Our CEO, Tetsuro Kondo, appeared for two weeks running on "Sankyo Frontier presents The Starters," a segment of TOKYO FM's morning show "ONE MORNING."

"The Starters" invites young entrepreneurs and asks what ideas they are using to start something new. It airs every Tuesday morning from around 8:38. The hosts are Yuji and Akiyo Yoshida.

Summaries of both broadcasts are on the program's site (in Japanese).

Week 1 (April 14, 2026): "Speeding up communication with diagrams"

He talked about what ZUKAI does.

  • The work is turning complex, difficult concepts into diagrams. It began with business models and accounting, and now extends to environmental issues and public policy
  • Diagrams are a means. The aim is to let many people use difficult concepts
  • Long texts tend not to be read, and society becomes hard to see as one's own concern. There are also situations where only people who can pay get information. With "diagrams as a shared language," we aim for more people being able to take part in society
  • He introduced Bizgram, which expresses a business model in a 3×3 grid
  • AI has made diagrams easier to produce, but making a diagram remains a thinking tool for grasping structure

Week 1 summary (TOKYO FM, in Japanese)

Week 2 (April 21, 2026): "Democratizing knowledge with diagrams"

He talked about his own path and how diagrams are made.

  • Behind his interest in diagrams are his architecture studies at university and graduate school, where concepts are often explained in drawings, and a liking for mathematics and origami
  • A diagram starts from asking whether you can explain the thing accurately in words. Writing is the most important skill. Using a cup as an example, he explained how to sort out the relationships between words and turn them into a diagram
  • People directly involved have so much information that choosing what to keep is hard. A third party can sometimes diagram it more easily
  • The turning point toward a business was when the first book was widely read and requests for training and advice increased
  • Ahead, he wants to "democratize knowledge," and to take diagrams to the world as a visual, universal language

Week 2 summary (TOKYO FM, in Japanese)

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