Transcript
Speaker: Okay. So Taka and Joey, thank you for being here and welcome to the inaugural episode of this podcast. Inaugural? Yeah. It's exciting. A lot of trials and errors, I think, but thank you so much for being here. So I'll just get right into it. So the beginnings of Taka and Joey's adventures were actually at ICU, which funny story I'm also from ICU. So that was like a link that we had prior to meeting.
Speaker: But you guys met like more than 10 years ago now, right? In 2010 -ish? 2010, I think. Okay, 2010. Could I ask what your first impressions were of each other? I got a good one. And how's it different to like your impressions? I know the story he's going to show. Okay, Taka, you're a good person.
Speaker: First impressions, i'm I'm doing a one year study abroad. So I went to school in UCSD. So I never studied in Japan. And i was this was like, let's I was doing the OIR experience so coming in for I think summer course. It was like one of my first days on campus and I knew I was going to be in 2MD. So I literally rocked up to 2MD, which is a very second men's dorm, which is a very, very old definitely demolished before you you got there, Risa. Kind of little ghetto kind of building. And you know is jap I know it's a Japanese men's dormitory. So i see as I walk up, I see Joey in a wife beater, gold chain, working like Greece stood up, working on his moped outside of the 2MD dorm. And it's like, is this Japan? And Joey said hi to me and it's talked to him in English. And I was like, whoa, this is crazy. So that was my first
Speaker: Encounter with Joseph Stockerman's here. I think he also had the same like buzzed head gold head wife beater greased up So first impression, there you go. but Yeah, I i loved it. It was a Suzuki car in a 1989 Suzuki car. And I said, it was, I said it was the same age as me. It was actually one year younger than me, but I told everybody it was the same age as me. So I was the dormitory president at that at time. So dormitory had this higher hierarchy system and the dorm president was.
Speaker: None of these roles did much. They had like different members of the the the dorm government. not None of them did very much, but the dorm president had a really fun role, which was being part of this one ritual. the door it It was basically a fraternity, I would say, the like one of the rare air fraternities in Japan.
Speaker: and as a dorm present you do this one ritual called jingy which is where i don't know much about yakuza culture but i think it's some sort of mak yakuza kind of thing where the the new people so takkei the new students coming into the dormitory They would get in a line in front of the dormitory president and and the other members of the cabinet and they get in this kind of stance thing. And there's like a lot of kind of ritual yelling back and forth. But the idea is they need to do a joke. They need to please the the head honcho of the whole operation, which is me having to be me at that time. So I was bra like, it's like hazing. and it It really, really was very free hazing like. Yeah.
Speaker: So that was me at the time meeting Take, but yeah, no, I had, I'm very glad to have met Take at that point in time. I completed all my studies in my first three years there at ICU. And so my fourth year, which is the year when Take came to join us traditionally, like most people party in their first year, I had my fourth year completely free. So I was a very nerdy student in my first three years. And then my fourth year, I had a lot of free time. So I made a lot of friends with.
Speaker: the exchange students and the one year students that were there at that time. So that that's how I became good friends with Taki. We both kind of were in this phase where we wanted to enjoy our time and I see him. Joey and a wife beater with a buzz cut working on his gold chain. I remember the gold gold chain.
Speaker: Yep. I don't remember my first, very very first impression of talking about. I have one thing I do remember is you knew a lot of like drinking games. Like you brought a lot of the the game culture, like Japanese people have to drink. That was nothing new, but a lot of the, like the game culture, I feel like Takei personally brought to the dormitory. So wizard staff and different types of ping pong beer pong, beer ponging brought a lot of the San Diego frat culture. I'd say to Japan that year.
Speaker: Oh, OK, I see. That was an early early memory of with me and Taki was that, OK, this guy likes the games. We're in it. We're in a big game right now, Jerry. a Let's go. It's how does that de differ from how you know of each other now, then?
Speaker: I think it's it's we're still the same people. you know i think joe up' done a lot of We've seen a lot of each other throughout se different segments of our life, but I'd say we're still the same people at the core. Joey's still a mechanic. He's still working on his forerunner and trying to revive something. you know I'm still trying to get people to drink and play games kind of thing. We're kind of the same beast, I would still say, but I don't know. Joey agrees with that. but I think so too. i think like a lot of there's as like When we hang out, I don't know, go on a trip or something together, I do see like a lot of the trust that that we have with each other is has been built because of all those, I don't know, episodes that we've had together. And I do agree that I think we are still that same person that that met at those dormitories.
Speaker: at the dormitory all those years ago. And I feel like that being that consistent friend to each other has been part of what has made our friendship strong. Yeah. Cause that's like a decade, more than a decade of friendship. So you guys met each other at like your late teens or like early twenties, like super early twenties. Drinking age basically. drink start The start of the drinking age.
Speaker: a sego that's That's beautiful. I'll go to the next question, which is, so the two of you have had a certain like gwent, like a fate, like a connection, like a red string connection to Japan and launched Akiamart to make the home buying process more accessible to Western UI trained folks like yourselves and myself too.
Speaker: It's been over a year since your launch and seven months since that viral post on LinkedIn, which is how I discovered you guys, actually. How has your vision for Akiya Mart changed from when you first launched and how you envision it now?
