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As climate change increases disaster risks, addressing aging urban infrastructure has become an urgent challenge. Leading this challenge is Mr. Park Jongduk, CEO of a disaster prevention AI company based in Hamamatsu City. With a career built at prestigious Korean corporations and global consulting firms, why did Mr. Park choose to establish his business in Hamamatsu, Japan? He shares his vision for the future and the potential of his innovative infrastructure assessment solution that combines exploration robots with AI technology.
Could you introduce yourself and tell us about your background?
I'm Park Jongduk, CEO of Soteria8. I majored in Industrial Engineering at university in Korea and began my career at Hyundai Mobis of Hyundai Motor Group. I worked on manufacturing control systems serving as an expatriate in their U.S. factories, overseeing system planning and operations. While in the United States, I earned a master's degree in Industrial Engineering and then gained experience at many strategic consulting firms including AT Kearney, BCG, and KPMG, where I worked on new industry development and digital transformation strategies for global companies.
During my consulting work, I led a 2030 future strategy project for a major Korean corporation. Through this project, I encountered a concerning trend: developed nations might reach their investment limits in disaster resilience due to climate change impacts. The project revealed that budget constraints and labor shortages were the primary challenges. Recognizing the need for a fundamental solution that would combine robotics and AI technology into a comprehensive solution, I decided to establish a disaster prevention AI company.
Could you tell us about Soteria8's business overview?
Our disaster prevention AI provides solutions for assessing urban infrastructure resilience by combining exploration robots with AI technology.
Currently, infrastructure assessments are conducted manually. While automation initiatives began a decade ago, their implementation has been slow despite increasing demands from local governments and corporations. Our company addresses this gap by deploying advanced diagnostic technologies tailored towards the market's needs.
What kind of robots are you currently developing?
We conducted a pilot project in Fukuroi City in 2024. A distinctive feature is its specialized design for drainage facility inspection. The first generation of the robot has a 300-meter travel capacity enabling round trips through 150-meter tunnels, waterproofing capabilities and autonomous navigation abilities. We've also implemented technology that can capture clear footage even in dark conditions. Our third generation of robot could go up to 4 km with one charge and we're currently developing our fourth-generation model to go further.
What sets our company apart is that we not only offer AI-powered data analysis through a SaaS model but also possess the capability to develop data collection robots optimized for on-site needs.
Is there a high demand for infrastructure inspection in Japan?
Yes, flood damage is increasing and expanding nationwide, not just in Tokyo and Shizuoka. Local governments and companies are highly interested in flood prevention measures, and there's a growing recognition that the existing methods have limitations. Based on this background, we're developing our business with the hypothesis that there's a definite market and demand. We're currently in discussions with major corporations about various forms of collaboration.
What is the most challenging aspect of preventing climate change-related disasters?
There are two major challenges when it comes to tackling climate change: technical aspects and monetization.
Regarding technical aspects, while initiatives began a decade ago, progress has been slow. However, with current global technological trends, we believe we've reached a practically applicable level. Yet, from the perspective of comprehensive urban diagnostics, there's still room for technical improvement and the overall market needs technological advancement.
As for monetization, historically due to relatively low disaster frequency, the prevailing approach was to rely on insurance and litigation rather than implementing proactive solutions. However, as mentioned earlier, interest is growing, and demand for solutions is rising.
In other words, both technical and monetization aspects are just beginning to gain traction. We believe this is a crucial timing as various elements are starting to align.
Could you tell us about Disaster Prevention AI's vision?
We're currently exploring two directions.
First is the deployment of detailed diagnostic technology for specific infrastructure. We've achieved diagnostics that are ten times faster and one-third the cost compared to conventional manual inspection methods. Through automation we're demonstrating possibilities in both efficiency and capability.
However, this alone can't keep pace with the acceleration of climate change. With disasters occurring simultaneously and changes accelerating yearly, we need an innovative system that can cover broad areas to ensure appropriate resilience. Therefore, in addition to our current SaaS model and robotics technology, we're developing services that incorporate satellite data for both macro and micro perspectives.
We aim to establish this technology as quickly as possible and build a system that can be used not only in Japan but in other developed nations. This is to contribute to further development while preserving urban infrastructure, which represents the collective achievement of human civilization.
The second direction relates to why we started this business in Japan. Japan has been involved in many global urban construction projects that play a crucial role in addressing aging infrastructure and resilience. We believe Japan is the only country capable of taking responsibility for both infrastructure preservation and development in terms of construction technology and resilience in civil engineering investment. Japan's approach to natural disaster prevention, especially earthquakes, serves as a global model.
With this background, we aim to grow alongside Japanese society while developing and providing globally competitive technology and services from our base in Japan.
Why did you choose Hamamatsu, Japan, over starting your business in Korea?
I chose Japan because providing disaster prevention solutions requires advanced civil engineering technology. You need technical expertise to understand everything from building construction to deterioration progression. In this aspect, Korea is still aspiring to reach Japan's level, with significant gaps in technical capability and recognition.
Among Japanese cities, Hamamatsu experiences frequent rain damage and consequently has high social needs for our solutions. Additionally, to develop our business in Japan, we needed both visa sponsorship and partners willing to collaborate with us - as a foreign company - in research and development through trial and error.
We successfully established a partnership in Fukuroi City and conducted social demonstration experiments. Furthermore, Hamamatsu City provided support for us settling in which included visa assistance. This led us to establish our base in Hamamatsu, and we're now expanding our activities primarily throughout the Shizuoka Prefecture.
What aspects of Hamamatsu's startup support and visa assistance do you appreciate?
First, there's the diversity of startup support programs. Various departments collaborate to provide support, and there are practical assistance measures like the trial system. This trial system selects startups and provides opportunities for test implementations before actual service sales to companies and local governments.
We also had many opportunities in the process from technical verification to commercialization. Hamamatsu has many major corporations, both as a municipality and as an overall urban area, there are many potential customers and partners seeking solutions like ours.
Finally, what advice would you give to foreign entrepreneurs looking to start businesses in Japan?
Many people perceive Japan as conservative, with limited startup investment and difficulties in collaborating with large corporations. While these observations are partially true, this year the government has been actively promoting startup support policies from an economic development perspective. If you have a business or service you're truly passionate about, I strongly recommend starting up in Japan.
While entrepreneurs need various forms of support - mentoring programs, financial assistance, trial systems, and international expansion programs - these support systems are already well-developed and will likely expand further.
While joining a major corporation is also a good option, I actively recommend choosing entrepreneurship both from a career development and social contribution perspective.
Mr. Park pivoted towards solving social challenges following a hospitalization due to overwork. He chose Japan, a country advanced in both construction technology and resilience, as his base of operations. Currently, his company's exploration robots achieve infrastructure diagnostics at ten times the speed and one-third the cost of current conventional methods. They are also developing a next-generation diagnostic system that approaches infrastructure assessment from both macro and micro perspectives by incorporating satellite data.
What left a lasting impression throughout our interview was Mr. Park's strong desire to "contribute to society." His company's strategic choice of Hamamatsu as their base is likely to draw increasing attention as a role model for startups in Japan.
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