IKUSA

What IKUSA does

IKUSA Inc. (株式会社IKUSA) is a Japanese experiential events and training company founded in 2012 in Tokyo (originally as web consultancy TearsSwitch, rebranded in 2018). The company operates an "Asobi Sogo Company" (Play Comprehensive Company) model, deploying 90+ proprietary, trademarked event formats — including Chanbara Kassen (samurai foam-sword battle), Sengoku Takara Sagashi (Warring States treasure hunt), Remote Mystery online escape games, Asobi Bosai (disaster preparedness games), SDGs Compass, and corporate sports days — to address corporate, governmental, and social challenges through experiential play. Its product stack is built around an internally developed online event delivery platform using PHP/Laravel, HTML/CSS/JavaScript, and MySQL/PostgreSQL, enabling both in-person and remote hybrid experiences.

The company serves four primary customer segments: large and mid-sized Japanese corporations (team building, onboarding, training, annual events), local governments (regional activation, disaster preparedness, tourism), commercial facilities/retail (foot traffic generation, tenant activation), and educational institutions. Named enterprise customers include Rohto Pharmaceutical (~1,300 participants for a corporate travel program) and Meiko Network Japan (~1,000 participants for a shareholders' meeting), alongside government clients such as Kani City, Gifu Prefecture. IKUSA reports cumulative service to 4,300+ companies and 1,000,000+ participants, with 1,600+ events executed annually.

IKUSA operates a B2B sales-led, quote-based pricing model delivered through "Asobi Consultants" (field sales) plus inside sales teams, supported by content marketing, SEO, the YouTube channel IKUSATUBE, and conference speaking (e.g., HR Conference 2023 Fall). The company maintains five regional offices across Japan — Tokyo (HQ), Osaka, Nagoya, Sendai, and Fukuoka — and has begun a Japan Teambuilding sub-brand targeting inbound tourism. After a severe COVID-19 disruption (80+ events cancelled in 2019), the company achieved a V-shaped recovery through the Remote Mystery and online food delivery products and crossed ¥1 billion (~$6.7M) in revenue for the first time in fiscal year 2022. IKUSA is privately held, founder-owned (Akasaka Daiki as Representative Director), bootstrapped with no disclosed external funding.

Name

IKUSA

Legal name

株式会社IKUSA

Website

https://ikusa.co.jp

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

IKUSA Inc. is a Japanese experiential events and training company operating 90+ proprietary event formats — team building, samurai battles, mystery games, disaster preparedness, and SDGs programs — serving enterprises, local governments, retail, and education clients across Japan through five regional offices and direct B2B sales.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Corporate Experiential Event Services

NAICS

Convention and Trade Show Organizers (561920)

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)

akta.pro primary industry

Full-Service Event Planning & Production (HSACAAAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Corporate Event Planning & Management Services (Agencies/Planners) (MPAGAHAL), Event Production & Technical Services (AV, Lighting, Staging) (BPAFAGAB)

Keywords

• Corporate team building
• Experiential events
• Employee engagement training
• Corporate sports days
• Event production services

Headquarters

HQ city

Toshima

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices5 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Supply Chain

Revenue model

1. B2B Event and Training Services: IKUSA's primary revenue stream comes from delivering experiential events, team building programs, training sessions, and corporate entertainment to enterprise clients, government agencies, and commercial facilities. Revenue is generated on a per-event or per-project basis, with some clients engaging recurring annual events. The company also provides full event production including MC services, props/costumes, and post-event analysis.
2. Digital Marketing Services: IKUSA operates a separate content marketing and SEO consulting practice (contentmarketing.ikusa.co.jp) offering services to external clients including HubSpot Japanese blog management, university alumni magazine web consulting, and B2B/B2C content marketing strategy.
3. Online Food Entertainment & Delivery: A proprietary online food delivery and catering service combining food with entertainment elements (e.g., 'Gochi Battle' food guessing games, corporate catering). Developed internally and marketed as a standalone service, particularly during the COVID-19 period when remote work events were in high demand.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

IKUSA plans, produces, and operates experiential events and training programs for corporate, government, commercial facility, and educational clients across Japan. Its portfolio spans over 100 proprietary event formats covering team building, employee engagement training, mystery/escape games, historical battle activities (Chanbara Battle, Sengoku Treasure Hunt), disaster preparedness, SDGs education, and corporate sports days. The company delivers these services both in-person at client sites and its own IKUSA ARENA venue, and remotely through an in-house online event platform. It also operates a separate content marketing and SEO consulting practice serving external clients.