Speaker: and it's So it has changed quite a bit. So when I started working on Aki Mart in May, 2023, so a little over a year ago, and at that time it was just supposed to be like another, like there's a few other competitors out there that are like subscription newsletter to Japanese property. And that's all I was trying to do. I thought slip in as another one of these people there or potentially build a website.
Speaker: that had an interactive map and then sell it to one of these people. So that's really how it started. It was a project I was working on myself and it actually, I never thought it would grow into even half of what it is today. And I do feel like it was, Take that was the one that was always, this is sick dude, like this, you know, kind of thing. I don't, I do truly believe that it was that kind of motivation. Like I, I didn't, I wasn't dreaming. I was constraining my dream. I do feel like, and I think a lot of,
Speaker: package motivation early on really convinced me that sets my site, it's a little bit higher. And then, yeah, just, we discussed one day, I was just like, all right, man, let's do this completely 50 -50. Like, let's, let's both get in on this. And I do think, yeah, and I'm thankful for that early motivation because I, I might have given up on the idea. I wasn't getting much traction selling it as a subscription newsletter.
Speaker: Yeah. And going back to when we, since the post, I think we had no idea that there was this tidal wave of other people in the same kind of boat as us that wanted to buy in Japan. And it it was really difficult for them to figure out how to do so. I think we started out as just a search and discovery site. And most recently we have been trying to help people through the buying process. And it's interesting. It's just one thing keeps leaning up next. We're really just trying to follow what customers want and actually what we want. So buying cars, doing renovation and.
Speaker: You know, it it shows that there's a really big gap in the market. We didn't intend to go down this route, but this is just naturally, we're trying to help people. And as we help people, we're building processes and becoming almost as soon to be hopefully subject matter experts on how to get there. So our dream, we're dreaming bigger now. Again, we started this side business in January. We thought we'd make some money off Google ads. Now we're starting to see, holy crap, there's like a whole blue ocean of of things we can do here. Yeah, we had ads on the website at one point.
Speaker: so They're a bad look, but we we think we can help solve some of the Akiyabondai in Japan too. There's two sides of the coin here where I think we're able to help the foreigners buy, but also from the Japanese side, um we've been talking to more Japanese folks who really are like, you guys have the opportunity of maybe not solving, but like taking a huge dent in the problem and and helping this big societal problem in Japan.
Speaker: Yeah, just to go off on that one individual that we're working with now, he what he does, he he claims that he's bought over 2000 akiyas in Japan. And what he does is he purchased these akiyas and he thinks his secret sauce is being able to no negotiate down the price, base negotiate with the contractors, basically fund, do everything for very cheap. And then what he does is he puts the houses back on the market for under market rates and gets maybe elderly people or people that have a hard time finding affordable good quality housing in Japan and he gets those renters in. He's a little bit of a philanthropist and he believes that he can make a profit while doing this and at the same time as giving back to Japan and making sure these under, what's the right word? lower income but Yeah, lower income individuals can find a safe place to live. So we're actually working with him on one property. So we'll see where that goes.
Speaker: Wow, that's fantastic. I mean, he does serve like a different crowd from what Akiyama usually helps, but I don't know. It's interesting because when I like listen to your podcasts and your interviews and your articles, it's usually like, oh, you know, Takei and I, it's usually like Joey saying it, I think. Oh, Takei and I were working on this project because we wanted to get a place and we found that it was really difficult, but I didn't know that it was actually Joey who started tinkering with things.
Speaker: And then Takeo was like, hey, we might be able to commercialize this and solve ah a greater problem. Yeah, I think it was all in tandem, actually, when we first started looking for a place in Beppu. So I think it was interesting how it progressed, but did I think at its very origin to start with like us wanting to look for a place and and having struggles with finding a place with Japanese websites.
Speaker: i hot on Yeah. I mean, I could go on a rant to about Japanese websites for for a long time. Um, but ah yeah, that that, that is where a lot of what the webs, the, this whole issue came from. And that that's why those those Instagram accounts do so well because there's no Japanese websites out there catering to foreign or not many, or a lot of them are focused on Tokyo or focused on the rental markets. So there we saw an opening, I think as well. Oh, I see. So you're talking about like the Instagram sites that like show these reels or these shorts of, let's look into this apartment in the tiny home apartment. and so he comes Yeah. People are excited about Japanese property. And that's the only way that they can get, see these properties is through those Instagram accounts, just cause they're not going to go to sumo oh dot .jp or at home .co .jp and and try to navigate those websites. I just know, but no, they're not going to do it.
Speaker: I'm sure that you both have scoured your fair share of Japanese websites. Can you give me like three points of why it's hard for a Western UI trained person like ourselves?
Speaker: Yeah, I'll go first and Joey's got like a thousand on his list. But, you know, being Western, we and in the United States, we look at Zellow and Redfin. That kind of becomes like our gold standard. So moving directly to the Japanese side is like, whoa, what the heck? So one, can't read Kanji. Well, and Kanji is so hard. So as a foreigner, I can imagine someone who's never been to Japan is just like, what am I looking at here to combine with? yeah So there's no like English version of the site at all.
