{"id":18177,"date":"2018-06-21T16:24:58","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T07:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovation-osaka.jp\/oih2026\/?post_type=library&#038;p=18177"},"modified":"2026-09-27T18:24:52","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T09:24:52","slug":"nihioyukihiro","status":"publish","type":"library","link":"https:\/\/www.innovation-osaka.jp\/en\/library\/nihioyukihiro\/","title":{"rendered":"Yukihiro Nishio"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cI want to do work that changes the world.\u201d In 2010, Yukihiro Nishio founded <strong>Metaism<\/strong>, which develops web services, and has focused on developing solutions to social issues. Then, in January 2018, Nishio founded a second company, <strong>Touch Japan<\/strong>. What Touch Japan provides is a multilingual e-ticket service. It gives foreign tourists visiting Japan a satisfying experience without inconvenience, and gives businesses an easy-to-start platform for serving foreign customers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It came from an accumulation of personal experiences. With foreigners and vegetarians in the family, Nishio knew firsthand the environment surrounding minorities like them in Japan and the inconveniences they experience. At the same time, through contact with businesses providing services, Nishio learned that with the recent increase in foreign tourists, more and more shops are struggling to serve foreign customers, and why it is hard for these businesses to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are several reasons serving foreign customers is hard: language problems, a mutual lack of understanding of different cultures, and the high cost of serving them. Restaurants in particular are strict about profitability, so they hesitate to cater to foreign customers. Few have introduced card payments. Serving foreign customers, whose spending per customer and turnover differ, has its pros and cons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What the company developed was <strong>a dedicated e-ticket specialized for serving foreign visitors<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With e-tickets, shops can start with zero introduction costs. No investment in card payment equipment is needed. Conditions for buying tickets can also be set. It is, so to speak, a service that lets shops easily have an online meal-ticket machine with a concierge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Serving foreign visitors is no longer a challenge only for some tourist spots. Foreigners are already familiar presences, and society as a whole now needs to respond to more minorities than ever before. But the infrastructure for doing so is not in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Every time Nishio saw situations where Japanese society was not coexisting with other cultures, it felt as if Japan was falling behind the world and becoming isolated. Seeing this, the feeling grew: \u201cWe can solve this.\u201d And from that feeling came the decision to launch the service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and more, the number of foreign visitors to Japan is expected to keep growing. Beyond seizing a big business opportunity, we sincerely hope Nishio will be an innovator who enjoys the joy of having created a service that makes people love Japan even more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Interview year: 2017<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":3454,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_locale":"en_US","_original_post":"https:\/\/www.innovation-osaka.jp\/oih2026\/?post_type=library&#038;p=3452","catch_copy":"Fried tofu is called \u201cfried tofu,\u201d so why is kitsune udon called \u201cfox udon\u201d? Wanting to convey the mysteries of Japanese food that Japanese people take for granted","company":"Touch Japan Inc.","sub_catch":""},"library-category":[28,97],"class_list":["post-18177","library","type-library","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","library-category-aplication","library-category-97","en-US"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innovation-osaka.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library\/18177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innovation-osaka.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innovation-osaka.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/library"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innovation-osaka.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.innovation-osaka.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"library-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.innovation-osaka.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library-category?post=18177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}