ASS

What ASS does

ASS Ltd. (株式会社ASS) is a privately held Japanese mobile application development firm founded on October 20, 2009, headquartered in a single small office in Shinjuku, Tokyo (OS Building 602, Tsukudo-cho 4-7). The company is founder-controlled and family-led, with 山根 陸 (Yamane Riku) as Representative Director and President and 山根 幸恵 (Yamane Yukie) as Deputy President; registered capital stands at ¥1,000,000 as of March 2025 with no disclosed external investors, funding rounds, or parent company.

The company operates a dual business model. First, it self-develops and distributes a portfolio of eight consumer mobile applications on the iOS App Store and Google Play, including utility apps (Sukesuke Thermometer, Compass, Elevation), Japan-specific reference tools (Invoice Registration Number Search, Withholding Tax Calculator, Use District/Zoning Search), and location/transit aids (Station Which, 6-Second Lunch). Second, it provides commissioned custom application and system development services (受託開発) to business clients through a six-step delivery process spanning requirements gathering, specification, design, development, testing, and release. Technically, the company's stated core focus is smartphone and tablet applications with server-side integration, supported by a Java/Python/JavaScript engineering stack.

Go-to-market is direct and low-cost: the corporate website (as-systems.jp) and per-app landing pages (asapps.jp) handle inbound business inquiries, while app stores serve as the consumer discovery channel. No resellers, distributors, paid advertising, or social media presence is evidenced. The firm banks with Mizuho Bank Kanda Ekimae branch and is a member of the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce. It actively recruits junior engineers, web engineers, project managers, and testers, and runs a structured university internship program at ¥1,200/hour; a recently introduced 3-day weekend policy is positioned as an employee benefit. No revenue figures, customer logos, awards, patents, partnerships, certifications, or M&A activity are disclosed in the available material.

Name

ASS

Legal name

株式会社ASS

Website

https://as-systems.jp

Company type

Private

Founded year

2009

Operating status

Operating

Short description

ASS Ltd. (株式会社ASS) is a Tokyo-based, founder-led Japanese firm that self-publishes a portfolio of eight consumer mobile utility apps and provides commissioned custom mobile application and system development services to business clients, with a stated focus on server-side-integrated smartphone and tablet apps.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Mobile Application Development

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132)

SIC

Services-Engineering, Accounting, Research, Management (8700), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Custom Application Development (Web/Mobile/Desktop) (BPAEAFAA)

Keywords

• Mobile application development
• System consulting services
• Commissioned software development
• Smartphone app portfolio
• Server-side integration

Headquarters

HQ city

Tokyo

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. Commissioned/outsourced development services (受託開発): Custom application and system development services for business clients, encompassing requirements gathering, specification, design, development, testing, and release/operations support. Revenue is generated on a project-by-project basis as one-time professional services contracts.
2. Self-developed application distribution: Distribution of proprietary consumer mobile applications via app stores (iOS App Store, Google Play). Apps include productivity tools (thermometer, compass, elevation meter), tax calculators, and utility apps. Revenue is likely derived from app sales or in-app purchases though specific monetization model not detailed.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

株式会社ASS develops and distributes a portfolio of eight proprietary consumer smartphone applications (iOS/Android) covering utility, measurement, tax, and transit functions, and provides commissioned/outsourced mobile application development and system consulting services to business clients. The commissioned development offering follows a structured six-step process: requirements gathering, specification definition, system design, development, testing, and release/operations support.

Product overview

株式会社ASS (ASS Ltd.) is a Japanese smartphone application development company offering a portfolio of self-developed mobile applications for iOS and Android devices. Their product portfolio consists of eight distinct mobile applications focused on utility, business tools, and location-based services. The applications include: ６秒ランチ (6-second lunch service), インボイス登録番号検索 (invoice registration number search), スケスケ温度計 (thermometer), スケスケコンパス (compass), スケスケ高度計 (elevation meter), 用途地域 (zoning search), 源泉所得税計算 (tax calculator), and 駅どっち (station navigation). Additionally, the company offers commissioned application development services for businesses, providing end-to-end development from requirements gathering through design, development, testing, and release.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• 6-second lunch (６秒ランチ)
• Invoice Registration Number Search (インボイス登録番号検索)
• Sukesuke Thermometer (スケスケ温度計)
• Sukesuke Compass (スケスケコンパス)
• Sukesuke Elevation (スケスケ高度計)
• Use District (用途地域)
• Withholding Income Tax Calculator (源泉所得税計算)
• Station Which (駅どっち)
• Commissioned Mobile Application Development (受託開発)
• System Consulting (システムコンサルティング)
• Computer Software Development and Sales (コンピュータソフトウェア開発及び販売)

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Scale indicators1 record

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• Goodpatch: Tokyo-based product design and development studio offering commissioned app and digital product development for enterprise clients, with a similar services-led model and comparable scale to ASS.
• Yappli: Japanese mobile-app-as-a-service platform that helps businesses build and operate their own apps; directly comparable mobile-app focus and B2B go-to-market in the Japanese market.
• Money Forward: Tokyo-headquartered fintech that publishes consumer-facing personal finance/tax utilities (akin to ASS's withholding tax calculator) while operating a large B2B SaaS platform — a scaled version of the same dual model.
• Nulab: Japanese software company that both publishes its own dev/collaboration products (Backlog, Cacoo, Typetalk) and provides services, mirroring ASS's dual consumer-product plus services model.
• SmartNews: Japanese-founded consumer mobile app company (news) that scaled via app store distribution, directly comparable as a Japanese consumer-mobile-app publisher with enterprise ambitions.

Others

• Wantedly: Japanese tech and startup-focused recruitment platform that mirrors the recruitment-led growth motion ASS uses through its career site and internship program, though it does not directly compete in software development services.

Emerging players

• Repro: Tokyo-based mobile-app analytics and marketing automation SaaS targeting the same Japanese app-developer and enterprise-app customer base that ASS serves through its commissioned development work.

Broad incumbents

• NTT Data: Japan's largest IT services and system integrator, competing for the same enterprise mobile-application and system-consulting engagements ASS pursues but at vastly greater scale and resource depth.
• Cybozu: Long-established Japanese SaaS vendor (Kintone, Garoon) operating broadly in collaborative software; overlaps with ASS's enterprise mobile development customer base but at much larger scale and as a broader software portfolio.
• freee: Larger Japanese cloud-accounting SaaS provider whose consumer-facing tax and finance utilities overlap with ASS's withholding tax calculator app, but freee operates a much broader enterprise software suite.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat2 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/sukesukeapps

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 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 ASS