In this episode of Making it in Japan, we’re talking with John Daub, the founder of Weblish Media Ltd.

Weblish Media Ltd., established in 2007, is an educational entertainment network, distributed via iTunes to over 100,000 regular subscribers.

Weblish videos are frequently featured by the iTunes Japan Store, and rank ahead of mainstream media companies such as Discovery Channel and CNN. His video series Vocabulary Generator was ranked the No. 1 video in Japan for 10 weeks, and the network has up to a million downloads per month.

In this interview, John tells us of his motivation for starting the company, and why he chose to use iTunes as a distribution platform.

We also discuss the merits of education using online tools and downloadable podcasts – is this the end of the eikaiwa – English language school – as we know it?

Humour plays an important part in John’s videos – hear how llama’s and horses help his viewers with their studies.

John also provides some great advice for those wanting to start up in business in Japan. Questions covered include

• What are the cultural differences that you should be aware of.
• What is Jetro, and what kind of help can you expect to get from them?
• Who should you go to for your corporate bank account?
• What happened when John tried to place an ad in Hot Pepper?
• What’s the most important thing that he recommends people do in order to succeed?

John’s site can be found at Weblish.net, or search for Weblish in the Apple iTunes store.

How to Listen

Subscribe and listen in iTunes / on your iPhone /iPod

Non-iTunes RSS feed

Download the interview here

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 27:48 — 25.4MB)

No Comments | In: Broadcast Media, Business Owners, Internet, Language, education | tags: daub, education, english, itunes, john, Language, podcast, video, weblish. | #