Yui

What Yui does

Yui (株式会社 唯) is a Japanese for-profit company founded on July 14, 2017, by Masaaki Ikegami (池谷正明), a Jōdo Shinshū Hongwanji-ha priest with prior marketing experience at Dentsu. The company operates as a niche PR and marketing agency that exclusively serves Buddhist temples (寺院) in Japan, providing outsourced communications services that temples cannot or will not produce in-house. Service modules include priest personality interviews and pamphlets, congregation-member testimonial articles, official temple website creation and operation (priced at 30,000 JPY/month × 12 months), end-of-life consultation seminars (お寺で終活相談会), cemetery user testimonials, funeral consultation guides, ceremony application form creation, temple newsletter redesign, and video production for temple events. The company also operates a sub-brand content platform called Dialogue Temple (dialoguetemple.com) featuring priest personality stories.

The business operates on a professional-services revenue model combining small recurring subscriptions (website operations) with project-based fees for content production and event hosting. Distribution is entirely direct sales: Yui's team approaches temple priests (住職) directly, builds trust through demonstrated case studies, and delivers services on-site including photography, interviews, and seminar facilitation. The company is registered as a kabushiki kaisha with 5,000,000 JPY of registered capital, is privately held with no external institutional investment, and is headquartered in Shin-Yokohama, Kohoku Ward, Yokohama City. Cumulative scale signals include 120+ priests interviewed, 90+ grave-user testimonials across 39 temples, 23 contracted temple clients, 16 end-of-life seminars delivered to 450 participants, and a service portfolio spanning 7 business projects and 15 service offerings by 2024. No AI/ML technology, patents, or third-party partnerships are disclosed; the competitive moat is the founder's combined religious and advertising expertise and the accumulated content library of temple stories.

Name

Yui

Legal name

株式会社 唯

Website

https://yuiinc.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Yui is a Japanese PR and marketing agency that exclusively serves Buddhist temples, producing priest interviews, websites, newsletters, end-of-life seminars, and cemetery testimonials for approximately 23 contracted temples across Japan, founded and led by a practicing Jōdo Shinshū priest.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Yokohama

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Temple PR/Marketing Services: The company earns revenue by providing paid PR and publicity services to Buddhist temples. Services include: priest personality interview pamphlets/leaflets, temple website creation and operation, 'End-of-Life Consultation Seminars at Temples' (お寺で終活相談会) hosting and运营, temple newsletters production, funeral guidance document creation, grave-user testimonial interviews, and video production for temple events. Pricing includes monthly retainer for website services (30,000 JPY per month × 12 months) and per-service project fees.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Yui (株式会社 唯) is a specialized public relations and marketing agency that acts as an outsourced communications department for Buddhist temples in Japan. The company produces promotional materials and manages temple communications on behalf of temple priests, including official temple websites, priest personality interview content (pamphlets, articles, videos), end-of-life consultation seminars, temple newsletters, funeral guidance documents, cemetery user testimonials, and ceremony application forms. Services are delivered directly to temple clients through on-site visits for interviews, photography, and event hosting.

Product overview

Yui (株式会社 唯) operates as a temple-focused PR and marketing agency offering a comprehensive suite of services to help Buddhist temples communicate their value to congregation members and the broader community. The core offering is the 寺院広報代行サービス (Temple PR Agency Service), supplemented by multiple specialized service modules including 僧侶の人柄パンフレット (Priest Personality Brochures), お寺で終活相談会 (End-of-Life Consultation Events), 寺院公式ホームページ作成 (Official Temple Website Creation), お檀家様の声インタビュー記事 (Congregation Member Interview Articles), お墓を使った人の声取材 (Cemetery User Testimonial Services), and 法事・お塔婆申込みフォーム作成 (Ceremony Application Form Creation). The company also operates the ダイアログテンプル (DIALOGUE TEMPLE) content platform as a sub-brand featuring priest interviews and temple stories. Services are primarily focused on Japanese Buddhist temples in the Kanagawa Prefecture area and nationwide, helping priests communicate more effectively with current and potential congregation members.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Dialogue Temple (ダイアログテンプル): A subsidiary platform featuring articles about temple priests' personalities and temple visits, created by Yui to help people learn about temple priests before visiting.

