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Is it true that you are a film director?
As a producer, I received the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for the short film Bean Cake, which was Saya Kanda’s debut work.
More recently, I directed the documentary film AGANAI: The Tokyo Subway Sarin Attack and Me. It was released during the COVID-19 pandemic and did not attract much attention at the time, but it won the Grand Prix at the EBS International Documentary Festival (EDIF), the largest documentary film festival in Asia.
At Cannes Film Festival
With economist Paul Milgrom in Palo Alto, April 2025
In fact, a short experimental film I made during that period was not selected for any film festivals. However, my friend, economist Paul Milgrom, supported the project financially—and he later won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. That makes me a rather rare case: a film director who made a film with a Nobel Prize–winning producer.
I am currently very busy with Logiglish, but I hope to make another film when I have more time.
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Is it true that you are a novelist?
I had published several books, but there were serious issues during the post-production of AGANAI: The Tokyo Subway Sarin Attack and Me.
At the time, I was suffering from a lumbar compression fracture and could not move freely. While thinking about what to do next, I wrote and published a business book in the style of a novel. After the film was released, an editor contacted me and asked, “Would you like to publish this as a paperback novel?” That led to the publication of Changing Everything with a Single Peanut, and I became a novelist.
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Is it true that you worked at a startup in Silicon Valley?
While studying in the MBA program at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, I joined a startup founded by a Ph.D. student (the office was in Palo Alto).
After the company completed fundraising, I transferred to a firm in Menlo Park that was one of its seed investors.
That company was Ordinate Corporation, which was developing a language proficiency test called Versant (then known as PhonePass).
After receiving the Palme d’Or at Cannes, I decided to return to Japan.
With Dr. Jared Bernstein, the linguist who developed Versant (San Francisco, April 2025)
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What inspired you to launch Logiglish?
Many coincidences came together before I became a co-founder of Logiglish.
One major factor was my experience working with the Versant language assessment test.
After returning to Japan, I opened a private study group where I taught entrepreneurship to students I met through Professor Yasunari Harada (who is now serving as Logiglish’s academic supervisor). However, I realized that limited English proficiency was preventing many students from fully leveraging my international network. This led me to start an English school. I was not the instructor, but as the organizer I researched everything thoroughly. I read grammar books until they fell apart. In fact, I believe I spent more time seriously confronting English during that period than before or during my study abroad experience, or even while working in Silicon Valley.
Later, a major issue occurred during the post-production of AGANAI: The Tokyo Subway Sarin Attack and Me.
Around that time, I happened to learn that Kyoto Seika University was recruiting part-time English instructors. I applied and began teaching there. (I wrote about this experience in The Illusion of English Proficiency, so please take a look.)
Soon after, I was invited to teach economics in English at Osaka Metropolitan University’s Faculty of Economics.
This was an EMI (English as a Medium of Instruction) course. I found it interesting and accepted the offer. In my second year, a student approached me and said, “Professor, I want to start an English education startup. Please help me.” That student was Kaho Fujikawa, then a second-year undergraduate and an English debate champion who had represented Japan nationally. I felt that she would be able to use my overseas network without hesitation, so I decided to fully commit.
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Did personal experiences influence the Logiglish method?
I believe two key experiences shaped it.
As a student, I supported international exchange students from the United States. But the moment I truly learned English was when I personally paid 100,000 yen and worked with them selling hot dogs at a school festival. That experience taught me what it means to learn English by focusing on simply communicating meaning.
I also had a dream of writing film scripts in English since my student days. Because of that, I never studied English solely for exams. My purpose for learning English was quite different from the norm.
These experiences are connected to Logiglish’s philosophy: while we acknowledge the role of exams as a way to measure English ability, we do not fully support learning English solely for the purpose of passing tests.
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Why did you pursue a Ph.D.?
I began doctoral studies before meeting Ms. Fujikawa, shortly after releasing AGANAI: The Tokyo Subway Sarin Attack and Me.
After starting to teach at universities, I felt that an MBA alone was not sufficient. I considered earning a Ph.D. in economics at first, since I had several interests, but in the end I obtained a Ph.D. in engineering.
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Why does Logiglish have such a diverse group of advisors?
When I was a student, there was a facility in Okazaki, Kyoto, where many American exchange students lived. Every year, many students came from universities such as Stanford and Harvard. I formed a student organization to support their lives in Japan.
Many of them were truly talented.
Among them were director David Greenspan, who later won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, as well as Jerry Yang and David Filo, who later founded Yahoo in Silicon Valley. Akiko Yamazaki, who audited classes in my seminar, later became Jerry Yang’s wife. Meeting people like them during my student years became one of my greatest assets. I also built connections through my time abroad and through people I met by chance.
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What makes Kaho Fujikawa so talented?
Her outstanding English ability is obvious— she was a champion of English debate in Japan and even represented Japan internationally.
But what impresses me even more is her speed in solving problems within a limited time. It is extraordinary.
