‘If It Works In Japan, It Works Anywhere’: Rise Ooi Of Jurin AI On Why The World’s Hardest Market Is AI’s Most Important One

by
Alisa Davidson

Printed: June 03, 2026 at 4:00 am Up to date: Might 29, 2026 at 6:32 am

by Anastasiia O

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June 03, 2026 at 4:00 am

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The worldwide dialog about AI nearly at all times frames the expertise as a menace — a power that eliminates jobs, displaces employees, and concentrates wealth. Japan makes that complete debate look inappropriate.

Japan’s inhabitants has declined for fourteen consecutive years. Its working-age inhabitants is projected to shrink by almost 15 million over the subsequent twenty years. There are already 124 job openings for each 100 job seekers. In 2024 alone, bankruptcies attributed to labor shortages surged 32% — companies that have been worthwhile, that had prospects, that merely ran out of individuals to function. In Japan, AI isn’t arriving to take anybody’s job. It’s arriving as a result of there is no such thing as a one else.

That is the lens by means of which Rise Ooi, founder and CEO of Jurin AI, has constructed his firm. Based mostly in Tokyo, Jurin AI works with Japanese enterprises — together with a few of the nation’s largest companies — and has closed its first enterprise offers inside months of founding.

On this interview, Rise explains why Japan is the last word stress check for AI merchandise, what zero adoption friction truly appears to be like like in apply, and why the demographic disaster spreading from South Korea to southern Europe means the remainder of the world is just on a slower model of Japan’s timeline. 

Might you describe why you see Japan because the world’s most essential AI testnet?

For lots of nations, AI is a “good to have” — a cost-cutting device. You’ll be able to see this in America, the place they’re utilizing AI to put individuals off. However for Japan, AI is a “should have” — it’s a survival device, as a result of there merely isn’t sufficient labor.

Outdoors {of professional} and younger communities, in most international locations AI is seen as one thing dangerous — individuals say it makes you dumb, destroys creativity, and so forth. Each time there’s a brand new wave of expertise, there’ll at all times be resistance. However as a result of AI is a survival device in Japan, I’ve seen actually zero resistance there. After I journey outdoors Japan, possibly 20% of individuals actually embrace AI. However in Japan, it doesn’t matter if you happen to’re six, twenty, forty, or eighty years previous — everybody loves AI. The adoption friction in Japan is the bottom I’ve seen anyplace.

This additionally reveals up in gross sales cycles. In enterprise software program, two-to-three 12 months gross sales cycles are quite common in Japan. After I began Jurin AI, I anticipated the identical, having bought enterprise software program to Japanese corporations earlier than. I used to be shocked to shut enterprise offers in beneath two months — exceptional. Startups youthful than 5 years sometimes can’t even get their foot within the door with Japanese enterprises, but we closed our first enterprise deal simply 3.5 months after founding the corporate.

Japan’s society is characterised by low inequality and a totally employed, high-skill workforce. Why do you see that as a bonus for AI deployment?

Japan has successfully 100% employment of its high-skill workforce — and I imply that in each senses. About two-thirds of Japanese employees find yourself in a discipline straight associated to what they studied, in comparison with roughly one-third in America. That’s solely potential as a result of labor is so scarce that the barrier to entry is extraordinarily low.

Japan additionally has a really excessive flooring. As a substitute of chasing most wages, the system prioritizes guaranteeing nobody falls by means of the cracks — no homelessness, everybody should purchase a home, everybody can eat effectively on minimal wage. In Tokyo, minimal wage is round ¥210–230K, and the median wage is round ¥330K, so the ratio is barely about 1.4–1.6x. In lots of different international locations, that a number of is three to 5 occasions. Japan has a excessive flooring however a low ceiling; America has a low flooring however a excessive ceiling. Whether or not billionaires are good for society is a separate dialogue.

How does this relate to AI? Take into consideration manufacturing facility automation sixty years in the past — it used to take 400 individuals to run a needle manufacturing facility; as we speak it takes two. However the ability stage required of these two individuals is much larger. For international locations with massive swimming pools of lower-wage employees, mass automation creates unemployment. In Japan, as a result of 100% of the inhabitants is very educated and already employed, deploying AI at scale doesn’t create homeless individuals — it raises GDP.

A concrete instance: in Japan, worthwhile companies are closing down not as a result of their mannequin is damaged, however as a result of they’ll’t discover labor to function. You hear in regards to the “grey tsunami” in America too — jobs individuals don’t need to take — however in Japan there are merely no employees in any respect.

One actual case examine I can share: one of many high 5 largest actual property corporations in Japan had a 300-person undertaking administration staff whose job was primarily coordinating by e-mail — chasing compliance sign-offs, scheduling high quality conferences, monitoring standing throughout the 300–400 contractors wanted to construct a big constructing. They needed to automate it. That staff was once 600 individuals; it shrank to 300 not by means of effectivity features however as a result of they couldn’t rent. In consequence, they went from finishing 10 buildings a 12 months to 5 — with a three-year ready listing. If AI automates their undertaking administration, their income may enhance sixfold nearly instantly. Jurin AI is now automating that workflow.

You run your AI brokers by means of one of many hardest sandboxes — the Japanese market. What particular classes have you ever realized there that you just couldn’t have realized elsewhere?

Japan, Germany, and Korea are thought of the three hardest markets on the planet, as a result of the expectation for perfection is a lot larger. In American tradition, bugs are regular — individuals say “repair it and transfer on.” In Japan, even a single typo is trigger for somebody to come back to you and say, “You made me lose face in entrance of my prospects.”