Speaker: You can translate, like right click and translate via Google, but it's not great. And it also is just like a little bit. It's hard to decipher sometimes. So that's one big thing. The second is the yen to dollar conversion. I don't know. I like math, but I don't love doing every single conversion of what does that mean in dollars and what square met meters to feed? You know, I know metric system here, but those are, if someone's like, last Oh, it's 1 .2 billion yen. And it's like, i well I don't know how much that is.
Speaker: Yeah. And the very last thing, I think the map based UI is way better. Like just, I'm a big surfer. Joey's a big surfer. We initially started the search looking for something on the coastline and just being able to scroll and zoom in and be like, okay, this looks like a good spot where swell might come in and might have a good surf spot. So I think those three things were big things we wanted to improve. And, but I'll pass it off to Joey. What other, what things grind your gears about Japanese websites?
Speaker: yeah It's just the usability. I think my more controversial opinions are why I think Japanese websites are the way they are, but I think it hit the nail on the head with it. It comes down to the usability, like a lot of things on their websites. Like for example, if you go on at home and you try to use them, you know, you have to click maybe 15 times before you get to the map. But once you get to the map, you can't zoom out all the way and see properties. They only start showing properties once you're zoomed in. So if you.
Speaker: The problem that foreigners have is they don't know where they're looking. They just want to see, oh, they want to find something exciting. They don't know that they're looking for a house in this. I do feel like the just Japanese customer might be more like, okay, I want to buy something in this town in Yamanashi because that's where I grew up or something like that. So maybe they don't run into these issues where I do feel like more Western people, they want, they just want to explore. They just want to explore. They don't know exactly the location or the specifics of the house upfront, which is the way these websites kind of Force you to start specifying all your criteria first before you see the house or as I think Westerners Yeah, they just want to explore
Speaker: That's kind of neat. That's kind of neat. That's true. They're coming at it from a very different context and background. I think only a very small portion of people who have been to Japan probably know that they want to live in Pippa. So and what ah what are some things from Japanese websites then that you think are good and worth implementing into Western websites then?
Speaker: There's a fine, so I think Japanese UI, in Japanese culture, and we're fighting in the real estate is very conservative and making sure that they give you all the information and tell all the liability so it's not on them. I think there's a fine balance, you know, the US does the opposite where they just show you like just the bare essentials, I would say.
Speaker: like So I think there's pros and cons of that if we were really looking at, hey, I want to know if this is a landslide zone or what are all the details. It's sometimes hard to navigate and find that in the US. So I do think there is a fine balance and Japanese sites go overboard, in my opinion, on giving you too much information. But it is helpful if you're an investor or you really want to know every detail. Yeah, that's true.
Speaker: That's funny. Okay. We'll go on to the next question. The IKEA Mart name really grew when it was featured on Business Insider, I think. And I think Takei mentioned that in the beginning with things like Barely Ready, you guys launched and just started talking to customers that reached out averaging six hours of consultation calls per day.
Speaker: just trying to understand people's needs. I think this is often a advised by folks at Y Combinator that the best way to approach building zero to one as well, which is just by talking and understanding people's needs, right? Would you recommend this approach in the beginning phases for building a business or would you do anything differently now?
Speaker: Definitely. I think it's been so valuable speaking to as many customers as we had, as we have spoken to, and especially early on when we had the free consultations and me and Sage were just on the phone for maybe it was three weeks straight, maybe not three, definitely two weeks, maybe two and a half weeks straight.
Speaker: Just our whole day was talking to people and I do hear that entrepreneurial advice as well. Like you have to talk to your customer. You have to talk to your customer. I really, I don't know if we did it exactly. It's okay. We're going to do this customer ah research and then we'll have the research and then we'll know what to build kind of thing. I feel like it was more organic than that. We didn't, it it didn't set out that way. Why did we put the console even in the first place, Take?
Speaker: We didn't have any call to action. So we had all these listings and we're like, shoot, what do people will do? And I think we just slapped it up there. But I think we said back to your question, I think we were, we're in a zone of just getting something out there, having an MP and we, it definitely was not perfect. It was, uh, we look back on it now, just a a little embarrassed, by but what were you thinking for these things? But.
Speaker: it got us out there and i think taking that action over in action and not overthinking is this perfect is kind of a downfall for probably a lot of startups and i think joey definitely values a list of shit that joey i forgot what you said but you're just like oh what did you say about it I don't know. I was going to say something that you always say, which is we're building a plane as we're flying it. We used to say that a lot more. I feel like it now and weve the plane is somewhat built at this point, but yeah, I really like that. thats I think that does embody a lot of our approach to Akiemart is building the plane as we're flying it. I do feel like Akiemart Direct, which is a new service we have, which is helping
Speaker: ah People actually purchase this property now that really start i was a little nervous to start that cuz it's like alright we're about to get on a phone call with someone and tell them that we can help them buy a property and it's like alright we have talked to a real estate but putting those pieces together for the first time we've done it it feels like you have nothing and here.
Speaker: half lying to this person that you have have this whole pipeline of how it works when you're like you that person doesn't know that their number, their customer number zero a customer number one, you know, um, that part of starting a business does feel like you're building the plane as you're flying it. But after you get a few people through the door, you really do have that pipeline all of a sudden and you feel much more confident with what you're doing.
