YELLOW
Bridging technology seeds to society
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Research as material.

YELLOW bridges technology seeds from universities, research institutions, and companies into society. Foot-traffic analytics, sports DX, and the operational layer between research and real-world use.

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01 — Statement
The distance between a paper and a product is not technical. It is institutional. We close that distance.
YELLOW INC. — CO-FOUNDERS
Ryohei Osaka
Tomohiro Iwabuchi
02 — Capabilities

Five layers of translation.

01 / Academia 01 / 05

Technology sourcing.

Identifying high-potential technology seeds at universities, research institutions, and companies — before the market notices them.

02 / R&D 02 / 05

Development support.

From prototype to validation — closing the technical loop between hypothesis and product.

03 / Government 03 / 05

Public program adoption.

Strategic positioning into government-led innovation pipelines.

04 / Alliance 04 / 05

Strategic alliance.

Building cross-sector partnerships that carry research toward commercial viability.

05 / Market 05 / 05

Go to market.

Execution layer — from launch strategy to early customer development.

01 / 05
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03 — Selected Records
Public documentation of the work, partnerships, and programs we’ve been part of.
Journal — 001 August 2025

SOIP × Iwaki FC.

Journal — 002 2025

TOLIC membership.

Journal — 003 December 2025

Joined BtoR.

Journal — 004 March 2026

WELLNEXUS Kamakura 2026.

04 — Method

A single line from lab to market.

— 01

Academia

Sourcing technology seeds from universities, research institutions, and companies.

— 02

R&D

Development support from prototype to validation.

— 03

Government

Adoption into public innovation programs.

— 04

Alliance

Strategic partnerships across sectors.

— 05

Market

Go-to-market execution and early customer development.

Let’s build something real.

Open to collaboration with universities, public bodies, and industry.

Address 9 Shirogane-cho, Takasaki
Gunma, Japan
Co-founders Ryohei Osaka
Tomohiro Iwabuchi
© YELLOW INC.
A — About

We close the distance between a paper and a product.

YELLOW Inc. is a Takasaki-based firm that bridges technology seeds — from universities, research institutions, and companies — into society. We operate the layer between research-grade methods and their real-world use.

What we do

We bridge technology seeds — from universities, research institutions, and companies — into society. Foot-traffic and behavioural data, sports DX, and the operational layer that turns research-grade methods into real-world implementation under the Society 5.0 banner.

How we work

As a small, focused firm — and through our affiliations with TOLIC (the Tohoku Life Science Instruments Cluster) and the General Incorporated Association BtoR, at the cluster scale. Our work is institutional: relationships, frameworks, and the patient navigation of slow systems.

Why YELLOW

The distance between a technology seed and its real-world use is not technical. It is institutional. Solving it is a discipline of its own — and the discipline we’ve chosen.

Co-founders
Ryohei Osaka
Co-founder
Co-founder of YELLOW Inc. Background in research operations and the structuring of academic-industry partnerships.
Tomohiro Iwabuchi
Co-founder
Co-founder of YELLOW Inc. Focused on go-to-market for research-led ventures and public-sector innovation programmes.
Company
YELLOW Inc.
Address
9 Shirogane-cho, Takasaki
Gunma, Japan
Field
Bridging technology seeds to society
C — Journal

Selected records.

Public documentation of the work, partnerships, and programs we’ve been part of. Filed in reverse chronological order.

001 · August 2025 · Public programme

SOIP × Iwaki FC.

In August 2025, YELLOW was selected — with LocationMind Inc. and Iwaki FC — for the Japan Sports Agency's SOIP programme, on a foot-traffic data project for stadium access and regional value.

The programme.

SOIP — the Sports Open Innovation Platform — is run by the Japan Sports Agency, with eiicon Inc. operating the programme. It pairs sports organisations with cross-industry partners around projects that turn sport into a driver of regional renewal.

On 19 August 2025, Iwaki FC announced its selection for the FY2025 SOIP programme. The project, titled "Foot-traffic data analysis for access improvement and a community-driven new stadium concept," runs from August 2025 to February 2026, with a Demo Day at Muromachi Mitsui Hall in Tokyo on 26 February 2026.

