In this episode of the Produck Podcast, Lee Jean sits down with Nick Godwin, founder of Bylingua and English communication coach based in Japan for nearly 20 years. Nick came to Japan in 2006 with one mission: to immerse himself in Japanese. Teaching English was almost an afterthought. Nearly two decades later, he's given two TEDx talks, built programs that help Japan's corporate professionals communicate globally, and developed a sharp perspective on exactly why language education in Japan works the way it does.The conversation starts with Nick's first TEDx talk in Japanese, built around one core idea: language learning is a sport. You don't learn to play tennis by studying the rulebook. The same is true for English. Knowing grammar doesn't mean you can speak. Yet Japan's education system, rooted in Confucian thought and years of rote memorization, has built a system where students cram vocabulary for TOEIC scores rather than developing real communication ability. Nick explains why that gap is structural, not individual.What we cover:- The key difference between Confucian and Socratic educational philosophy, and how it shapes what Japanese students believe is expected of them in a classroom- Why the TOEIC score threshold most companies use is actually a decent barometer, but the way students study for it is completely backwards- Nick's second TEDx talk on why translation only gives you access, and the "kininaru" example that explains what intermediate learners get stuck on- How Scandinavian countries teach English through play at an early age, and why Japan's hesitation to do the same runs deeper than just the language- Tips for learning Japanese as an adult: little and often, goal-first, Barry Farber's language island theory, and why kanji is non-negotiable at higher levels- Why children and adults learn languages differently on an hour-by-hour basis (and what the research actually says)- ESL vs EFL: why Japanese learners in Japan are always at a disadvantage compared to learners immersed abroad- Nick's Smooth Speaker program (pronunciation, intonation, impact, smoothness) and his Bilingual Business School: a one-year corporate communication program for intermediate-plus learners who've hit a plateau- The hardest skill to teach: why politeness in English and politeness in Japanese operate by completely different rulesConnect with Nick Godwin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickjgodwin/#produckpodcast #japan #englishlearning #languagelearning #teachenglishjapan #efl #toeic #bylingua #japanexpat #softskills #tedxtalk #corporateenglish

In this episode of the Produck Podcast, Lee Jean, himself a former foster kid, sits down with Michael Clemons, founder of YouMeWe, an NPO based in Shibuya that has been working inside Japan's orphanages and foster care system since 2007. What started with Michael being asked to play Santa Claus at an orphanage turned into nearly two decades of building 21st century skills with some of Japan's most overlooked children.33,000 kids are currently living in Japan's orphanages. Only 9% of them make it to university. 90% of those who do drop out in their first year. Meanwhile, Japan has more people over 65 per capita than any country on earth. The kids YouMeWe works with could be part of the solution to that, if given the right tools, the right mentors, and someone who believes in them.What we cover:- Why Japan's orphan and foster care system works so differently from the US, including why adoption is rare and siblings are routinely separated into different homes- How YouMeWe delivered over 1,000 laptops and Wi-Fi to homes where only 5% had internet connectivity before they arrived- The Tanomoshi Circle: how they track and support 50 kids from childhood all the way into early adulthood- Why Michael calls the kids "champions" in the orphanage and "ambassadors" when they graduate, and why that language shift matters- What childhood trauma has to do with incarceration, homelessness, and suicide — and why addressing one helps address all three- The story of a father who had knives thrown at him growing up, didn't know his son had Asperger's, and eventually got his son back through parent retraining- "You're not half, you're double" — how YouMeWe reframes identity for multicultural kids who feel like they don't fully belong anywhereMichael's approach isn't about charity. He doesn't want donors to feel sorry for these kids, because the kids don't feel sorry for themselves. They're building apps, earning Microsoft certifications, getting into university, and coming back to mentor the next generation. They're getting on with it.Connect with Michael Clemons on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mpclemons/Get involved with YouMeWe: [email protected]#produckpodcast #japan #orphans #fostercare #youthempowerment #nonprofitjapan #socialimpact #youmewe #education #childrensrights #mentorship #japansociety

