In 2012, as giants such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google began to position themselves as the go-to places to read news, a little-known news app called SmartNews emerged and started gaining popularity in Japan. The SmartNews app has since been dubbed “App of the Year” on Google Play and won the “Best of” award in Apple’s App store, launched US operations in 2014, and now has over 10 million monthly active users in US and Japan.

In the age of fake news and information polarization, SmartNews is working to deliver to users a balanced diet of quality information from trusted journalism sources. The SmartNews news app uses machine learning to deliver curated news from more than 3000 sources and identify fake news. The SmartNews Delivery Algorithm not only considers users’ likes and clicks and other behavior on the app to generate suggestions, but also applies political balancing algorithms to ensure multiple viewpoints are expressed on important topics, and diversification algorithms to help break the filter bubble.

In this public forum, SmartNews Director of Product Management Yuhei Nishioka will talk about SmartNews’ story and growth trajectory, competing in the current news app landscape, and finally, discuss the process and considerations in creating the SmartNews News Delivery Algorithm. Introduction by Rich Jaroslovsky Vice President for Content and Chief Journalist of SmartNews and former Wall Street Journal White House correspondent.

MAIN SPEAKER:

Yuhei Nishioka, Director of Product Management, SmartNews

INTRODUCTION BY:

Rich Jaroslovsky, Vice President for Content and Chief Journalist, SmartNews and former Wall Street Journal White House correspondent

AGENDA:

4:15pm: Doors open
4:30pm-5:30pm: Main Content, followed by discussion
5:30pm-6:00pm: Networking

RSVP REQUIRED:

Register to attend at http://www.stanford-svnj.org/101618-public-forum

PARKING ON CAMPUS:

Please note there is significant construction taking place on campus, which is greatly affecting parking availability and traffic patterns at the university. Please plan accordingly.

Large Japanese firms have a long history of having offices in Silicon Valley, mostly starting in the 1980s and 1990s in the heyday of semiconductors, early computing, software, and communications industries. In the past couple decades, as the Silicon Valley ecosystem produced firms that become global giants with new technologies and disruptive business models, the question has become how to most effectively “harness” the Silicon Valley ecosystem. There is currently a surge of large Japanese companies into Silicon Valley, the latest of several surges and retreats. This time around, most firms are aiming to identify new opportunities to collaborate with the startup ecosystem in order to understand future technological and industry trajectories, to facilitate new forms of “open” innovation within the company, and in some cases to even redefine how to add value to their core offerings. However, given a vast differently economic context from their core operations in Japan, many of the large Japanese firms’ initial forays tend to fall into patterns of “worst practices” that are ineffective. Yet, a small but growing number of innovative Japanese companies are producing novel and valuable collaborations with a variety of Silicon Valley firms, investors, and ecosystem players. This talk will introduce the strategies, structures, and activities of Komatsu, Honda, Yamaha, and several other Japanese companies that are undertaking new forms of collaboration with Silicon Valley companies. The talk will survey a range of strategic options available to Japanese companies, with implications for how to better adapt companies from Japan to Silicon Valley, and more broadly from different political economic systems.

SPEAKER:

Kenji Kushida, Research Scholar, Shorenstein APARC Japan Program and Stanford Silicon Valley-New Japan Project Leader

BIO:

Kenji E. Kushida is the Japan Program Research Scholar at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University (APARC), Project Leader of the Stanford Silicon Valley – New Japan Project (Stanford SV-NJ), research affiliate of the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE), International Research Fellow at the Canon Institute for Global Studies (CIGS), and Visiting Researcher at National Institute for Research Advancement (NIRA). He holds a PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, an MA in East Asian studies and BAs in economics and East Asian studies, all from Stanford University.

Kushida’s research streams include 1) Information Technology innovation, 2) Silicon Valley’s economic ecosystem, 3) Japan’s political economic transformation since the 1990s, and 4) the Fukushima nuclear disaster. He has published several books and numerous articles in each of these streams, including “The Politics of Commoditization in Global ICT Industries,” “Japan’s Startups Ecosystem,” “Cloud Computing: From Scarcity to Abundance,” and others. His latest business book in Japanese is “The Algorithmic Revolution’s Disruption: a Silicon Valley Vantage on IoT, Fintech, Cloud, and AI” (Asahi Shimbun Shuppan 2016).