The partner.

Iwaki FC, based in Iwaki City, Fukushima, competes in the J2 League. The club has built a reputation for community-led sports development, and is now planning a new stadium near Onahama Port.

Under SOIP, YELLOW and LocationMind are working with the club to capture how visitors actually move — by mode of transport, by time, by route — and to use that data to ease congestion, design alternative access routes, and inform the new stadium plan.

YELLOW’s role.

YELLOW participates as a research-and-technology partner contributing the foot-traffic analytics layer. The same translation discipline we apply elsewhere — moving research-grade methods into operational use — here meets a stadium-operations problem with concrete, measurable outcomes.

002 · 2025 · Membership

TOLIC membership.

YELLOW joined TOLIC — the Tohoku Life Science Instruments Cluster — as a corporate member, gaining access to one of Japan's most active life-science instruments networks.

What TOLIC is.

TOLIC — the Tohoku Life Science Instruments Cluster — was founded in August 2014 as a private, multi-stakeholder body bringing industry, academia, government, and finance together around life-science instruments development in the Tohoku region.

TOLIC is headquartered at the Health-Tech Innovation Hub (HIH) in Morioka, Iwate, where its member companies — spanning diagnostic devices, rehabilitation robotics, microfluidics, and cell-culture systems — share facilities, joint projects, and a public conference programme held three times a year.

Why YELLOW joined.

TOLIC accepts member companies only on the basis of "active or planned participation in a specific project" — affiliation is operational, not symbolic. For YELLOW, membership puts our research-translation work alongside a cluster that has built one of Japan’s most productive life-science instruments pipelines.

Joining also positions YELLOW within TOLIC’s wider "second stage" structure — the Tohoku Life Science Impact Fund, mentor company T-Mentors, and the second Health-Tech Innovation Hub planned in Morioka — that is reshaping regional life-science venture-building.

What it opens.

Direct working relationships with the cluster’s member companies and partner institutions, participation in shared infrastructure and joint projects, and a regular surface at the TOLIC Conference — Japan’s most concentrated forum for life-science instruments work outside the major metros.

003 · December 2025 · Affiliation

Joined BtoR.

YELLOW joined the General Incorporated Association BtoR, established by TOLIC in December 2025 to support grant applications and project administration across the life-science cluster.

What BtoR is.

The General Incorporated Association BtoR (corporate number 2400005008533) was established on 9 December 2025 by TOLIC, the Tohoku Life Science Instruments Cluster. It is registered at the Health-Tech Innovation Hub in Morioka, Iwate.

BtoR’s mandate is operational. It supports TOLIC member companies in applying for national and regional grants, and administers funded projects on their behalf — the institutional plumbing that lets small life-science companies compete for the same public funding lines as larger players.

Why YELLOW joined.

YELLOW joined BtoR as a participating corporate member following its formation. The association connects YELLOW directly to the grant infrastructure that surrounds the TOLIC cluster — and to a network of companies operating at the same scale on related problems.

Affiliation with BtoR complements YELLOW’s TOLIC membership. Where TOLIC is the cluster, BtoR is the operating layer beneath it — the body that translates collective intent into funded, administered programmes.

What it enables.

Streamlined access to public funding pathways, shared administration of multi-partner projects, and an institutional channel through which YELLOW’s translation work can interface with the wider life-science instruments network operating from Tohoku.

004 · March 2026 · Open innovation

WELLNEXUS Kamakura 2026.

YELLOW was selected as one of seven finalists for the first WELLNEXUS Kamakura 2026 — a sports-and-wellness open-innovation contest hosted by SPIC and Kamakura International FC, with the City of Kamakura.

The programme.

WELLNEXUS Kamakura 2026 is an open-innovation contest and pilot programme set up by SPIC Inc. and Kamakura International FC, in partnership with the City of Kamakura. It puts startups, researchers, and citizens to work on Kamakura’s local problems — tourism, ageing, childcare, the night-time economy — through the lens of sport and wellness.

