What led a Japanese CEO to fail in India and why did he persist?

Naotaka Nishiyama has no intention of seeking solace. He only had a bag and an idea as he took a journey from Tokyo to Bengaluru on March 25, 2024. By March 26, he was a founder resolved to create something new on uncharted territory—when he entered the pre-dawn hive of India’s IT capital. A year later, Nishiyama, the CEO and founder of Talendy in Japan, considers what it was like to plunge into and remain in India’s turbulence, ambition, and unpredictability. There was more to what he found than business. It was about letting go of perfection, learning from hustle, and reestablishing intuition. Nishiyama posts on LinkedIn, “I arrived in India exactly a year ago with just a suitcase — and a dream.” On March 26, 2024, he landed in Bangalore after departing Tokyo on March 25. “I entered a whole new world as soon as I finished dragging my suitcase out of the airport.” As the founder of a Japanese firm in India, Nishiyama claims that both Japanese and Indians continue to stare at him with amazement. The majority of Japanese residents in India are corporate expats from the banking, electronics, or automotive sectors, he says, adding that there aren’t many Japanese in the country in the first place.