In this episode of the Produck Podcast, we sit down with Tove Kinooka, co-founder of Global Perspectives Japan, who has spent 28 years building more inclusive, sustainable, and effective organizations across some of Japan's largest companies. What started as a one-year teaching contract turned into nearly three decades of doing the hard, slow work of changing how companies think and operate from the inside out.Japan currently ranks 118th on the World Economic Forum's gender equity index. For a country this economically advanced, that gap is striking. But Tove's message is clear: the answer is not just hiring more women or ticking diversity boxes. Diversity without inclusion almost always causes friction rather than progress — and the real work is something most companies haven't even started.What we cover:- Why diversity without inclusion backfires, and what equity actually means beyond just equality- How Japanese companies approach change differently from Western ones, and why the slow start can be an advantage once everyone is aligned- The neuroscience behind why our brains resist perspectives different from our own, and what it takes to interrupt that response- What companies like Rakuten and ANA are doing right, and why they're setting the bar for others- The contrarian question: Japan is one of the world's top economies as a homogenous society — why does it even need DEI?- Why sustainability, climate change, and diversity are far more connected than most companies realize- A hard-won lesson for any small company working with large ones: how to protect yourself from scope creepTove also shares what surprised her most on her latest project — a global company whose internal HR team was still running development programs in a top-down, lecture-based format that belongs in a different era.Connect with Tove Kinooka on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tove-kinooka-%F0%9F%9F%A2%F0%9F%9F%A1%F0%9F%94%B5%F0%9F%94%B4-35a39323/Learn more about Global Perspectives Japan: http://www.globalperspectives.biz#produckpodcast #japan #dei #diversity #inclusion #leadership #sustainability #japanbusiness #womeninleadership #corporateculture #globalbusiness #organizationalchange

In this episode of the Produck Podcast, we sit down with Esteban Lopez, founder of GoGaijin, an app helping foreigners in Japan find English-friendly healthcare, housing, banking, and restaurants. A Texas-born former English teacher who learned to code at 53 through Le Wagon Tokyo, Esteban is building something the expat community in Japan genuinely needs.The idea came from a moment of real vulnerability: getting violently ill on a tour bus in China, unable to communicate what he needed or find help. That feeling of being completely unable to access the systems around you never left him. GoGaijin is the app he wishes he'd had.What we cover:- The four things every foreigner in Japan struggles with: healthcare, housing, banking, and finding somewhere to eat- How Esteban got his coding bootcamp paid 100% by the Tokyo government (and how you can qualify too)- Why vibe coding will only take you so far, and why having real coding knowledge matters when AI makes a mistake- The Shibuya pilot that got validated but not endorsed, and what that teaches you about building in Japan- GoGaijin's moat vs. Google: the difference between a listing that says "English spoken here" and one that's actually been verified- "Failing up, not down" — Esteban's philosophy on why he'd keep building even if he knew he'd failGoGaijin is live on both app stores, has organic users, paying customers who renewed, and a green light from the city of Kobe for expansion. Esteban is actively looking for co-founders, a developer, a marketer, and a bilingual salesperson to help scale.Connect with Esteban Lopez on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/esteban-lopez-webdev/Download GoGaijin: https://www.gogaijin.me/#produckpodcast #tokyo #japan #startup #gaijin #expatsinjapan #entrepreneur #gogaijin #tokyostartup #bootstrapped #foreignersinjapan #startuplife

In this episode of the Produck Podcast, we sit down with Hiro Ishida, founder of Mosaique, a Japanese serial entrepreneur who has spent over 30 years living and building businesses across Australia, Canada, Singapore, and India. He's on a mission to solve Japan's shrinking workforce crisis — not just by sending workers over, but by making sure they actually stay.Japan's workforce is aging fast, and most companies trying to fix it by hiring foreign talent are making the same critical mistake: teaching language without teaching culture. Hiro's institute in Bangalore goes far deeper, preparing Indian engineers in Japanese working mindset, punctuality, and unwritten workplace rules before they ever land in Japan. The result speaks for itself — 98 students dispatched, 93 still thriving there.What we cover:- Why "just learn Japanese" isn't enough — and what Hiro teaches that most language schools miss- The story of Hiro's first business: a Macintosh, a small Australian town, and zero money- What makes South Indian engineers such a natural fit for Japanese companies- Why it took Hiro six months to get a single bank stamp in India — and what that reveals about doing business there- The real reasons Japanese people are hesitant to visit or live in India- Hiro's longer-term goal: helping India build a domestic manufacturing sector so his graduates can eventually come home and buildHiro is one of the rare people who has lived in India for nine years while spending a career helping Japanese companies expand globally. His work with Mosaique sits at a genuinely underserved intersection — cultural readiness training at a moment when Japan's need for foreign talent has never been more urgent.Connect with Hiro Ishida on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hiro-ishida-3975b934/Check out Mosaique: https://mosaique.link/#produckpodcast #japan #india #japanesebusiness #crosscultural #entrepreneur #workculture #globaltalent #workforce #startuplife #indiajapanapan #serialentrepreneur

