Instantly Translating 42 Languages, Pocketalk Reaches a Long-Sought Milestone

Growing through a unique approach

When a foreigner on the other side of the counter begins speaking in English, the display in front of them instantly shows English on the left side and a real-time Japanese translation on the right. The display is double-sided, so when a Japanese speaker responds in Japanese, the other person can see the translated English version. With just this one device, both parties can instantly view translations of each other’s words on the dual screens.

Scheduled for release later this year, the Pocketalk X is a stationary AI simultaneous interpretation device developed based on Pocketalk-Sentio, software that can understand 42 spoken languages through real-time translation into voice and text across 77 languages. Demonstration tests have already been conducted at airport counters and other locations, where Japanese people and foreigners with no Japanese ability at all were reportedly able to communicate without difficulty.

“There are almost no misheard words. When people see it, they all say, ‘I want this.’ I gave a presentation at the United Nations, and they said they wanted it too. It’s been ten years since I started Pocketalk. I truly feel that I’ve finally created what I always wanted to make.”

The person saying this is Noriyuki Matsuda (60), president of Pocketalk.

Released in 2017, the Pocketalk translation device, which featured comedian Akashiya Sanma as its promotional character in 2018, became a massive hit. Its initial production run sold out in just 11 days.

Many Japanese people have a complex about not being able to speak English. At the same time, the growing number of foreign tourists created strong demand from retailers and other businesses struggling with language barriers. Against this backdrop, many people rushed to adopt Pocketalk because of its remarkable translation performance.

Total shipments have already exceeded 1.3 million units, but Pocketalk has undergone an extraordinary evolution.

Pocketalk was brought to market by Sourcenext, the company Matsuda founded. The company is known for PC software such as Kyosoku, Tokuda, and Ikinari PDF.

When he became independent, Matsuda—who had worked as a systems engineer at IBM Japan—set his sights on the computer software industry. However, from the beginning, his way of thinking was completely different from that of other companies.

“Rather than creating software from scratch ourselves, we localized products that were popular in America and sold them in Japan. But I had absolutely no idea how to sell them.”

At that point, Matsuda took a bold step. He decided that he should go directly to electronics retailers and stand on the sales floor himself.

“All of our customers were buying our software in Akihabara. So I thought, why not sell it myself and hear their opinions directly?”

He didn’t just sell his company’s software—he sold PCs as well.

It was there that Matsuda discovered a genuine customer need.

Trial and error and new perspectives

“A surprisingly large number of people came in to buy memory. When I asked why, they said their computers had become slower after changing operating systems. But PC architecture was complicated back then, and very few people knew how to install memory themselves.”

Matsuda thought there should be an easier way—software that could make a computer run faster.

That idea led to Kyosoku (Super Speed), which became a huge hit, selling a cumulative six million copies.

By the company’s second year, annual sales had reached 3 billion yen.

Behind that success was an unusual hiring strategy. Matsuda brought in creators responsible for naming and design and gave them executive-level status.

“What I learned from the sales floor was how important packaging and product names were. Most software companies developed products in-house and outsourced the creative work. I did the opposite. That’s why we were able to stand out in stores.”

What further shocked the industry was his decision to run television commercials for the typing software Tokuda, at a time when the company had fewer than 30 employees.

“It cost about one billion yen, but the effect was tremendous. Sales grew dramatically. It also had a positive impact on recruiting—we received 7,000 resumes.”

This also helped with distribution through electronics retailers.

“To sell well in stores, it’s important to have large displays with lots of stock. So we allowed returns in exchange for stores carrying larger inventories.”

Within five years, sales exceeded 5 billion yen. Then Matsuda challenged another industry convention.

He announced that software previously sold for around 10,000 yen would be priced uniformly at 1,980 yen.

The industry reacted with fierce criticism.

“Even at a low price, if you sell five million copies, that’s 10 billion yen in revenue. To make that happen, we assembled a lineup of 100 titles.”

Nine years after founding the company, annual sales surpassed 10 billion yen. In its eleventh year, the company was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers market, and in 2008 it moved up to the First Section of the TSE.

However, Matsuda misjudged a major shift in the industry: the transition from PCs to smartphones.

A product that used USB flash memory failed, and then the global financial crisis struck. The company suffered massive losses and came close to insolvency.

Having narrowly survived, Matsuda decided that he could never afford to miss another major industry shift. His solution was to move to the heart of the IT world—Silicon Valley in the United States.

It was 2012.

“I think that was huge. If I hadn’t moved, Pocketalk might never have existed. I don’t think I would have developed the mindset that something like this was possible, or that it could be launched globally.”

His interest in—or rather concern about—English had existed since his student days.

“I struggled with studying English. And no matter how much I studied, I could never become anything like a native speaker. I began to think that maybe it was simply too difficult for Japanese people. What we needed was something almost magical.”

[Continued in Part 2] Noriyuki Matsuda, CEO of AI simultaneous interpretation device Pocketalk — “This is a real-life Translation Konnyaku!”

From the May 15–22, 2026 combined issue of “FRIDAY” magazine.