The story of a homeless entrepreneur in Silicon Valley

Hikaru spent an year on the hard office floor before moving into his own place

Hikaru Tomura was born the year Netscape was founded. He is a child of the internet who studied abroad in Canada at a young age and was among the first users of Facebook in Japan.

“No one was using using Facebook then. I would reach out to politicians and famous business people and they would accept my request.”

In high school, he envied young entrepreneurs in San Francisco with tens of thousands of Twitter followers to his measly 100. “Why is there such a difference?” he wondered.



“In Japan, we get good scores on paper, but we don’t show our value to the world,” he feels. “A test score is only bragging. I was so embarrassed when I saw what people my age were doing in Silicon Valley.”

Hikaru felt like he needed a change of environment. During his last year in high school he hitchhiked across Japan, interviewing over 500 politicians and business leaders.

“I learned that the most important thing is to hold onto your principles.” To the shock of his parents and teachers, Hikaru hopped off the “great school, great job” path so many still wish for in Japan and flew to California.

Hard floors

To brush up on his English skills and save some money, Hikaru started an English school in the Philippines, a travel agency, and a few other projects. In a number of months he saved up around US$50,000. He thought that would last about four years in America.

“McDonald’s in Japan is 24 hours so I thought I could just stay there.” Hikaru was surprised when the American burger joint kicked him out at 10pm. He moped back to his community college campus.

“I was walking around and in the parking lot I found another student,” he remembers. “I don’t have a place to stay,” he pleaded. Hikaru was officially homeless.



The kind student housed Hikaru for a full month. He then bounced from place to place. “Another person let me stay on his couch for a few months.”

Hikaru grossly underestimated the money he would need in San Francisco. The fact that the yen jumped from 80 to the dollar to 120 didn’t help either.

During all this couch surfing though, Hikaru reconnected with Toshi Yamamoto, a famous Japanese entrepreneur who is now taking on Slack in the US. The two met during Hikaru’s hitchhiking adventure.

“Oh man… I guess I’ll just have to take care of you then,” said Toshi, taking Hikaru under his wing. On the first day of his new internship with Toshi, Hikaru noticed some people weren’t leaving the shared office.

“I figured I would just sleep there too,” laughs Hikaru. He unrolled his sleeping bag and claimed a spot under a desk.

“I didn’t think it could get worse than that. It was good practice for taking life by the horns,” he reflects. “I thought this would be the hardest part of my life. If I could get through this, I could start something new.”

After a year on the hard office floor and with enough saved from his internship and still profitable travel agency, Hikaru moved into his own place.

“I have a bed now. It’s amazing,” he chuckles.

Something new

At the end of 2014 Hikaru sold his travel business and finished his internship to focus on education, but not in the school sense.



Hikaru started Hack Jpn to connect Japanese students to startups in the Valley for internships and keep Japanese corporations in the know about the latest technology. Major companies like Panasonic, Fujitsu, and insurance company Sompo Japan have already signed up for the in-depth market reports.

“I want Japan to be a country people look up to. I want Japanese people to keep challenging abroad,” he says.

“Higher education in Japan doesn’t encourage people to go abroad […] it doesn’t prepare students for the world.” Hikaru wants his countrymen to know what is out there.

“To change your own mind, you need to change who is around you.” And to him, Silicon Valley is the best education you could get.

“It’s like Pokemon. You need to be around the legendary characters to gain the most experience. It’s not about taking down the small things around you.”