In this episode of the Produck Podcast, Davis Alexander James, founder and CEO of Blackflow Reality, walks us through what might be the most ambitious technology stack being built today: AI and AR-assisted telekinesis, lucid dream-based video games, read-write capabilities to the human brain, and ultimately a consciousness computer that fuses organic and silicon intelligence into something that blurs the line between human thought and AI.Davis's background is in film directing, which is exactly what makes this conversation unusual. He is not just building hardware. He is designing a new kind of experience, one that starts with moving objects with your mind using a non-invasive EEG headset, and eventually leads somewhere that requires rethinking what identity, consciousness, and intelligence even mean.- Why his non-invasive approach is a direct challenge to Neuralink's model, and what goes wrong when a chip driver dies in your skull- The signal-to-noise problem at the heart of all BCI research, and the new electrode, conductivity substrate, and AI model Blackflow is building to solve it- How their lucid dream induction system wakes up the frontal cortex during REM sleep to let people interact, create, and train muscle memory while they sleep- Whether people dream in Euclidean or non-Euclidean space, and why that question actually matters for building the software- The Gen Z fatalism about data privacy: your data is already gone, so the real question is whether it will be weaponized back on you- Two Buddhist perspectives on consciousness uploading, and why Davis thinks it might just be a different kind of deathBlackflow Reality is building what Davis calls a cyberdeck for your mind: a modular, non-invasive system combining XR, brain-computer interfaces, and lucid dream induction to create a new platform for human-machine interaction. They are currently looking to connect with AI and neurotech labs, creative designers willing to build in an entirely new medium, and venture capital partners.Connect with Davis Alexander James on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davisalexanderjames/Check out Black Flow Realty here: www.blackflowreality.comSubscribe and follow the Produck Podcast for more conversations with builders working on the ideas most people aren't ready for yet.#produckpodcast #braincomputerinterface #neurotech #BCI #telekinesis #luciddreaming #XR #AIstartup #consciousnesscomputing #tokyostartup

In this episode of the Produck Podcast, Omid Asgari, associate professor of neuromarketing at Tokyo International University and serial entrepreneur, breaks down one of the most underused and misunderstood tools in the startup world: understanding the human brain.Omid and Lee go deep on what neuromarketing actually is, why traditional surveys only give you one camera angle when you need five, and how the same brain science that helps Toyota and Sony build better products can help a first-time founder nail their pitch, close a deal, and communicate in a way that opens doors instead of triggering threat responses. They also get into the AI question nobody is asking loudly enough: what happens to human intelligence when we outsource all our thinking?- Why the conscious mind is Earth and the subconscious is space, and why most companies never leave the ground- The golden triangle of neuromarketing: concepts, tools, and applications — and why knowing only one of the three makes you useless- How Omid learned, the hard way, that telling a Japanese partner "you're making a deadly mistake" triggers their reptilian brain, and how swapping it to "there's a golden opportunity here" changed everything- Points of people vs. points of sale: why the best-designed restaurant in the world fails if the server is rude- Brain writing vs. brainstorming: why silence is better than shouting ideas, and why your brain is a muscle you need to train- The Damasio quote that cuts to the heart of everything: "We are not thinking machines that feel. We are feeling machines that think."- His COVID pivot story: how he turned a trading company into 4 mobile COVID test centers in one week by reading the wave before anyone elseConnect with Omid Asgari on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/omidasgaridcg/Subscribe and follow the Produck Podcast for more conversations with builders, thinkers, and educators shaping the future of entrepreneurship in Japan.#produckpodcast #neuromarketing #japanstartup #entrepreneurship #marketing #brainscience #tokyostartup #aieducation #founder #consumerpsychology

In this episode of the Produck Podcast, Towhida Yume, Senior Program Lead at Venture Cafe Tokyo and aspiring founder, shares a story that begins in a rural village in northwestern Bangladesh, moves through a career in advertising, a political revolution, an internet blackout, a marriage that ended, and a sakura walk that changed everything.Towhida came to Japan in August 2024, in the same week Bangladesh was going through its political uprising, its internet blackout, and the fall of a 15-year dictatorship. She left anyway. What followed is a conversation about storytelling, conditioning, authenticity, and what it actually means to claim your own narrative, embarrassing parts and all.- Why storytelling helps both the listener and the teller, and why rehearsing your story is the fastest way to ruin it- Japanese-ness as a sphere: no sides, no angles, just a blended gradient of culture, history, language, and ethics that can't be separated- The difference between being watched and performing for those who are watching you, and why letting go of that distinction changes everything- Why the comfort bubble isn't always comfortable, just familiar, and what acknowledgement (not courage) actually breaks the chain- Her epiphany watching sakura petals fall: beauty doesn't have to stay to matter- Her vision for her company: self-reliant communities that produce their own energy, food, and water without depending on any outside systemConnect with Towhida Yume on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/towhidayume/Subscribe and follow the Produck Podcast for more conversations with people rewriting their own stories.#produckpodcast #storytelling #japanstartup #venturecafe #expatinjapan #personaldevelopment #selfdiscovery #tokyofounder #bangladeshijapan #authenticity