Products and services

• Temple PR Agency Service (寺院広報代行サービス) Outsourced public relations and marketing service for Buddhist temples in Japan, providing comprehensive communications support on behalf of temple priests. The service includes producing promotional materials, managing temple communications, and building congregant engagement.
• Temple Official Website Creation & Operation Service (寺院公式ホームページ作成事業) Design, content creation, photography, and one-year operational support for official Buddhist temple websites, offered on a monthly subscription basis with no additional fees after the 12-month contract ends.
• End-of-Life Consultation Seminars at Temples (お寺で終活相談会) In-person end-of-life preparation consultation events hosted at Buddhist temples, helping head priests communicate with congregation members about funeral arrangements and memorial services.
• Priest Personality Interview Service (僧侶の人柄記事インタビュー取材) Interview content production service for temple head priests, producing pamphlets, leaflets, and online articles that introduce priests' individual personalities and backgrounds to potential congregants before they visit the temple.
• Temple Newsletter and Leaflet Production (寺報リーフレット事業) Design and production of temple newsletters and leaflets, transforming traditional temple bulletins into modern visual formats for distribution to congregation members.
• Funeral Consultation Guide Creation (葬儀案内資料作成) Production of funeral service guidance documents that help Buddhist temples communicate their funeral service options to congregation members and bereaved families.
• Cemetery User Testimonial Service (お墓を使った人の声取材サービス) Interview and content production service that captures testimonials from individuals who have used a temple's cemetery services, helping temples communicate the value of their burial and memorial services.
• Ceremony and Memorial Application Form Creation (法事・お塔婆申込みフォーム作成) Creation of online application forms that enable Buddhist temples to issue personalized ceremony and memorial (法事・お塔婆) application pages for individual congregation members.
• Video Production and Distribution Service (映像配信事業) Video production, recording, and distribution services for Buddhist lectures, group temple visits, and temple ceremony documentation, including international distribution projects.
• Dialogue Temple Content Platform (ダイアログテンプル / DIALOGUE TEMPLE) Online content platform operated as a Yui sub-brand that publishes priest personality interview articles and temple visit stories, edited by company representative Iketani Masaaki, designed to help prospective congregants learn about temples before visiting.

Quantifiable outcome

• End-of-Life Consultation Seminars conducted at 16 temples with 450 participants
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Hakuhodo (博報堂): Japan's second-largest advertising and communications group with a broad PR, digital and content offering. Relevant as a broad incumbent that could enter the temple vertical and out-resource Yui, and as a benchmark for premium PR pricing and capabilities.
• Dentsu (電通): Japan's largest advertising and communications group and Yui founder Iketani's former employer. A broad incumbent with the resources to build a dedicated religious or community-vertical PR practice should the market prove attractive.

Others

• Shukyo Dot Com (宗教ドットコム): Japanese religious-industry information portal covering shrines, temples and faith-based events. Comparable as an ecosystem participant aggregating religious-institution content and audiences that overlap with Dialogue Temple's priest-interview platform.

Direct peers

• PRAP Japan (プラップジャパン): Listed Japanese mid-size PR firm with a broad client base across consumer, technology and corporate communications. Comparable as a similarly-sized domestic PR agency whose service menu, retainer-pricing model, and content-production capabilities directly parallel Yui's offerings.
• Kyodo Public Relations (共同ピーアール): Long-established Japanese PR firm offering corporate communications, IR, and content production. Closely comparable as a domestic professional-services peer with project-based PR retainers and content-driven deliverables akin to Yui's temple communications work.
• Adbrain (アドブレイン): Independent Japanese PR agency with strong content, branding and digital communications capabilities. Comparable to Yui as a similarly-sized, founder-influenced domestic PR shop competing for the same mid-market retainer and project engagements.

Regional players

• Tear (ティア): Listed Japanese funeral services company operating a regional network of funeral halls. Adjacent as a buyer of end-of-life marketing services in the same Buddhist-temple customer pool Yui targets with its end-of-life seminars and cemetery marketing modules.
• Hasegawa (はせがわ): Long-established Japanese retailer of Buddhist altars, family Buddhist supplies and related services. Relevant as a heritage player inside the Buddhist-temple ecosystem that shares Yui's customer base (temples and temple-affiliated households) and could expand into temple marketing.

Emerging players

• Yorisou (よりそう): Japanese end-of-life and funeral-tech startup offering planning tools, content and service matching. Comparable as an emerging player building digital products around the same end-of-life planning journey that Yui addresses through its end-of-life consultation seminars.
• Kamakura Shinsho (鎌倉新書): Japan-listed media and services company focused on end-of-life, funeral and inheritance information, including いい葬儀 and いいお墓. Closely comparable as a content-plus-services platform monetizing Buddhist end-of-life demand, the same demand Yui taps with its seminars and cemetery testimonials.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubevimeo.com/yuiinc
• Xx.com/TokyoTemple

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

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 Yui