Tamaki Nishimura’s Journey to Redefine Japan’s Iconic Properties

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Tamaki Nishimura: The Story Behind the Vision

Tamaki takes us on her journey from growing up in Osaka/Kyoto to her current life near Tokyo, sharing how she ultimately founded her innovative business, PlanetDAO.

Connecting individuals to work toward a common goal

Nick: It's good to see you again. Of course, we met in person last month, you treated me to lunch, so that was really special to meet you. And we have our introduction to thank Steve, Steve Beauchamp a friend of mine, also a podcast guest who told me all about PlanetDAO.

So we have two names, but first, would you like to give us a bit of background about yourself?

Tamaki: Sure. So my name is Tamaki, I was born and raised in Osaka/Kyoto, but I'm currently living in Kanagawa prefecture, which is the next prefecture to Tokyo, because I have two kids, so I decided not to live in the city center. We love going camping, and also we live in kind of like nature space.

So throughout my career, I was in startup companies. So first business that we were working on was building the tourism platform, just like, you know, Airbnb experience we have for global but we were building the Japanese version of Airbnb with NTT Docomo, that's one of the biggest telecom company in Japan.

But COVID hit, so we had to close the business. The business was like focusing on the local experience to offer to especially international traveler. But during the downtime, I had to kind of shift my interest to other spaces, and crypto was pretty big in Japan—NFT and Bitcoin and all.

But I wasn't too excited about the bitcoin price, like going up and down and stuff. I was more excited about the concept of DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization), so connecting individuals to work for the same goal together.

So I was keen to connect those concepts of DAO and what I was doing, and PlanetDAO is the next business that I came up with. So it's been half a year since I launched, by counting the time that we were building before the launch, it's been a year.

How PlanetDAO Came to Life

Tamaki dives into the inspiration behind the name "PlanetDAO" and its mission. The parent company, PlanetLabs, is dedicated to transforming unique Japanese properties, such as temples and lands with forests or farmland, which are often challenging for individuals or corporations to own due to financial or community connections.

Protecting historic properties with PlanetDAO

Nick: Let's focus on the name a bit more. So there's, there's two names, it’s like your parent company's PlanetLabs, but PlanetDAO is just the brand. So would you like to touch on why you chose PlanetDAO?

Tamaki: So for the product wise, as Nick explained in the first introduction, we specialize into transforming the properties in Japan, especially the temples, or those properties that individual cannot buy, because, for example, the property comes with the big forest and that comes with the farmland.

So individuals need the financial support to transform the used land into something. Or, for example, the temple, just one individual or one corporate cannot own it because the local community has so much affection for the property, so they cannot just give up on the ownership of it.

So those properties are kind of properties that we're taking care of. The reason why I named it planet is that the planet Earth is like, no one owns it, right? And those properties that we are touching are that kind of properties that an individual or corporate just own it. So I named it planet because it's going to be the transfer for forming the norm and concept of the ownership into something new.

So we will have multiple individuals to own the land or the property, and it's not going to be just one ownership, owned by that community only, but also we have the community with investor/local community/town and cities. So that's why I named it planet.

And DAO, a lot of people ask me what DAO means, does the word came from Chinese or something like that. I was like, ‘no, no, it's not.’ So DAO stands for ‘Decentralized Autonomous Organization.’ So this term originally came from crypto blockchain project, mainly, and our idea is to connect the global community by utilizing the crypto token.

That was our first intention, but we decided not to, for now, because not a lot of people are pretty used to using the crypto wallet and stuff. So we decided not to. Then also, the law in Japan with the crypto has been pretty strict right now.

So right now, we are not using crypto token in anything, but for the future, since we have a lot of people internationally, the currency transaction has been a problem, a big issue for us, so utilizing the crypto is going to be some solution that will enhance our project. So that's what we're looking at.

Preserving the Essence of Japan: A Call to Protect Its Cultural Roots

Tamaki discusses why Japan’s true value lies in its unique culture, history, and traditions—things that money can’t buy but resonate deeply with international travelers.

What Japan offers is priceless

Nick: I'm trying to work out, have you always had this in you? This desire to preserve Japanese culture? Or did you have some personal experience that made you think, ‘Oh, wow, my culture is beautiful, it is unique, and I should do something to save it.’

Tamaki: Right. That comes from all my experience, from like, when I was running a business of creating local experiences. I used to work with geishas, too. Their business has been pretty downside, too, because their main [role] is to serve sake and go to the banquet party that the Japanese salary men does. But it's been pretty downside, especially after the COVID hit, right?

So we were creating the event show with them to show, especially for the international traveler. And also, I knew the culture part of it, all from of Japan, from the experiences. And I realized that, a lot of like, especially young generation, wants to go to Tokyo or cities and city area for looking for some opportunity, especially for like the technology side of it.

But I realized that Japan is not going to be economically highly growing as much as like it does in the state, or China, or any other countries that are hitting the economical growth. So what Japan holds is something that money cannot buy, I think. And reason why so many traveler, international travelers, are coming to Japan, and this number is growing, is that they want to see the culture and history and nature or maybe infrastructure we have—really good train system and all.

That's what they're coming to Japan for. But we are not actively preserving those part of Japan because it's really hard to see the financial value of the cultural history. So I feel kind of a responsibility to preserve those bit of Japan for the future, because without taking any action for that, then we will be actively losing those cultures and history. So yeah, that's my interest [that is] also connected to ikigai, I will say.

A Business That Reflects Your Ikigai

Tamaki highlights that the emotional and purpose-driven aspect of her business is crucial, as it's not solely about financial returns. Her project aims not only to preserve properties but to create a system where passionate individuals can contribute to local communities, aligning with both her personal experiences and her kokorozashi.

Work driven by genuine passion

Nick: It kind of does make me think of ikigai, because, as you know, ikigai doesn't just mean being happy, ikigai involves something you care about or pursuing something meaningful to you. But this also sounds like a kokorozashi, because it's really ambitious.

So, yeah, does this business that you've started tie both of those concepts? Is it both your ikigai and your kokorozashi?

Tamaki: It is, yeah. Because if it doesn't comply with ikigai or kokorozashi, then I wouldn't have done that. And when I talk to the investor, all my work come from my heart, and that has to come from my heart. Because, as I said, it's not about numbers, just the numbers, and ROI that we project is not too high compared to other countries, like, if they just leave their money in the bank.

The interest rate in Japan is pretty low, so the ROI [that we] project is pretty high in Japan, but, for example, countries like Hong Kong, the interest is pretty high, so ROI doesn't really convince the investor. It's not going to be the only reason for the investor to buy. So those emotional part, the convention part, it plays a main role, and that has to come from my heart.

And I come from a warehouse-running family. So my dad owns a company that runs the warehouse, and he is actually looking for someone to inherit the business. And there are so many people who are looking for someone to inherit the business, especially in the local area of Japan; I came from Osaka, but there's so many business owner looking for people who can inherit it.

So this is not just the problem with the local area of Japan, but also this is going to be the problem in many industry of Japan. And how I see this project is we are not only saving those properties, but more of like creating a system where the individual can gather—those individual doesn't matter where they come from, as long as they have kokorozashi for the property or the locals that they can contribute. So I think that comply with my own personal problem that comes from my family as well.

For the full podcast conversation, go to: Transforming Japan’s Iconic Properties into Vacation Retreats with Tamaki Nishimura