In this episode of the Produck Podcast, Nelson Milla, co-founder of Unchained Bio, shares the story behind one of the most ambitious bets in Japan's startup scene: bringing regenerative medicine, gene therapy, and longevity science to the country with the world's oldest population.Nelson traces his path from Honduras, where a Discovery Science documentary on immortality sparked a childhood obsession, through a promise made at his grandmother's bedside when she died of liver cancer, through crashing multiple startups, exploring regulatory workarounds in Prospera, and eventually landing in San Francisco before finding his way to Tokyo. He makes the case for why Japan, with its Yamanaka stem cell legacy, world-class clinical infrastructure, and new regulatory pathways like the Sakigake designation and conditional early approval, is the right place at the right time to prove out longevity medicine. This is also the longest episode of the Produck Podcast to date, and every minute earns it.- Folistatin gene therapy for muscle preservation and clotoprotein gene therapy for brain and cognitive health: what Unchained Bio is actually building- How Japan's conditional early approval lets a company sell a therapy for 5 years while collecting real-world safety and efficacy data- Why plasmid-based gene delivery, not CRISPR, is the right tool for what they are doing right now- A stem cell dental filling using wisdom tooth pulp that sounds like science fiction but is actively in development- What Japan's Sakigake designation and orphan disease pathways mean for longevity startups trying to move fast- The ethical weight of a world where longevity medicine works, and who gets access firstUnchained Bio is a regenerative medicine company building in Japan to address the diseases and decline that come with aging. Nelson came to longevity science through personal loss and childhood wonder, and he is operating in one of the few places on earth where the regulatory environment, the aging demographics, and the foundational science all point in the same direction.Connect with Nelson Milla on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonmilla/Twitter: @_NelsonMilla_Subscribe and follow the Produck Podcast for more conversations with founders and thinkers building the future.#produckpodcast #longevity #genetherapy #stemcells #japanbiotech #regenerativemedicine #unchainedbio #japanstartup #healthspan #biotech

In this episode of the Produck Podcast, Lee Jean sits down with Cormac Guerin, founder and CEO of CompDeep, to talk about the AI cybersecurity threat most companies are not prepared for - and why putting AI agents at every single endpoint might be the only architecture that actually works.Cormac's path here is anything but straight. He started as a kernel hacker at Sun Microsystems, spent a decade at Google Japan, quit to build what may have been Japan's first NFT marketplace, pivoted through smart contract security auditing after the hacks started hitting Web3, and landed in the AI cybersecurity space at exactly the right moment. CompDeep puts AI agents at every endpoint in an organization's network with intent-gated controls that stop the agent from doing anything beyond its assigned role - so it can observe, analyze, or execute, but only what you've authorized, and nothing more.They cover the CrowdStrike global outage and why centralized cybersecurity is a single point of failure that corporations keep ignoring, why having your company's security data sitting on someone else's cloud is a data sovereignty problem most CTOs overlook, how CompDeep's distributed mesh network keeps your security running even if Amazon goes down, and how AI is enabling hacking at a scale and speed that was impossible just two years ago. They also go deeper: AI surveillance and civil liberties, whether UBI can survive human greed, what The Matrix got right about our trajectory, and why Cormac thinks the social contract needs to be rewritten before AI finishes rewriting it for us.Cormac Guerin is the founder and CEO of CompDeep, an AI-native cybersecurity company building a distributed, agentic security layer for enterprise. With a background spanning Sun Microsystems, a decade at Google Japan, blockchain security, and kernel-level systems work, he is one of the most technically grounded founders working at the intersection of AI and security today.Connect with Cormac Guerin on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cormacguerin/Learn more about Cormac's product here: enbarr.ai#produckpodcast #cybersecurity #aicybersecurity #startupjapan #aiagents #leejean #compdeep #datasovereignty #aithreats #techfounder #japanstartup #infosec