「Japan No.1 Token」: Breaking Through Geographic Boundaries | DripEcho 4.0 X Janction

Original Author: JoyChen

Hara, the founder and current CEO of Janction, has become an indispensable figure in the Japanese cryptocurrency industry today. Despite his background in accounting at KPMG, where he gained extensive experience in IPOs, M&A, and auditing, his true "breakthrough" moment can be credited to his encounter with blockchain. Reflecting on his career trajectory, Hara admitted that he had dabbled in various fields, but what truly made him feel a "leap" was his involvement in the Jasmy project.

As a professional who had worked in the traditional financial industry, he faced many doubts and resistance towards blockchain technology. In 2016, Jasmy, formerly a semiconductor supply company focusing on IoT device development, made the decision to transition into the blockchain industry by the end of 2017. "At that time, Jasmy's management did not have a clear understanding of blockchain technology, and the utility and governance structure of tokens were also vague concepts." Hara confessed, "I spent a lot of time delving into ICOs and the cryptocurrency market, and proposed leveraging decentralized identity and data applications as the core idea of the token economy." Although those days were challenging, Hara now sees that this exploration and trial-and-error journey has become a valuable asset.

For both Hara personally and Janction as a whole, there are two unavoidable questions: one is "how to achieve innovation," and the other is "how to nurture talent." "The development of IoT and blockchain showed me the tremendous potential of AI, so I decided to enter this field," said Hara. The core business involves building a Layer 2 platform that provides GPU computing resources and data storage solutions, aiming to offer technical support to academic institutions and startups to help them develop large language models.

Barrier in the Japanese Community: The Dual Challenge of Culture and Regulation

“Honestly, Japan's blockchain market has always faced significant barriers,” Hara stated bluntly. Despite being one of the most technologically advanced markets globally, Japan still struggles with issues regarding blockchain adoption and regulatory environment. Particularly in the DeFi field, Japan's regulatory policies have remained relatively conservative. “One of the biggest challenges we encountered when launching blockchain projects in Japan was regulatory uncertainty,” he said. “DeFi projects have almost no opportunity to take root in Japan, with even DEX being prohibited. This is not only a policy barrier but also a limitation in societal understanding of blockchain technology.”

This has also been one of the recurring issues Hara has contemplated throughout his entrepreneurial journey. In 2018, when Hara joined Jasmy as CFO, despite the project's original innovation focus on IoT, he knew that for Jasmy to truly thrive, it had to transcend the limitations of the Japanese market and go global. “Although Jasmy was successful in its Japanese market launch, our market expansion always looked overseas,” Hara emphasized. “This was not because we underestimated the Japanese market.”

Indeed, Hara noted that many blockchain projects from Korea and China often face language and cultural barriers when attempting to enter the Japanese market, especially when these companies lack a localized team, making communication and collaboration particularly challenging. “One of the biggest challenges we face when collaborating with Japanese corporations is the difference in language and culture,” he mentioned. “However, if you can find team members who speak Japanese, these issues can be overcome. When working with companies like Sony, we must face and address these challenges.”

However, Hara also acknowledged the potential limitations of excessive reliance on the Japanese market. “When launching Jasmy, we chose to start from overseas markets, a strategic decision that ensured we would not solely focus on Japan,” he admitted. “We were acutely aware that relying solely on the Japanese market would impose significant constraints on the project. While the Japanese market is vast, its openness is relatively limited, and internationalization is the future.”

In addition to technology, there is also talent.

The rapid development of the blockchain industry also faces talent turnover and the transition of power between the old and new. Much like the challenges Hara faced during Jasmy's early stages, talent flow and succession have always been a question mark. “In Japan's industry, there are actually few opportunities to recruit blockchain engineers, and even if found, it is challenging to find engineers well-versed in extensive projects like Layer 1. Thus, at Janction, we were able to recruit excellent engineers from places like Argentina, Greece, and Spain; our CTO is from Australia, so our team also includes members from Europe and South America. This globalized technical team has brought us significant advantages.”

Hara pointed out that while Japan's acceptance of cryptocurrency is gradually increasing, most projects in the market are still limited to small-scale experimental applications, lacking sufficient innovation and breakthroughs. "We see many overseas projects, especially blockchain companies from Korea and China, that are looking to succeed in the Japanese market, but whether it's language barriers or cultural differences, these projects face significant challenges when entering Japan," he said. "Even if they offer services with a global perspective, and even support Japanese, it is still very difficult to overcome these barriers."

For most overseas projects seeking to enter small-language communities with information, they often run into obstacles in the Japanese market. The need for internal breakthroughs in Japan and the external integration of the "walled garden" have always been hot topics discussed by many founders. However, Hara also mentioned that for overseas companies that can find a localized team in Japan, there are still opportunities to collaborate with Japanese large companies, especially companies like Sony and Panasonic. However, such collaborations often require more patience and time to overcome language and cultural differences. "In the early days of Jasmy, we chose to start from overseas markets," he said, "through this strategy, we avoided the limitations brought about by excessive reliance on the Japanese market."

Blockchain Idealism and Meme: Cultural Phenomenon or Market Bubble?

When discussing the blockchain industry, Hara made a profound analysis of the current two forces—blockchain idealism and the meme coin phenomenon. For projects like Jasmy, Hara has always believed in the potential of blockchain technology. He emphasized, "The true meaning of blockchain lies in decentralization, data autonomy, and transparency, not just transactions or speculation." He believes that truly valuable blockchain projects should be applications that bring long-term benefits to users, not born out of short-term speculation. "Our goal at Jasmy has always been to build a blockchain platform that can solve real-world problems, rather than just to attract attention."

However, with the booming cryptocurrency market, the meme coin phenomenon has gradually become a unique cultural phenomenon, causing many industry professionals who originally focused on technological innovation to feel confused and uneasy. "The cultural phenomenon of meme coins has its meaning," Hara admitted, "they have allowed ordinary investors and the public to have a better understanding of blockchain, but this does not mean they are sustainable projects." He continued, "For example, the recent hype around 'TRUMP,' their appeal lies in the ability to quickly bring profits, but they do not have practical use cases, and in the long run, such coins are difficult to sustain real value."

Hara's view on meme coins is complex. "From a market perspective, meme coins can indeed quickly attract a large number of investors and even bring short-term wealth effects. But in the long run, such speculative behavior will have a negative impact on the entire industry," he said. "I personally do not invest in meme coins because they lack real technological innovation and do not align with my idealism about blockchain." He also pointed out that while meme coins themselves pose risks, they also serve as a kind of social experiment, revealing the market's understanding of and misconceptions about blockchain technology. "This is also why many large companies, including Sony, have begun to ban such coins."

The success of these meme coins is undeniable, but this has also become the subject of industry skepticism about speculative sentiment in recent years. Some people believe it is merely driven by short-term hype, lacking real technical support and intrinsic value; and the more significant question is whether blockchain technology can still create a brand-new technological ecosystem that transcends its current achievements?

For Hara, the idealism of blockchain should not stop at the phenomenon of pursuing short-term profits but should focus on technologies and applications that can truly solve real-world problems. "Just as we have done at Jasmy, we are more concerned with how to use blockchain technology to innovate in the Internet of Things and data management, rather than purely relying on speculative market hotspots," he said.

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