Speaker: And I think it's empowering being, it's just me and Joey, we're not afraid to be embarrassed or put something out that doesn't, if we work at a larger company, you have to go through checks and balance, make sure it hits a certain of threshold. We had nothing to lose. I was just like, let's throw it out there, see what happens. And I think that kind of mentality has gotten us to where we are now. We're just trying new things every day. And if it doesn't work, it we just, worst case, we go back to original. I think I've been reading some of the lean startup and they talk a lot about just like,
Speaker: doing a lot of A B testing, do a lot of, you know, try something new. And if it doesn't work, at least you've tried it. So we've tried a lot of smaller products on AccuMart that haven't worked out, but it's gotten in us one step closer to knowing about the space. And I think one step closer to a better product.
Speaker: yeah Just one more thought on that. Like I've only worked for larger companies in my life, you know, 500 people at least in a company. And it does feel very much the new feature that you're building or the new product, you know, it's planned out for a certain period of time, then you're building it and there's like a launch date and everybody's getting ready for the launch date. Like someone hits the button, like it's all very much a lot of fanfare and it's the, okay, now all the product is launched kind of thing.
Speaker: starting your own business, especially when it's just like the two of us and we're just trying to get a product together for this very first customer. It does feel very much more like it's like you're talking to somebody and you're like, Hey, I can do the a lot more. I don't know. There's not the fanfare, but I guess what I'm trying to say is you don't need that fanfare. Like you can make a product out of nothing.
Speaker: And if this person ah ah agrees, Hey, that sounds like a good idea. Like I'm willing to, to pay you this money for that. Like all of a sudden you do have a, that's all it takes to have the product. And you know, we've launched a ah few things like that. Some of them didn't work. So we had to take them down, but some of them have worked. And then that's where you start a little bit more fleshing it out.
Speaker: not other than that What is like kind of the process, you said you launched like small products and small features in the past as well. What is, from a very overhead view, what is the process you ideate or you hear this desire, this need from a customer. And then if you can walk me through, that'd be very interesting.
Speaker: Yeah, there's a couple paths. Joey and I, we do a lot of, we have a lot of brainstorm bad ideas, I'd say. And sometimes we're just like, let's just try it. Let's see how it works. And let's put this button up or put something up that, you know, is is just organic from us brainstorming. But I think a majority of what we've now been led down the path is is just like what the customer wants. What are the friction points that we can make this process easier. One example, we launched a product called Acu -Mart Research where we would have our friends, our ICU friends, call agents and try to do video tours with them because we wanted, people wanted to see the inside of homes and it was hard to get an agent to fully commit. So we tried that. It didn't work. Luckily, our ICU friends were really cool. We just paid them a little bit of money to jump on the phone for us. But
Speaker: Ultimately, going back to your question, it was just following what the customer wants and what we think would be helpful and and what's needed in this whole transaction process. a andhoto It's literally like the try it and then iterate and then maybe don't launch it and then launch something else that's cooler and fits more needs and it's like, yeah. but yeah What I think I've learned a lot, and this is something I probably never would have done myself had I not been working with Takei, is that I feel like as the software engineer here, it's very much build something, put it out on the internet, have a paywall, and then
Speaker: Magically, people buy it kind of thing. It's kind of like the the dream of the software engineer. But I think I've learned from Take is more just try something when you're you're not even quite ready with it yet or start pitching like an idea even to a client like even but before you you've obviously discussed it beforehand and there's a kind of kernel of an idea there, but more just try something kind of thing is I feel like it's more the name of the game.
Speaker: I wonder what if this, what if that kind of thing. It's like more just try something and and that has always been scary for me because it almost feels like you're lying to the customer. Again, I feel like I said this before, but you don't have the product, but you're pitching it as if you have the product and you have this like very formal process. But the the client doesn't really care about that. They want to purchase a house in Japan, for example. If you can make that happen, that's all that matters. So I do feel like try something.
Speaker: pitch your ideas to the customer and most of the time they're already speaking to you so it it it will probably work out. yeah that's it Or you'll learn something at least.
Speaker: Yeah, no, definitely. That's a really good point. It's actually interesting because a few days ago, someone reached out to me willing to pay for a feature in my newsletter, my new newsletter. they and yeah yeah Thank you. Thank you. And I was like, I don't have a pitch and I don't know how to price. And I was just like, but the call was in the afternoon. So in the morning I was just like, I just created a deck and it was literally like flying with a half built plane. What was I saying? Sorry.
Speaker: but Building the plane. are plan Yeah, yeah, yeah. ah denis so cans it And yeah, it it it worked and it was. his Congratulations. Yeah, I'm definitely going to iterate and tailor it a bit more depending on people, but yeah.
Speaker: So it just made me think of that experience. It's exciting. Congratulations. Thank you. You just have to hit the ground running. I'll go on to the next question. um Now that you've been operating for months now and continuing with the consultations and talking to people interested in buying in Japan, what are the biggest obstacles, this could be mental or logistical, that stops folks from buying property in Japan? And to what extent are they valid?