The final round was held on 16 March 2026 at Kirara Kamakura. Seven finalists pitched in front of an audience of around 100, with awards across a Grand Prix, a CITY award, and an Audience award.

YELLOW’s role.

After an open call (December 2025 – February 2026) and a multi-stage selection, YELLOW was chosen as one of seven finalists. The shortlist spanned NFTs, AI, foot-traffic data, neuroscience, health-habit apps, and universal wearables — all aimed at the wellness layer of city life.

YELLOW’s proposal extended the foot-traffic and behavioural-data work the firm has been developing in the SOIP × Iwaki FC project — applied here to Kamakura, where the question is less about stadium access and more about the everyday geography of a wellness-driven town.

Why it matters.

WELLNEXUS is structured so that finalists, regardless of award, can continue working with SPIC, Kamakura International FC, and city partners on actual pilots in Kamakura. For YELLOW, the value of the finalist position is the working relationship it opens, not the moment of the stage.

E — Contact

Let’s build something real.

Open to collaboration with universities, public bodies, and industry. Reach out below or by email.

F — Recruit

Work with us.

YELLOW is building the institutional layer between research and market. We’re looking for people who can hold both sides in their head — the scientific and the commercial — and operate at the interface.

Don’t see the right role? Tell us where you’d fit.

G — Global

Research has no borders. Adoption does.

YELLOW operates from Takasaki. Our work is rooted in Japan, where the institutional terrain we navigate — universities, public programmes, regional governments — is most familiar to us.

Where we work now

Japan. Specifically: the corridor between Tokyo-area research institutions, the public programmes administered nationally (SOIP, public innovation pipelines), and regional partners across Gunma, Fukushima, and Kanagawa where our project work has so far concentrated.

Where we partner

Outside Japan, on a project basis. Technology seeds rarely respect national boundaries; the institutions that adopt them often do. We collaborate with overseas partners when a project benefits from cross-border movement of either.

Where we’re heading

Toward becoming a Japanese firm that operates globally — not a global firm that happens to be in Japan. The institutional knowledge of one place is hard to scale; the discipline of translation is portable.

Bringing a technology seed across borders?

H — Privacy

Privacy policy.

YELLOW Inc. (“YELLOW”, “we”) respects the privacy of those who use this site and contact us through it. This policy explains what we collect, why, and how we handle it.

1. Information we collect

We collect information you provide directly through forms on this site — primarily your name, organisation, email address, and the contents of any message you send. We also collect minimal technical data (e.g. timestamp, browser type) for security and analytics.

2. How we use it

We use submitted information only to respond to your inquiry and, where appropriate, to maintain an ongoing professional relationship. We do not sell or rent personal information.

3. Sharing

We share personal information only with service providers acting on our behalf under appropriate confidentiality obligations, or where required by law. We do not transfer personal data outside Japan except where necessary for a stated purpose and under appropriate safeguards.

4. Retention

We retain personal information only for as long as needed to fulfil the purpose for which it was provided, and to comply with legal obligations.

5. Your rights

You may request access to, correction of, or deletion of personal information we hold about you. Contact us via the methods listed on the Contact page.

6. Updates

We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be indicated by an updated “Last revised” date below.

Last revised: 2026.

I — Terms

Terms of use.

By accessing this site you accept the following terms. If you do not accept them, please do not use the site.

1. Purpose

This website is operated by YELLOW Inc. as informational material about its work bridging technology seeds into society. Content is provided for general information and does not constitute professional advice or a binding offer.

2. Intellectual property

Unless otherwise indicated, all content on this site — text, graphics, layouts — is owned by YELLOW Inc. or licensed to it. You may not reproduce, redistribute, or adapt our content for commercial purposes without prior written consent.

3. Accuracy

We make reasonable efforts to keep this site accurate and current, but we do not guarantee that all information is complete or up to date. The site may be updated without notice.

4. External links

This site may link to external sites we do not control. We are not responsible for the content of those sites.

5. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, YELLOW Inc. is not liable for any indirect or consequential damages arising from your use of this site or reliance on its content.

6. Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of Japan. Any dispute arising under them shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Japan.

Last revised: 2026.