Koichi Narasaki, former Chief Digital Officer of SOMPO and the architect behind Palantir Japan, joins us on the latest episode of The Coral Capital Podcast.

From his early days at Mitsubishi Corporation investing in Silicon Valley startups during the dotcom boom, to leading one of Japan’s most successful joint ventures with Palantir, Narasaki has been at the intersection of global tech and Japanese enterprise for decades.

He shares stories from passing on PayPal in 1998, to convincing SOMPO’s leadership to invest $500M into Palantir, and lessons on how foreign companies can succeed in Japan.

Topics explored:

• Why Mitsubishi’s early CVC efforts in Silicon Valley clashed with Tokyo HQ

• Meeting Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and Marc Benioff in the 1990s

• The cultural gap between fast-moving Silicon Valley and conservative Japan

• Why he left Mitsubishi after nearly 20 years to join startups on the other side of the table

• How he became SOMPO’s first Chief Digital Officer and redefined “DX” in insurance

• The story of Palantir’s failed solo Japan entry, and how the SOMPO JV turned it around

• What convinced SOMPO’s CEO to greenlight a 50/50 joint venture with Palantir

• How “dogfooding” Foundry inside SOMPO unlocked trust with Japanese clients

• The legendary $500M Palantir investment during the pandemic, and the debates behind it

• What global B2B software founders need to know before entering Japan

• His perspective on culture, trust, and speed inside a 135-year-old Japanese giant

Connect with Narasaki:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/koichi-narasaki-5969b/

Connect with James:

X: https://x.com/james_riney

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesriney

Connect with Tiffany:

X: https://x.com/tiffanykayo

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffanykayo/

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Get in touch with us here: https://bit.ly/contactcoral

(00:00) Trailer(01:00) Intro(05:16) Leaving Mitsubishi & the dot-com crash
(14:34) Early startup journey (Allyno → Access)
(17:02) Becoming Chief Digital Officer at SOMPO
(20:20) Discovering Palantir & messy data realities
(26:18) The meeting with Alex Karp that changed everything
(35:00) Why the SOMPO–Palantir JV happened
(43:56) Growing in Japan: revenue, culture, challenges
(55:42) Advice for foreign SaaS entering Japan