions. Follow a business working to preserve this regional food culture.

Woven rush tatami mats are a traditional element of Japanese homes. But a shift toward Westernized lifestyles has seen production drop to a third of its former peak, driving both makers and rush growers out of business. Yoshiaki Kagami is breathing new life into tatami by cutting out the middlemen to deal directly with growers and consumers. As well as creating novel tatami products, Kagami encourages the sharing of expertise within the industry, and organizes visits to one regional rush farm.

In Japan, long-distance express coaches are a fast-expanding sector. Including an increasing number of foreign visitors, annual users now stand at an estimated 120 million. Koji Hirayama runs a coach operator that has helped fuel this growth through an emphasis on safety, comfort, and value, introducing measures like IoT systems to monitor drivers' health and stop them falling asleep at the wheel; specially designed seats; and a system that makes unreserved places available at reduced prices.

Flying cars have long been a staple of science fiction, but recent years have seen a global explosion in projects that aim to make these futuristic vehicles a reality. With the aim of making flight available to all by 2050, one such project is led by Tsubasa Nakamura, whose team of young engineers is working to create a zero-emission road vehicle that can also take to the air via propeller power. Follow their efforts to have their invention light the Olympic Flame at Tokyo 2020.

With over 27% of the population currently aged 65 or over, Japan as a nation is experiencing unprecedented demand for assistive technology. Hideaki Tamada heads one Osaka-based firm that developed walking aids tailored to the smaller physiques of Japanese seniors. A runaway hit, the firm now leads the domestic "walker" market, helping older adults nationwide to maintain their independence. Follow a pioneering business prolonging healthy lifespans for Japan's graying society.

The global drive to cut fossil fuel usage has put electric vehicles (EVs) in the spotlight. Spurred by the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami of March 2011, engineer Hideo Tsurumaki created a compact EV that is equally at home on land or water. Despite being only 1.3 meters wide, his aquatic car can seat 4 people, and reach top land speeds of 80km an hour. We follow this pioneer of affordable EVs as he expands his operations to frequently flood-affected Thailand.

In a big year for parasports in Tokyo, we follow 3 technicians whose expertise aids the performance of competitors from around the world. Wheelchair engineer Ozawa Toru calibrates his devices to match athletes' requirements to the nearest gram and millimeter. MIT alumnus Endo Ken creates prosthetic blades both to suit the needs of top competitors and ease hurdles to access for parasports beginners. And Hamada Atsushi pioneers novel blade designs to maximize the performance of para-athletes.