Speaker: Good question. We've found a lot of people reach out to us. And again, we kind of have a paywall. So only really serious people now come to us. We do have a consultation fee. And also when we help with the transaction, we do charge a flat fee. So the quality of customers we've been encountering are higher just because they've been willing to pay a little bit to start the process. So that it might be skewed. If we had left things open, I think it would have been very different. but We, I find that most people have the motivation. Some people do have that fear. There's always a fear of transferring $50 ,000 to a person you've never met in person via a website you've never used. So there's a couple leaks of faith that people have to take, but they will take them. And that's what Joey and I are here for just to reassure, Hey, we did it ourselves too. It's going to be okay. But I would say.
Speaker: Yeah, I don't, I think from my friends personally who are interested, who haven't gone through our process, it's always the over analysis paralysis or like, Hey, ill sounds cool. I'm not sure about it. And they just never get around to it. I think the people we deal with really have that fire in them. Let's get this done. And those are the people we love helping.
Speaker: Yeah, too. I also think there are people in life, again, sorry, I'm saying all the things that I learned i learned about life from my friendship with Taka here. But ah what one thing that I noticed about Taka in comparison to myself and other people I see is that Taka is a doer. He like, he gets things done. Whereas I do feel like a lot of people, myself included, over Maybe not over analyze but spend more time Analyzing stuff and maybe even have a little bit of a fear of making the wrong decision Oh, what ah if it what if it ends up but being like the bad the wrong idea and you know buying a house in Japan? Ruins my life somehow. I don't know if that's my my personal feel but but just like making making a bad financial choice Potentially or I do think that
Speaker: the type of those type of people, and I'm going to include myself in that category. I think that does hold people back. Like potentially they love Japan and it's just this to buy a house in another country. Like it's several large things that they need to cross over in their mind to actually make that leap and do it. And I honestly think, I don't think I would have ever done it had I not gone in with talk a on our first house here so i do think there are doers in life and talk is a doer and i think that you know those are the kind of people that that that make these decisions and they buy the house in japan and i would encourage more people to be doers in life i think it you make. but i I think it's better decisions i don't think you need to think that hard on all these life decisions.
Speaker: yeah go to None of our properties have made a single dollar yet though. So could be a mistake, but also at the same time, I think that agree with Joey. Like I, I try to focus on just if you're thinking about it, take the first next step, you know, or else that energy is a little bit wasted. So glad to hear that, Jerry. Now we're you're doing out to now i'm I'm trying to be a doer. I'm trying to be a do you are a doer.
Speaker: No, but honestly, you know, let's say one day you're in your, your desk bed and you look back on your life, it would be better if you had bought the house that you always dreamed of in Japan rather than being like, Oh, I might've been able to buy a house in Japan. Right. So it's, it's very cliche and cheesy, but it's like the no. Do you remember what was that movie as no regrets?
Speaker: Do you remember there was a tattoo on this guy? yeah It was misspelled. No regrats. It was like a me or something. That person's a dupe. Whoever got that tattoo, they're a dupe.
Speaker: but Yeah. they were babies so so so i And I think a lot of it came, so we read this book around the same time that we started getting serious about buying our first Beppu property by Rick Rubin, who is not quite a music producer. I don't think he's self -described himself as a music producer, but that's probably the best way to describe him for other people.
Speaker: yeah He like gets paid for his creative input into what when a musician's coming out with an album. Anyways, he's very successful in this hyper -creative career of his. And he came out with a book. And I think it he write you know in the first chapter of the book, he started out as a book to help artists become more creative, but morphed into his philosophy on life. And I think one of the things that I remember from that book or that stuck with me was he was talking about just going with your gut more in life in the sense that, and this kind of cut comes back to being a doer versus a dreamer, but he says, like go just make more decisions with your gut in life. And I'm not going to say it's going to be the right decision. Sometimes it's going to be the wrong decision, but your life is going to be more interesting as a result. And who doesn't want to live a more more interesting life? I think it is something I remember from the book.
Speaker: I got goosebumps from that man. angle yeah Funny story about Joey, he bought that first, he bought the first, I told him like, Joey, you got to read this book. And he bought it off eBay and he bought like this knockoff PDF formatted, like, Joey, it was like, ah what was it in the book? It was like just nonsense, right? i yeah Yeah. So i I was just like, I was on Amazon and I guess I bought the wrong and one. Maybe the price is way cheaper. I don't know. but I bought the wrong one. It came as a paper. So the real book's a hardcover. It's like about this thick.
Speaker: And this one was a paperback. It came like this. It was the same cover. said I don't think it said Rick Rubin. It was the same like image on the cover. And so yeah it started out weird rambling about i don't know some kind of like meditation -y type stuff. And then it quickly got like white supremacy.
Speaker: and then And then just like the guy had taken quotes from all these i don't know different controversial authors. And I was just like, what what is it? I threw the book look away. but I guess so yeah I kept that and sent it to Rick Rubin. He would have loved it. but yeah like A lot of Nazi stuff came up and I was just like, what where did this come from? don't Careful if you're searching for that book on Amazon.
Speaker: as they Were you ever like, why is Takei recommending me this book? Is he trying to tell me something? Joey sent me screenshots. I'm like, Joey, bro, you got the wrong yeah like the wrong thing there.
