About Shinya Fujimoto

I’m Shinya Fujimoto, Founder and Chief Strategist of Silicon Valley Japan Lab.

I have lived and worked in the United States for more than 25 years, building a career that spans engineering, entrepreneurship, retail, food service, and corporate digital transformation.

Silicon Valley Japan Lab brings those experiences together. Its purpose is to help Japanese business leaders understand which developments in Silicon Valley are likely to have a meaningful impact—and how those developments can be applied to real business decisions.

From Engineering to Business Building

I studied Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University before beginning my career as a semiconductor design engineer at LSI Logic.

That experience gave me a technical foundation, but my career did not remain within engineering.

I later introduced a Japanese design-goods brand to the U.S. market, building a retail network of more than 600 locations that included the MoMA Design Store. I also led the California expansion of Tsuruhashi Fugetsu, an Osaka-based okonomiyaki restaurant brand.

My subsequent work included digital transformation initiatives at SOMPO Group and serving as CTO of WPP Japan. I currently serve as CTO of Koto Co. Ltd.

These roles have given me experience across several very different environments: product development, retail distribution, restaurant operations, corporate transformation, and technology leadership. They have also shown me that a technology is valuable only when it can be translated into a practical business outcome.

Why I Founded Silicon Valley Japan Lab

I founded Silicon Valley Japan Lab in 2025 to connect developments in Silicon Valley with the priorities of Japanese companies.

New technologies are often presented through announcements, investment figures, and broad predictions. What business leaders need, however, is a clearer understanding of what is actually changing:

• Which technologies are already affecting business operations?
• Which trends are relevant to Japanese companies?
• What should companies test now, and what can wait?
• How will a technology affect customers, employees, and existing business models?
• What organizational changes are required to use it effectively?

Silicon Valley Japan Lab examines these questions through a combination of research, business experience, and hands-on testing.

The objective is not simply to report what is happening in Silicon Valley. It is to translate those developments into practical implications for companies operating in Japan.

How I Approach Technology

My background as both an engineer and a business operator shapes how I evaluate technology.

I want to understand how a system works, but technical capability alone is not enough. I also look at how the technology fits into an existing workflow, who will use it, what problem it solves, and whether it creates measurable value.

Many articles on this site are based on tools and systems I have tested directly. These include AI agents, software development platforms, e-commerce infrastructure, automation tools, and digital services.

This hands-on approach helps separate technologies that are genuinely changing how work is performed from those that remain primarily conceptual.

About This Site

Silicon Valley Japan Lab publishes analysis of AI, emerging technology, digital business, and the changes taking place across Silicon Valley.

The articles are written primarily for Japanese executives, business leaders, and teams responsible for digital transformation and new business development. The focus is not technology for its own sake, but how technology affects management, operations, customer experience, and organizational decision-making.

In addition to the professional articles published here, I write more personal pieces in Japanese on note. These include travel experiences, lessons from business and technology projects, and my interest in optimizing U.S. rewards programs and traveling with points and miles.

→ Read my articles on note (Japanese only)

Profile

Shinya Fujimoto
Founder / Chief Strategist, Silicon Valley Japan Lab
CTO, Koto Co. Ltd.

Shinya studied Electrical and Computer Engineering and Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University and began his career as a semiconductor design engineer at LSI Logic. He has since built and led businesses across technology, retail, food service, and corporate digital transformation in the United States and Japan. In 2025, he founded Silicon Valley Japan Lab to help Japanese companies understand and apply developments emerging from Silicon Valley.