He has appeared in media including The New York Times, Washington Post, Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Nikkei Business, NHK, PBS NewsHour, and NPR.

He is also a trustee of the Japan ICU Foundation, a fellow of the US-Japan Leadership Program, an alumni of the Trilateral Commission David Rockefeller Fellows, and a member of the Mansfield Foundation Network for the Future.

AGENDA:

4:15pm: Doors open
4:30pm-5:30pm: Talk and Discussion
5:30pm-6:00pm: Networking

RSVP REQUIRED:

Register to attend at http://www.stanford-svnj.org/92719-public-forum

PARKING ON CAMPUS:

Please note there is significant construction taking place on campus, which is greatly affecting parking availability and traffic patterns at the university. Please plan accordingly.

Gender inequality in the workplace is still a reality and an issue that must be tackled head-on in Silicon Valley and Japan. In 2017, the World Economic Forum reported for the first time in 10 years, a widening of the global gender gap. Numerous efforts to break this cycle have been announced and implemented to varying degrees of success in both countries making it clear that we must do more, together.

While women in the United States comprise 59% of the total workforce, they only make up 30% of major technology companies and only 11% of the executive positions in Silicon Valley are held by women. An industry that prides itself on innovative thinking and breakthroughs that can fundamentally improve quality of life has yet to find its way to disrupt gender inequality in its ranks. In recent years, Silicon Valley has been rocked by a number of high-profile sexual discrimination and harassment cases. In 2016, women tech leaders created the “Elephant in the Valley” survey to gather data on women’s experiences. The result was a bleak picture of Silicon Valley’s pervasive gender discrimination atmosphere but also the creation of a platform for women to share stories and build networks of support and activism based on shared experience.

As Japan faces a shrinking and aging population, it must pursue productivity growth to remain a wealthy nation. Women, long underutilized in Japan’s workforce, are receiving renewed attention with the Abe administration’s slogan of Womenomics as part of his Abenomics economic reform package. This political pledge has yielded some momentum with a number of concrete policy measures. Prime Minister Abe has even gone so far as to say “Abenomics is Womenomics.” There is still progress to be made. The Acceleration Program in Tokyo for Women (APT), spearheaded by Governor Yuriko Koike, the first female governor of Tokyo, aims to counter this narrative by providing opportunities for women entrepreneurs to build networks, receive mentoring, and become a focal point for dynamism.

The Break Through conference aims to create a dialogue that will spark innovative ideas for narrowing the gender gap by bringing together women thought leaders and entrepreneurs from Stanford, Silicon Valley and Japan to cultivate interpersonal support networks and collaboration.

This conference will:

• Provide tools for branding and building support networks
• Discuss progress and challenges in women’s advancement in Silicon Valley and Japan
• Share practices and organizational features that better enable the hiring and retaining of women
• Showcase Silicon Valley and Japanese women entrepreneurs

This conference is organized by Stanford University's Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (S-APARC) Japan Program thanks to the generous support of the Acceleration Program in Tokyo for Women (APT), Tokyo Metropolitan Government.

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Agenda

9:30-10:00       Registration

10:00-10:05     Opening & Welcome Remarks

10:05-10:35     Women Entrepreneurs in the United States

- Judy Gilbert, Chief People Officer, Zymergen   

10:35-11:00     Womenomics in Japan

- Yuko Osaki, Gender Equality Bureau, Cabinet Office, Japanese Government              

11:00-11:30     Fireside Chat 1

- Yoky Matsuoka, Chief Technology Officer, Nest

with Frances Colón, CEO, Jasperi Consulting

11:30-12:00     Fireside Chat 2

- Claire Chino, President & CEO, Itochu International Inc.

with Haruko Sasamoto, Assistant Manager Silicon Valley Branch, Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas)

12:00-13:00     Lunch

13:00-14:00     Start-up Showcase Group 1 (5 Japanese Startups)

14:00-14:15     Break

14:15-15:15     Start-up Showcase Group 2 (5 Silicon Valley Startups)

Feedback for both showcases given by:

- Allison Baum, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Fresco Capital

- Atsuko Jenks, Managing Direction-Japan, GSV Labs

- Jaclyn Selby, Research Scholar, Stanford University

15:15-16:15     Workshop: Leveraging Your Personal Brand to Effectively Lead

How others—from team members to board members—perceive you directly affects your ability to effectively lead and get results. For this reason, and especially for women entrepreneurs, it is crucial to understand your personal brand and carefully manage it. In this hands-on workshop, we will use Design Thinking as a framework to help you identify your strengths, skills and unique differentiators and how to effectively communicate these in your work environment.

