Q: Would like to know more about the mission of “The Elements”, in the domain of Assistive Technology(AT) and your Interest in India.
The Elements was founded with a mission to build a stakeholder ecosystem in the assistive technology (AT) field — connecting AT providers, persons with disabilities and their families, NPOs, hospitals, and government, both domestically and across borders.
My personal interest in India goes back many years. Before founding The Elements, I served as First Secretary at the Embassy of Japan in India for three years during my time with the Japanese government. Those three years left me with wonderful memories of India, and it was actually the Japan-India Transformative Technology Network (JITTN), through the Salzburg Global Seminar and the Nippon Foundation, that brought those memories back to life and reconnected me with India professionally — this time through the lens of assistive technology.
Q: How can global collaborations like the Japan–India AT Feasibility Study , can accelerate innovation and accessibility for persons with disabilities?
One concrete example of what we’re working on is TAN (The Ability Network), a platform originally developed in India by the Tech Mahindra Foundation to connect persons with disabilities with AT providers, service organizations, and support resources. We are now working to adapt and localize this platform for the Japanese market.
But I don’t see this as simply transplanting a platform from one country to another. What I want to build through this kind of collaboration is a two-way flow — where solutions born in India can genuinely benefit Japan, and solutions and insights from Japan can genuinely benefit India. Real acceleration happens when both sides are giving and receiving, not when one side is only exporting a model to the other.
This is also exactly the kind of collaboration that Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is supporting through its feasibility study program, and I’m grateful that our government recognizes the value of this kind of cross-border ecosystem-building and is backing it.
Q: What makes Japan’s approach to disability, inclusion and accessibility different from India and how do you compare ?
Honestly, I don’t think I’m in a position yet to make a confident comparison — and that’s exactly why I’m spending so much time in India right now. I was in Bangalore in May, I’ll be in Kolkata this July, and Mumbai and Delhi are planned for September, with further visits every few months after that. I want to learn as much as possible directly from people on the ground in India before I draw conclusions. My honest answer is: I’m still in the middle of learning this, and I intend to keep learning it from the people who live it, not from a desk in Tokyo.
With Team Chiratae Ventures , Leading VC firm , India
Q: What is your saying on CSR and how Private companies move beyond CSR and make Inclusion and Accessibility as part of their core business strategy?
I believe that if inclusion and accessibility remain something companies do “as much as CSR budgets allow,” it will never scale beyond that budget. At The Elements, we work on analyzing the actual cost-effectiveness of assistive technology for persons with disabilities — putting numbers to the value it creates. When inclusion and accessibility can be shown to make rational business sense, not just moral sense, that’s when companies start building it into their core strategy rather than their CSR line item.
Q: How important is interdisciplinary collaboration between business, government, academia, and civil society in driving Assistive Technology innovation?
Interdisciplinary collaboration is essential, but I think the direction of causality matters. Government support for AT as policy only becomes possible after companies have proven it works in practice. Companies can only build AT after clinical research grounded in real cases—rooted in the voices of persons with disabilities and their families—has shown the way. And that clinical research only happens because persons with disabilities and their families raised their voices and their needs in the first place. What I want to help build is exactly this chain—making sure each link leads naturally to the next.
Visit to Bangalore based NGO “Samarthanam Trust for Disabled with Dr Anil Jaggi, CEO-Conscious Ventures”
Q: In your view, what is the biggest barrier to building an inclusive society and what policy changes are needed to create a stronger ecosystem for Assistive Technology and inclusive innovation?
I think the biggest barrier is this: no amount of regulation or policy will work if benefiting one group means burdening another, or forcing someone to bear an unreasonable cost. For inclusion to truly take hold, it has to be something that benefits everyone — including those who actively choose to use AT — without forcing anyone into an unreasonable burden. That’s why we focus on cost-effectiveness analysis that everyone, regardless of their position, can look at and understand on the same terms.
Q: Which emerging technologies—such as AI, robotics, and wearable devices—do you believe will have the greatest impact on accessibility in the next decade?
I want to share a story that changed how I think about this question. I met a man with an intractable disease who has lost nearly all physical movement and, because of a tracheostomy, cannot speak a single word. After he began using AI, he said something to me — someone with no disability — that I will never forget: “I used to hate the word ‘productivity.’ But thanks to AI, I’ve overcome that wall. There is no longer any difference in productivity between you and me.” He has since started his own company, providing advanced AI translation services under contract with major corporations, and he distributes that work to other people living with the same kind of illness.
If what AI has done for him can be extended through robotics — freeing people from physical constraints — and through wearable devices — freeing people from sensory constraints — then I find that future genuinely exciting.
With Team “Enable India”, Bangalore
Q: If you could give us one piece of advice to business leaders in India and Japan, committed to advancing disability inclusion (DEI), what would it be ?
The short text message that everyone in the world uses today was originally invented for people who are deaf. Someone who could simply pick up a phone and talk would never have thought of it. Decades ago, screen-reading technology for the visually impaired was terrible — barely usable. But blind users had no choice but to keep using it anyway. If they hadn’t kept using it, that technology would have died out long before it became good enough for the rest of the world to adopt.
My belief is this: at the far end of great inconvenience, universal convenience is waiting. So the future that DEI can create doesn’t only benefit persons with disabilities — it enriches society as a whole. That’s my message to business leaders: please keep going.