Speaker: Someone's like manifesto. Like it's, I don't know. Yeah. Careful out there, guys. Yeah. So funny. Imagine like the shock when you start reading, you're like, huh? Yeah. Is this really, you're you agree with this guy?
Speaker: ah So everyone be careful when you're searching for that book. Yeah. The Creative Act by Rick Rubin, but make sure it's not at the $6 one. It's the $30 one.
Speaker: ah Okay, we'll move on to the next question. Akiya Mart has been thriving because of the pure surplus of abandoned homes in Japan. That one third of homes will be vacant by 2038, which could mean that if you, like, if we had neighbors, like two neighbors on both sides, one side would probably be vacant forever by 2038, which is scary to think. The aging population is not expected to slow down anytime soon, nor is the relatively low interest rate.
Speaker: So what do your guts tell you about real estate in Japan in the coming five to 10 years? And what does that mean for Akiyama? Yeah. Anyone listened to this, just know that real estate in Japan, as you mentioned, like because of the supply, a couple of reasons is a depreciating asset. So if you buy something it's bigger here in California, you buy a shack, it's going to go up in price likely or more so than Japan. So anyone listening, it's,
Speaker: maybe not a that the best investment you can make out it there. We do say it's an emotional investment, but tough question. Honestly, we got we've just really been in the space for a year, but we've been researching it every day. so Japan's got to do something. It's not going to increase its population. I don't know. We're letting people in from foreign countries. And I know Japan's got its immigration kind of laws, but it's got to let people in. And I think the people we're talking to are really good people. We really do try to screen for people that we think are a good fit for Japan. And we'll say no to someone who's never been there and just wants a cheap house.
Speaker: We personally hit see what in our spot in that booth. The neighbors love us. They really, they approach me always because I have, I look Japanese when Joey's Japanese is better actually. And they like see the glimmer of hope. They're like, oh, you're going to revitalize this community. There's a lot of old people in our neighborhood that really like us, I think.
Speaker: But I think at the core of your question, Japan's got to figure out something, whether it be helping sell these akias, just buying it ourselves. It was such a difficult process. Agents are motivated by these cheap commission lower commissions on these cheaper properties, and the friction of just foreigners buying it is so high. so I don't know, it's a really problematic situation that doesn't have a clear solution, but I do really think that incentivizing Japanese agents to try to sell these properties for foreigners is a big one and make it easier for foreigners to move to Japan or at least invest in Japan is ah is a first step in the right direction.
Speaker: Yeah, I think that was my opinion. Jerry, what do you think? I think Japan was so close to remote work during the pandemic. If only the companies had kept up with that. I don't think these houses necessarily like like foreigners are the only ones going to buy them. I think Japanese are no different from everyone else. Like they want to own. They don't want to be a renter for their entire life. I think like remote where they Japan was so close if only they had kept that going. I think there'd be a lot more young people choosing to live in the countryside. Tokyo is so overcrowded. The train to get to our place in Thomas City is like one of the worst experiences I've experienced in a long time. It's really bad. That commute is terrible.
Speaker: And I think that forcing people to go into the office, I think a lot of even just the train kind congestion would be fixed a little bit if they if the companies would modernize a little bit and allow remote work. So i i I don't think foreigners are the solution. I think the solution has to come from within Japan itself. And I think there's certain things that Japan could do to to help out. The one on the top of my mind is remote work just because I really hate that train ride. In terms of your question about buying now or like where things are going to be going in the future. We've had customers, clients ask us that as well. They're like, if if ah the population is aging faster, why don't I just buy in 10 years? And it's even cheaper. I don't know what's going to happen in 10 years. no one No one really knows. So I can't really advise there. I just think that
Speaker: If most of our clients are buying for lifestyle purposes with maybe the option to get a monthly renter or short -term renter in the months while they're not there, and if most of the reason that you're purchasing is for lifestyle, why wait 10 years? I would recommend just doing it. it's I can't see it changing too much. The price is like, how much lower could it go? I think so. I don't know. I just encourage people to do it again. I feel like going back to the doers versus dreamers. do it Yeah. It's the theme of this podcast. Honestly, just do it.
Speaker: the nike Just do it. Um, youre dear joe but yeah, yeah and and then going back to the other thing about how it was the Akiha problem going to get solved. I think there needs to be some way to encourage Japanese people to move to these or or find some sort of livelihood that can be done from rural areas and smaller cities.
Speaker: Yeah, definitely. I think during the pandemic, actually, there the house, the real estate in more suburban, like peripheral regions actually went up because of the amount of people who are moving out. So like you guys said, I think there is definitely a desire for more space, probably less people closer to... Yeah.
Speaker: Quick question for you. Do you feel that, like one of the things that we've used that a lot of people say contributes to why there's so many abandoned homes is that Japanese people like new things. They don't want to buy buy an old house. They want to build a new house. that They want a new car or that type of thing. Do you think that could change and Japanese will be more excited about renovating an older house?
Speaker: I don't know. I can't speak for all of the Japanese population, but I do tend to feel like Shinjuku and Shinsha, like new builds and new cars definitely has the allure of a status. It's like a status symbol as well, I think. But I also see this wave of like younger folks interested in like antique stuff and vintage things and maybe craving that nostalgia, in a way, from maybe their grandmother's home and their childhood and stuff. So there could be ah increasing like demand for these like more lived -in places and that has like the flavor and like the essence of old Japan, but I don't know.