There’s even a proper function — an apology officer. They’re given a VP title, and each time one thing goes incorrect — whether or not the bug is attributable to the corporate or by a vendor like OpenAI or Anthropic — this individual goes to the shopper’s workplace and formally apologizes. That’s how critically errors are taken.

However right here’s the flip aspect: in case your product is beloved by Japanese enterprises, it would work in all places. The suggestions is relentless, however if you happen to take up it and repair the problems, you earn deep, long-term belief. In America, the common software program gross sales cycle is 2 to a few months, however the common buyer lifetime is 2 to a few years — and prospects will swap for one thing 10% cheaper. In Japan, the gross sales cycle was once two to a few years, however the common lifetime worth is round 20 years. Upon getting their belief, they’re companions — not simply prospects. They received’t swap even when a competitor gives half the worth.

That’s additionally why Google, Apple, and Microsoft nearly at all times go to Japan as their first worldwide market after America — as a result of Japan irons out the tough edges and builds sturdy relationships.

Most warnings about Japanese enterprises being unattainable to promote to are lazy excuses and a sufferer mentality. In my expertise promoting enterprise software program and AI in Japan, America, and Europe, enterprises are basically related in all places. Japan has larger expectations, however if you happen to can work there, you’ll be able to work anyplace.

Certainly one of your contact heart purchasers now handles 80% of inbound calls along with your AI brokers. What penalties — optimistic or damaging — have you ever seen from automation reaching that stage?

To date, I’ve solely seen optimistic results. In different markets, you may fear that automation raises unemployment or lowers wages. In Japan, due to the 100% employment fee and extreme labor scarcity, AI is only additive — the extra you automate, the upper the income, and the extra prospects companies can serve.

Our newest deployment is at 95% automation — one of many high three corporations in Japan. Typical examples embody decreasing a 200-person staff to fifteen individuals, or taking name facilities from 20% human-handled to 1–2%.

And critically — nobody will get fired. Japan cares deeply about customer support in a means that’s nearly incomprehensible from the skin. A typical American software program firm of 1,000 individuals may need a ten% buyer assist staff. One 800-person Japanese firm I spoke to yesterday had 160 individuals in buyer assist — 20% of their workforce. Regardless of a company-wide labor scarcity, customer support is the one division they refuse to compromise on. The biggest conglomerates — Mitsubishi, SoftBank, Mitsui — would take their greatest college graduates and assign them to buyer assist as a result of they couldn’t rent sufficient devoted assist employees.

When Jurin AI automates 95% of these calls, these individuals don’t get laid off — they lastly get to return to doing the work they have been truly employed for. A finance one that was doing customer support can return to creating loans and managing portfolios. The yield goes up, the enterprise grows. I’ve solely seen optimistic penalties.

The worldwide AI dialog is targeted on AI changing employees. However you counsel that in ten years, the larger downside could possibly be too few employees and companies counting on AI simply to function. Which international locations may face this subsequent? Are they conscious of it?

Each society is changing into Japan. Japan is simply the furthest alongside. The one international locations I see not following this trajectory are in Africa — in all places else is “Japanifying.” Common age is rising quick, delivery charges are dropping, and in lots of international locations the dying fee already exceeds the delivery fee.

I’d group international locations into tiers. The worst-affected — what I name the “meltdown international locations” — are South Korea (probably the most excessive case), Japan, and Thailand. Japan is in meltdown however can be the richest of the three. It doesn’t have time, nevertheless it has sufficient cash to vary issues. Though most earlier makes an attempt failed, Japan is altering and I’m fairly optimistic about it long-term. Closing in is China, nevertheless it nonetheless has time, and I can see the Chinese language authorities working tremendous onerous to vary issues. I’m tremendous optimistic about China long-term too. The subsequent tier — Singapore and most of Europe — are additionally dealing with this however barely much less severely. Most are conscious of the demographic subject, however far fewer have internalized what it means for labor markets and the way urgently AI must fill the hole.

You’ve shared your expertise in Japan, however Jurin AI operates globally. What are your enlargement plans?

If the software program works in Japan, it really works in all places. We’re increasing considerably. We have already got contracts and early wins throughout Southeast Asia, and we just lately entered Europe with POCs at one of many largest style manufacturers there. By the top of this 12 months, we’re planning to enter America.

That’s the reverse of the everyday playbook — most corporations go America first. We didn’t, as a result of Jurin AI is headquartered in Japan and Japan has probably the most acute want. That guess was right. I see even the most important AI corporations discovering it an actual problem closing enterprise offers within the US. We’ve had nearly no friction promoting to enterprises in Japan due to our area of interest area experience and distinctive market information. That is uncopyable by another corporations. OpenAI, Anthropic, and different main AI startups have tried getting into Japan since late 2025, but they’ve misplaced nearly each single enterprise deal to Jurin AI.

America is what I name a “final mover market” — relationships are transactional, switching is straightforward, and competitors turns into a value warfare. Japan and Korea are “first mover markets” — when you construct the connection, they’re with you for many years, until you destroy it your self.

Our strongest outcomes have been within the meltdown international locations I discussed earlier. We’re additionally seeing success within the P1 tier — Europe and Singapore. After we enter America at year-end, we’ll be competing as arguably the most effective product in our class globally, which is a really totally different place than beginning there from scratch two years in the past.

Alisa, a devoted journalist on the MPost, focuses on crypto, AI, investments, and the expansive realm of Web3. With a eager eye for rising tendencies and applied sciences, she delivers complete protection to tell and have interaction readers within the ever-evolving panorama of digital finance.

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