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Society

Starting a Business in Japan

What does it take to start a business in Japan as a foreigner? Elizabeth Mueller did the research, and put together this incredibly clear and detailed guide to all of the steps you’ll need to cross in order to make it happen. It also features interviews with my buddies Mark McFarlane (Tacchi) and Chris Palmieri (AQ), as well as lovely illustrations throughout by Adrian Hogan.

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A Creative Tokyo Canvas

Canvas gives a permanent and accessible digital database to Tokyo’s creative community.

It’s something that was often brought up at PauseTalk over the years, this idea of building a proper database for all of the interesting creatives who would attend the events, which would then make it easier for everyone to reconnect, or just to create a useful one-stop site for when you’re on the lookout for a designer, photographer, etc. I of course listed all attendees on the PauseTalk website, but that wasn’t very convenient in the long run, as you’d have to scroll down to old posts to see who attended a particular edition – and then there’s the fact that most of that site’s archive is now gone.

At one of the last PauseTalk events before I left Tokyo, there was talk by a lot of people of finally coming together to create a proper online database. I don’t know if Canvas is a result of that, but it’s certainly great to see it exist.

The person behind Canvas, Mark McFarlane, is a good friend and someone I’ve worked closely with (on PechaKucha-related projects) and so it’s really great to see him take his digital studio, Tacchi, and put it behind a project like this.

The site is currently still in beta, and so even though I already like a lot of what it has to offer, I’m sure it’s going to do nothing but improve, and see its community of creatives build and create beautiful things together.