Disaster-prone Japan doubles as real-world test lab for US startups

AI predicts damage from temblors, tsunamis and typhoons

The Hamayuri sightseeing boat sits atop a two-story building amid tsunami debris in Iwate, Japan, after the March 2011 earthquake. © Getty Images

DAISUKE SUZUKI and NOBUTAKA HIRAMOTO, Nikkei staff writers

September 2, 2020 02:55 JST

TOKYO -- Ahmad Wani, the CEO of One Concern, a startup that uses artificial intelligence to gauge what kind of damage a disaster might leave behind, founded his company in California, no stranger to wildfires, earthquakes and other natural disasters.

But One Concern now finds itself as part of a trend in which U.S. startups with disaster-mitigating technologies are coming to Japan to prove themselves.