Built in Tokyo, for Japan's hospitality future
We started Ikura in 2024 after watching a Hakone ryokan owner spend more time with translation apps than with guests during the busiest Golden Week she'd ever seen.
The problem was in plain sight
Japan's inbound tourism has grown faster than the hospitality industry could adapt. Record numbers of visitors from China, Korea, France, Germany, the United States, Saudi Arabia and beyond. Small ryokan and independent hotels that spent decades serving domestic guests found themselves overwhelmed by multilingual demand they were never equipped to handle.
Eiko Nakazawa had spent years in hospitality technology consulting before co-founding Ikura. Marcus Leung had built multilingual NLP systems for large-volume production deployments. Both had watched the same gap grow wider through 2023 and 2024: Japan's hospitality offer is extraordinary, but the language barrier was costing properties bookings, repeat visits, and five-star reviews that should have been theirs.
Ikura was built around a simple belief: a ryokan manager who speaks only Japanese should be able to give a first-class experience to a guest who speaks only French. The technology exists. It just hadn't been packaged for the small business owner who has no IT team and no spare hours to learn new software.
Our operating principles
Hospitality first, technology second
Ikura exists to deepen the guest experience, not to replace the human warmth that makes Japanese hospitality memorable. We automate the friction so your staff can be present when it matters. Every product decision runs through this filter: does it make the guest feel more welcome, or does it make things more efficient for us?
Small operators deserve great tools
Enterprise software is built for hotels with 50-person IT teams. We build for the owner who runs the desk during the day shift.
Privacy is not a feature, it's a baseline
Guest data never leaves Japan-region infrastructure. We take APPI seriously and tell you exactly what we store, why, and for how long.
The people building Ikura
Eiko Nakazawa
CEO & Co-Founder
Background in hospitality technology consulting across Japan's major tourism markets. Has spent years mapping the friction points that cost small properties foreign-language bookings.
Marcus Leung
CTO & Co-Founder
Built multilingual NLP systems handling large-volume production traffic before co-founding Ikura. Works across Japanese, English, and Cantonese without a translator.
Tomoko Iida
Head of Product
Product management background in Japan's online travel and booking sector. Understands the operational rhythm of small properties from the outside and the inside.