Speaker: for sure. let's go jet gen z gen z my nothing feels about ah be cool for sure Before I go into the final lightning round of questions, I'd like to go back to an experience that kind of kickstarted Akiya Mart. Both of you were impacted by the big tech layoffs back in early 2023 and You've quoted that as the the moment when you realized that you wanted to purchase a home in Japan, which then led to building Akiyomart. Sitting here today, looking back at that decision, how do you think that event changed your values and how did that spark that final leap of courage? And what do you think you were looking for in endeavoring on this?
Speaker: Deep question. To add more context, I actually know the exact moment. I don't know about you, Joey, but Joey and I, we went on a trip to Montenegro. So my fiance purchased a kind of property near the seaside and she was working. So it was up to Joey and I who were both unemployed or to go set it up on Airbnb. We were on like the rooftop of this like cheaply built building. The pool was not filled in. And we were like, I think we were just like,
Speaker: drinking a beer inside the pool, Joey. And we're just like, when are we going to be together and have the bandwidth to just buy a property in Japan? And I think it's like right then and there in my mind, I was just like, all right, that was the the birthplace of Akiyama in my opinion. Joey, do you agree with that? I agree. And that was the first time when I was ah like, like now, Joey, if you're ever going to be a doer, like now's the time to to do it kind of thing. The birth of Joey at the doer. But ah Sorry, I forgot the rest of your question there. No, no, no. I think because I'm asking this question because there are a lot of people who are impacted by the layoffs, right? oh yeah When you're unemployed, you're newly unemployed, and you're at this moment of like desperation, I don't think a lot of people would decide to purchase property. Yeah. True. Yeah. Joey and I are definitely not.
Speaker: normal in some sense. So just to call all that out, we've done a lot of traveling. you know I think our gut instinct when being free from the corporate shackles is not to go back into our room and look to get back into those shackles. But for us, it was a very freeing moment of just being like, hey, we have a little bit of disposable income from our jobs we've been hustling at. I think really anyone listening to this, like life is short. I think we were both realizing like Hey, we don't have kids where we have some disposable income. We have some bandwidth to do this. Let's just try it. And I think it it definitely was not the easy route, but it was fun. And I would recommend doing it with a friend. I think this process could not have been doable, like buying a property in a foreign country.
Speaker: would have been very hard for me to do alone. And Joey, I feel would be the same way, but when we did it together, it was much more palatable from a cost perspective, experience perspective, and just made it a lot more fun than just trying to figure out how to get into this abandoned home late night, trying to figure it, clean it up and stuff. So I say, again, we keep going back to the doer thing, but just go for it. If you feel like your gut wants to go for it and bring someone along with the journey, I think it makes it a lot easier.
Speaker: Yeah, to you add to that. So yeah, I agree. may It seems like not the smartest financial decision to buy a house after you get it laid off. I had been prepping for at least quitting my job for maybe about a year and a half prior to that. I was lucky enough to be living with a friend in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and he wasn't charging me rent. So I was saving money. I did want to quit my job and try something else. I'd always wanted to try to start a business. I didn't think it would be this business or or come up this fast, but I had been saving money and I have been laid off from jobs maybe four or five times in my life. So it wasn't the the biggest shock to me. laid off
Speaker: I'm probably getting laid off so I wasn't having to get that hard. It's almost like relief actually, because you like all of a sudden that project that, Oh, you were worrying about three days ago. Like you don't have to worry about that ever anymore kind of things. I had been prepping my savings and then it just all happened this way.
Speaker: But I do think that forming a plan, I guess that was tentatively a plan, have these savings because I want to quit my job and then do something different and use that as a little bit of a buffer. So that's a loose plan that I did have there. So I think with the, the, the layoff itself didn't quite affect me, but I do think that things worked out in my life because I had formed a plan about a year and a half ago to save for a moment like this.
Speaker: And I didn't expect it to be this exact moment, but I was able to roll with it in a sense. No, no, hold on. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. We'll go into the final lightning round of questions. There are three. The first one is if you were banished from Japan, but could take one thing with you, what would it be? From Japan to our respective country? Yes. Yes. Okay.
Speaker: I love natto. So I know you can get the natto quince or the bacteria from Amazon or whatever, but I would try to find the best natto in Japan and get that bacteria and or recipe and bring it back to the States. So I could still keep eating natto anywhere. And knowing that tried some of the best natto from Japan. Natto best. Probably not Joey's answer. Nope.
Speaker: yeah i Well, mine's food too. I almost went down some sort of hot spring onsen thing, but I think I'm gonna go food instead. Otoya's Kitchen Chef is who I'd bring back. ah Kitchen, I think, is a fantastic restaurant. they Their menu is very broad. So oh the reason why I love Otoya's Kitchen so much is because it's walking distance to our bamboo house. And when I lived in the bamboo house for two months last year, the kitchen was under construction for that full time. I had to eat out.
Speaker: Every single meal, okay except for breakfast, you think, oh, it's so much fun. It's not fun. It's a grind after three weeks of doing that. It becomes a grind. Otis Kitchen saved, I feel like saved my life. The menu is broad enough that you could get it.