Workshop Facilitator:

- Sylvia Vaquer, Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer, SocioFabrica

16:15     Closing Remarks 

As the Tokyo-based co-founder and managing partner of global VC fund Fresco Capital, Allison Baum is frequently asked “Why are you in Japan?”  Indeed, with a global network of corporate partners, investors, and portfolio companies, many of them are curious to know why Fresco sees long term potential in the Japanese market. Though Japan is an advanced and well developed economy, the country is struggling with the need to innovate in the face of critical challenges such as a deflationary economy, a rapidly aging population, and an impending automation of the workforce. Fresco’s view is that this environment presents an extremely promising market opportunity for companies addressing challenges in healthcare, education and workplaces of the future. Join us as Allison shares her experience on the challenges and opportunities of expanding to Japan, bridging the cultural divide between Japan and the rest of the world, and discovering firsthand what it takes to successfully build long term partnerships in Japan.

Voice4u is a revolutionary AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) system that helps individuals express their feelings, thoughts, actions, and needs. It is the equivalent of wheelchairs for people who cannot walk. Voice4u is the perfect solution for learning and communication for individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and the people around them. In the United States, CDC estimates that 1 in 68 children has been identified with autism spectrum disorders as of 2017. The application has been downloaded in 100+ countries and more than 150K units. The product has proven to be commercially viable and has been used by people suffering from other types of developmental disorders including Down syndrome and Asperger’s syndrome, people with other kinds of communication disorders caused by stroke or brain injuries and deafness, seniors who have difficulties with verbal communication, as well as Speech Language Pathologists (SLP) for medical professionals, teachers, or parents. This presentation will focus on how and why Yumi Kubo and Sei Higuchi founded Spectrum Visions, the development of Voice4u, and their future plans.

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Yumi is the co-founder and CEO of Spectrum Visions and has a son with autism. Before founding the company, she was engaged in numerous activities in non-profit organizations such as Parents Helping Parents (PHP). She has given lectures in Japan and the U.S on special education, IFSP (Individual Family Service Plan), IEP (Individual Educational Program) and IET (Individual Educational Transition). Yumi also started several social groups to support children with development delays. Her story was featured in San Jose Mercury News, “Autism Mystery – Family Finds Hope Silicon Valley”. As a part-time instructor at Osaka University, she has been teaching young students entrepreneurship with her unique story

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Sei is co-founder and CTO of Spectrum Visions and is leading product development. He received his Ph.D. in Aeronautics & Astronautics from Stanford University in 2009. At Stanford, he developed the adaptive model predictive control algorithm for microkelvin thermal control system. While he was a Ph.D. student, he also supported the autism community in the Bay Area. After completing his Ph.D., he started developing Voice4u. Sei received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Waseda University, Japan, MS in Aeronautics & Astronautics, and Ph.D. minor in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.

AGENDA:

4:15pm: Doors open
4:30pm-5:30pm: Talk and Discussion
5:30pm-6:00pm: Networking

RSVP REQUIRED:

Register to attend at http://www.stanford-svnj.org/svnj-public-forum-13018/2018/1/10/voice4u

For more information about the Silicon Valley-New Japan Project please visit: http://www.stanford-svnj.org/

GSVlabs is a startup and corporate innovation accelerator located in the heart of Silicon Valley in Redwood City. It houses more than 180 startups and supports corporate innovation programs for more than 25 corporations. During the past few years, GSVlabs has welcomed numerous startups from foreign countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Thailand, China, Korea, Germany, Austria just to name a few. In many cases, these foreign startup acceleration programs are funded by large corporations and governments that see long-term economic benefits of supporting such activities in Silicon Valley. In this public forum, Atsuko Jenks will discuss examples of such corporate and government funded accelerator programs and implications for the efforts by Japanese corporations and Japanese government organizations to accelerate corporate innovation and economic growth of Japan.

SPEAKER:

Atsuko Jenks, Managing Director, Japan, GSVlabs

BIO:

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AGENDA:

4:15pm: Doors open
4:30pm-5:30pm: Talk and Discussion
5:30pm-6:00pm: Networking

RSVP REQUIRED: