Ep. 280 - [Japan] From High Tech to Food Tech with Akiko Okada, Research and Insight Specialist at SigmaXYZ

Today we’re interviewing Akiko Okada, Research and Insight Specialist at SigmaXYZ. A consulting firm in Japan. Akiko is also the main point of contact for Smart Kitchen Summit Japan, a satellite conference of Michael Wolf’s conference of the same name,

Akiko gives us a short history of the innovation of Japan, in which she played a huge part of in her past life.

I think this interview also gives me perspective on what exactly is food tech. Whenever I talk about food tech, I generally gravitate to alternative proteins, but that’s not the case. Food Tech is where we apply any technology to food. Though the material is the cool part, there are tons of other sectors in Food Tech I personally have no idea about!

One of my favorite quotes from Akiko was out discussion on the first SKS conference in Japan. Apparently, it was just a small 200 person conference but they were all full of crazy, passionate, people!

You’ll also learn how SigmaXYZ works with big companies and startups to win. The startup mentioned in this is Base Foods. Check them out! I remember talking to them like 4 years back and now they’re big in Japan.

And of course, I talk to Akiko about Japanese entrepreneurship. In general, Japan doesn’t have many startups because it’s too risky, but Akiko gives me hope that, that soon might change.

When it comes to sustainability, the Japanese have a very different viewpoint on food. Basically, they don’t really care if food is sustainable, but they care about other things in food tech.