Speaker: Lots of different types of food there. You don't get bored. I was trying to eat a lot. I was trying to i was trying to gain some weight, so you can get you can can get the oumori rice. You can get the tambin on the side for other stuff. I think very efficient, um very affordable meal. I think that this kitchen is a great restaurant. and larger bio yeah I brought another cook back with me, but I would start at Otoya's kitchen. and you know It's healthy too, Otoya. It's so good.
Speaker: Yeah, that's I guess that's the other thing it does. It's not like you feel like you're eating ramen every day. Definitely.
Speaker: um but Sorry. No, no, no. Joey has this. We have this thing where we're like every time we go out and Joey doesn't like noodles. I'm like, Joey, can we go get ramen? He's not. I'm not feeling like what we're we're in Japan, man. So anyways.
Speaker: I'm with Joey on that. I prefer rice. No. Oh my goodness. Okay. I would like Japanese. I really love Japanese cars. Okay. Good price. Yep. Okay. my question Sorry. Second and question. What is a book that you'd recommend?
Speaker: Joey already said, ah yeah, the Rick Rubin book, I think really, in a way, kick this off. And it's weird timing, but really recommend that book. But I think from a business perspective, a book that we've both also read recently, it's called Profit First. You know, we're first time business owners, and we're getting revenue. and We're just like, Oh, yeah, we made $5 ,000. Let's spend $5 ,000 on a party. And That works for a little bit, but we also just had no true framework of like, how do we balance this? What do we take out for taxes? And I think Profit First really set us up and at least to know how we should take our money and how should we should structure it. So I use it personally in my own personal life and but my other businesses kind of thing. So Profit First was a big impact for me personally, I think both of us.
Speaker: And it's extremely simple too, which is the benefit of it. It's not like, oh, you start need you need to learn bookkeeping and accounting. It is extr - any, absolutely anyone can learn this and do well with your business's finances. Uh, my book, I'll throw a, I'll throw a novel in there. If anybody likes Murakami, Haruki Murakami novels, there's an author, Tom Robbins, who, if you like Murakami, this is like,
Speaker: 3X Murakami. So he's an American author, but he's like more Murakami than Murakami is if if that's possible. And obviously the stories don't take place in Japan, but very much in the same vein as Murakami, but like maybe I would argue more. And that's what I really like about him. I recommend Jitterbug perfume.
Speaker: Okay. I'll definitely you link them. These three books down below them. Last question. What do you do when you need a push of courage?
Speaker: Push of courage. Huh? That's a good question.
Speaker: I'd say, Joey, i like I've been really into sauna and cold plunging. I think recently, I know it's a big bad, but I do think there's something there about, I live in Santa Cruz, so jumping in the cold water and going surfing and like that push of just let's swallow the frog and do something uncomfortable.
Speaker: I think makes everything a little bit easier, just being like, that water was freaking cold. But making this decision isn't going to be as painful as that experience was. So I think maybe not so the hot bassana, but the cold plunge or jumping in cold water or a cold shower, I think that kind of kickstarts me physically, I'd say, but also mentally.
Speaker: I agree with physical exercise too. And I also just think talking about it, like I i am someone that likes to clam up, but in in the times where like someone has pride, some information out of me when I'm worrying about something, I do feel like that makes it a little bit better. I do feel like talking about about the thing you need the courage for helps as well.
Speaker: even though I don't want to do it, I think it helps. It's like that first push and then anything feels possible after, I think. That's it for the lightning round. Thank you, Taki and Joey, for sharing your story. It's been a pleasure to speak to you both again and kind of witness how powerful the synergy of like good friendship can be. Final two quick questions. How do people reach reach out to you? and You can just answer that first. How can people reach out?
Speaker: ah Contact at akiyadashmark .com. You should be able to find it on everything. Listen to our podcast and also Instagram, LinkedIn. you know Everything comes back to us, so please reach out to us. We're more than happy to talk to people, hear feedback, and yeah, excited to hear from people in general. That's great. And the last question is, how can the audience be helpful to you? Ooh, we got some. What do you think, Jerry? We got some. We have a lot of things on the roadmap that we don't know how to solve from an Accumart perspective, we're currently looking for someone to project manage renovations or some way we're helping people buy, but the next step of the process is like, obviously people want to renovate. So if anyone knows any handyman in Japan that are bilingual, I know it's a small subset there or project managers who want to get in this space, that's something we're actually really looking for to help the customer journey along.
Speaker: We're also looking for a muralist. If anybody paints murals, we just bought a $35 ,500 property in Kitakushu. This is with the guy we mentioned that helps underprivileged people find safe and affordable housing. And there's a big concrete wall out front and Takei wants to paint a mural there. I think it's a good idea too. So if anybody's a muralist and um wants to stay in this Kitakushu house for a little bit, we can work something out.
Speaker: Yep. This could be the start of something cool. Chai and Akiha is making him beautiful pieces of art and showing the world that, you know, these are abandoned homes, but there's valley behind them. Definitely. For sure. Well, thank you Taki and Joey so much again for the incredible work that you are both inspiring us to do to follow our gut and do what makes sense to us. And that's it for today's but podcast. but Bye bye.
