Almost no one who had experienced one of these mornings before was surprised when the line outside the Osaka exhibition hall started to form before nine. Here, people wait in line for everything. This year, at one of the biggest annual tech events in the nation, the noise from the crowd near the headset booths was different. Fast-paced, clipped Singaporean English that would have been almost exclusively used by domestic companies a few seasons ago.
Something seems to have subtly flipped over. For a long time, Japan imported very little in exchange for its consumer hardware exports, at least when it came to startups. There appears to be a loosening of that pattern. This year, a small group of Singaporean virtual reality startups appeared as some of the room’s louder voices rather than as courteous guests, and the locals seemed both impressed and a little unsure of what to do with them.
It’s important to keep in mind how improbable this would have seemed not too long ago. The Tokyo-based company HIKKY, which was responsible for the Vket virtual events that attracted millions of users and tens of millions of dollars in funding, is largely responsible for Japan’s own VR heritage. homegrown, well-connected, and once supported by the massive telecom company NTT DOCOMO. It made sense to assume that any festival floor would revolve around companies like that. Rather, the founders who had flown in from the south felt a shift in gravity.
Basic economics plays a role in the explanation. Due to its small size, high cost, and saturation, Singapore’s startups have always had to consider the local market from the outset. In contrast, Japan is a sizable and somewhat underserved market that is becoming more receptive to foreign software despite still being wary of it. When asked why she had bothered with the trip, a Singaporean founder pointed to the audience and stated that the math was clear. It was difficult to ignore how differently the two groups handled the technology as she demonstrated a free-roaming headset experience to a courteous but cautious line of Japanese guests. It was treated like a ceremony by the guests. She handled it as if it were a product.
This is not an isolated incident. The Singaporean voice-AI startup Verbex revealed earlier this year that it plans to relocate its global headquarters entirely to Japan due to language-specific demand and a clientele of call centers in need of conversational models. A few years ago, such a move would have been considered eccentric. It now appears to be a wager that multiple people are willing to place simultaneously. Even though Japan has historically been slow to adopt anything that requires people to wear something on their faces, investors seem to think that this is where the next wave of adoption will take place.
It remains to be seen if the enthusiasm will last. A festival floor is a flattering place to judge anything, and seed funding in Japan has actually decreased recently as backers have become more picky. The headsets shine. The demos function flawlessly. Long after the booths close, the difficult part—signing enterprise contracts, navigating procurement, and surviving a market that values patience over noise—begins. Before the skeptics subsided, Tesla had to deal with years of uncertainty. Many VR companies never made it that far.
Beyond the marketing, though, there was something genuinely intriguing in the air. A small group of people stayed long after the scheduled time for a spatial-soundscape installation tucked into one corner. Nothing was being sold there. People just stood inside it, listening while taking off their shoes out of habit. Afterward, I couldn’t shake that picture. It didn’t feel like an aggressive takeover, if that’s even the right word. It seemed like a conversation that was still being worked out by both parties.
It’s possible that this is just a passing season, the kind of international enthusiasm that disappears as soon as the spreadsheets take back control. It’s also possible that we are witnessing the modest, early stages of a long-lasting phenomenon. For the time being, the festival concludes, the founders depart for home, and Japan resumes its gradual process of determining whether or not to accept what they have to offer.