Product overview

IKUSA is an 'Asobi Sogo Company' (Play Comprehensive Company) providing experiential event and training services under a platform-plus-modules architecture. The core offerings include team building activities (IKUSA.jp), experiential training programs (あそぶ社員研修), mystery/puzzle events (謎解きコンシェルジュ/リモ謎), historical battle events (チャンバラ合戦/戦国宝探し), disaster prevention programs (あそび防災プロジェクト), SDGs initiatives (SDGsコンパス), corporate sports days (社内運動会), food entertainment (ビジメシ/オンラインフードデリバリー), and full event production services. With over 100 service varieties and annual performance exceeding 1,000 events, the company serves large corporations, SMEs, local governments, commercial facilities, and schools. They also operate IKUSA ARENA (a dedicated 500+ person capacity venue) and provide digital marketing services including content marketing and SEO optimization. The portfolio is unified by the mission of 'finding challenges and solving them through play,' with services designed for corporate team building, employee engagement, regional activation, and social issue resolution.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Chanbara Battle (Chanbara Kassen / チャンバラ合戦) Trademarked team building activity using sponge/foam swords framed as the world's safest battle experience; offered for corporate events, employee travel, and team building.
• IKUSA ARENA Exclusive activity venue accommodating 500+ guests, located 10 minutes from Tobu-Nerima Station, bookable up to one year in advance for corporate and group events.
• Asobu Shain Training (あそぶ社員研修) Experiential training programs that use play-based activities to improve learning retention and target recruitment-to-retention outcomes for corporate clients.
• Business Game Training (ビジネスゲーム研修) Training programs that use business simulation games to teach management concepts and team dynamics for corporate audiences.
• Mystery Concierge (Nazotoki / 謎解きコンシェルジュ) Corporate mystery solving and escape game services that use puzzles to address business and regional challenges for companies and local governments.
• Remote Mystery (Remote Nazotoki / リモ謎) Online mystery solving event platform developed fully in-house that enables remote team building through puzzle-based experiences for distributed and remote work teams.
• Sengoku Treasure Hunt (Sengoku Takara Sagashi / 戦国宝探し)

Named customers4 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Sairu Co., Ltd. (株式会社才流)minorImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerIKUSA engaged Sairu, a B2B marketing consulting firm, to assess and enhance its own marketing and sales capabilities. Sairu consultants conducted a project evaluation including event observation and staff interviews, providing feedback on IKUSA's service quality and feedback culture. The partnership helped validate IKUSA's operational standards and provided marketing strategy consulting.

Scale indicators5 records

Direct peers

• TeamBonding: US-based corporate team building and corporate event provider delivering in-person and virtual programs for enterprise clients. Closely comparable to IKUSA's event-led team building model and enterprise sales motion.
• Outback Team Building: North American corporate team building company focused on customizable, in-person and virtual programs. Operates a similar B2B field sales and catalog-driven service model to IKUSA.
• Catalyst Team Building: US corporate team building provider offering curated in-person and remote experiences for enterprise clients. Comparable service portfolio, customer profile, and custom-event sales motion to IKUSA.
• Teambuilding: Largest US corporate team building company offering virtual and in-person experiential programs for enterprise teams. Closely matches IKUSA's B2B team building, mystery/scamper games, and remote engagement offerings.
• The Go Game: Tech-enabled corporate team building and scavenger hunt company combining custom-built apps with on-site event facilitation. Directly comparable to IKUSA's in-house platform (Remote Mystery) plus live event delivery approach.

Broad incumbents

• Eventbrite: Global event marketplace and ticketing platform. Not a direct competitor to IKUSA's experiential services but a broad incumbent shaping how event-driven demand generation and ticketed experiences are distributed online.
• Hakuhodo: Major Japanese advertising agency with corporate events, brand activation, and content marketing practices. Adjacent incumbent competing for experiential marketing and corporate engagement budgets.
• Kintetsu International: Japanese travel, MICE, and event services company serving corporate and government clients nationwide. Comparable enterprise event production and inbound visitor services to IKUSA's offerings.
• JTB Corporation: Japan's largest travel agency group with MICE and corporate event services. Overlaps with IKUSA on corporate incentive travel, large-scale event production, and inbound tourism experiences.
• Dentsu: Largest Japanese advertising and communications group with a substantial events and experiential marketing practice. Competes with IKUSA for corporate experiential budgets at the enterprise tier.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCJnRwAXzetzA4aBDP5CIbTg

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about IKUSA