We aim to build a serious business with global scale. Her flexible thinking, strong critical thinking skills, and ability to understand business momentum are major strengths.
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How are roles divided?
Since we are targeting the global market, we structured our roles so that I can utilize my international network. I serve as Global CEO, while Kaho Fujikawa serves as Chief Logiglish.
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What makes Logiglish different from others?
When people think of intellectual property, they often imagine engineering, science, or medical fields. However, we believe that knowledge in the humanities and social sciences is equally important. That belief was one of the reasons we founded Logiglish.
Our approach is fundamentally different from other companies.
None of us are completely free from our own learning experiences. However, I believe true education professionals have a strong will to become free from their own personal learning bias. In that sense, we want to be a company that says, “We want learners to experience this kind of learning,” rather than saying, “This is how I learned.”
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Is it true that you were a victim of the Tokyo subway sarin attack?
Yes. I was so close that I nearly stepped on the plastic bag containing sarin gas, but through an extraordinary series of coincidences, I survived.
I have also served as a representative of the sarin attack victims’ association. I attended and spoke at the annual conference held in The Hague, Netherlands, in 2025.
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Finally, what is your message for Logiglish?
Based on my experience in education, I believe there is no one who truly does not want to learn.
Even people who struggle with Japanese actually want to be able to speak it, if they could.
We want to work hard to respond to that desire.
Atsushi Sakahara
Part-time lecturer at the Faculty of Economics, Osaka Metropolitan University. Part-time lecturer at Kyoto Seika University (2020 to 2024).
After graduating from the Faculty of Economics at Kyoto University, he worked at Dentsu Inc. and later earned an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley.
Worked in Silicon Valley as a business development manager for Versant, a language proficiency assessment test using AI and speech recognition technology. Ph.D. in Engineering.
Author and Novelist, Film Director, won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival as a producer, and won the Grand Prix at EDIF as a director. He serves as a board member at the company’s headquarters in Japan.
As a victim of the Tokyo subway sarin attack, he began NGO activities to support victims and advocate for the prohibition of chemical weapons. Attended the annual conference of the OPCW (Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons), an international organization that received the Nobel Peace Prize, and delivered a joint statement.
2023-
Co-Founder, CEO
Logiglish Inc.
Co-founded an EdTech company on February 1, 2023.
2022-
Member
Japan PEN Club
2021-2026
Part-time Lecturer
Osaka Metropolitan University
Teaching economics in English at the Graduate School of Economics.
2006-現在
Representative Director
Good People Inc.
Received the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival as an associate producer of the short film Bean Cake (2001). The film was the first USC School of Cinematic Arts graduate project ever selected for the Official Competition at Cannes, and it won the Palme d’Or.
Directed and produced the documentary film AGANAI: The Tokyo Subway Sarin Attack and Me. The film was officially selected at many film festivals, shortlisted for the IDA Awards in 2020, and received an EDIF Award in 2021.
Participated in the Toronto Film Financing Forum as a member of UNIJAPAN’s J-Pitch program (2008). Also participated in the Paris Cinema Film Financing Forum and the Toronto International Financing Forum as a J-Pitch member in the same year.
2020-2025
Part-time Lecturer
Kyoto Seika University
Taught English courses.
2014-2017
Part-time Lecturer
Broadcast Arts Academy College
Taught film and television drama production methods, comparing Hollywood-style story development techniques with Japanese approaches.
2011-2011
Lecturer
Digital Content Research Institute
Lectured business professionals in the digital content industry on content strategy and management, incorporating management theory and microeconomics to analyze and design content from a business perspective. Part of the lecture content was later published in An Expanded Introduction to Social Principles (d’ZERO).
2004-2006
Consultant
Kishi & Associates Inc.
Provided consulting services in corporate strategy and business development.
2001-2003
Marketing Director
GBW Inc.
Planned and launched an app-based flashcard service for mobile devices.
2000-2001
Marketing Manager
Ordinate Corporation
Based in Menlo Park, California. Managed business development in Silicon Valley for Versant, a fully automated spoken English proficiency test utilizing speech recognition technology. The company was later acquired by Pearson. In Japan, the Versant series is distributed by Nikkei Inc.
1999-2000
Marketing Manager
Minds and Technologies Inc.
Worked for an EdTech company in Silicon Valley engaged in software development and research in language learning, AI, and online education support, utilizing speech recognition and natural language processing technologies.
1997-1997
Intern
Metasystems Design Group
Completed a one-year internship in Arlington, Virginia, at a consulting firm specializing in information systems design and knowledge management solutions.
1995-1995
Acquisitions Department
GAGA Communications Inc.
1993-1995
Marketing Associate
Dentsu Inc.
2021-2025
Ph.D. in Engineering, Utsunomiya University
1998-2000
MBA, University of California, Berkeley
1989-1993
B.A. in Economics, Kyoto University