Ideation Co.

What Ideation Co. does

Ideation Co., Ltd. (株式会社アイディエーション) is a privately held Japanese marketing research firm founded in 2015 by Akitomo Shiraishi and headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, with a secondary office in Matsuyama, Ehime Prefecture. The company positions itself as an "all-round" research provider delivering both qualitative services (depth interviews, group interviews, observation surveys, visit surveys) and quantitative services (questionnaires, CLT tests, home use tests), supplemented by MROC, desktop research, and workshop offerings that extend to action-plan formulation. Its core differentiator is a dedicated team of 12+ in-house moderators who manage the entire project lifecycle — from study design and participant recruitment through data analysis and reporting — supported by an internal recruiting call center that enables precise respondent selection without outsourcing. The firm also markets VOICE for Hotels, a cloud-based automatic survey aggregation and analysis dashboard targeted at the hospitality vertical, and in April 2026 added UI/UX research and Employee Satisfaction survey services.

The business operates on a B2B professional services model: clients engage through direct inquiry (website contact form or phone), receive a budget consultation and customized research proposal, and contract under multi-year project-based engagements with custom pricing tied to scope, methodology, sample size, and complexity. Named enterprise clients include SmartNews Co., Ltd. and Marketing and Associates Co., Ltd., both with recurring multi-year qualitative and quantitative engagements. Go-to-market is sales-led and supported by a content-driven marketing stack — a Column blog, YouTube explainer channel, note.com presence, and active social accounts on X, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok — alongside PR appearances such as TOKYO FM radio. Leadership comprises founder/President Akitomo Shiraishi, Vice President Masashi Yamakawa (joined 2016, ex-Rakuten Insight), and Director Munefumi Shiraishi; the firm holds Privacy Mark certification and operates with a lean structure (registered capital ¥10M, small Ebisu office of approximately 26 tsubo).

Name

Ideation Co.

Legal name

株式会社アイディエーション

Website

https://ideation.co.jp

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Tokyo

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, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Marketing Research Services: B2B professional services providing qualitative research (depth interviews, group interviews, observation surveys, visit surveys) and quantitative research (surveys, CLT tests, home use tests) to enterprise clients.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Ideation Co. is an all-round B2B marketing research company providing qualitative research (depth interviews, group interviews, observation surveys, visit surveys) and quantitative research (questionnaire surveys, CLT tests, home use tests) to enterprise clients. In-house moderators manage the full project lifecycle from research design and respondent recruitment through data analysis and reporting. The firm also offers VOICE for Hotels, a cloud-based automatic survey aggregation and analysis dashboard for the hotel industry.

Product overview

Ideation Co. is an all-round marketing research company specializing in both qualitative and quantitative research. The core portfolio consists of three service lines — Qualitative Research Services (定性調査サービス), Quantitative Research Services (定量調査サービス), and Other Services (その他のサービス) — complemented by VOICE for Hotels, a cloud-based automatic survey aggregation and analysis dashboard. The company manages the full research lifecycle in-house, from study design and participant recruitment to interviewing, data analysis, and reporting. VOICE for Hotels serves as the branded analytics SaaS tool within the broader research services ecosystem.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Qualitative Research Services (定性調査サービス) Qualitative research services including depth interviews, group interviews, on-site surveys, and observation surveys. In-house moderators manage the full project lifecycle from research design to participant recruitment and reporting, designed for enterprise clients seeking deep consumer understanding.
• Quantitative Research Services (定量調査サービス) Quantitative research services including questionnaire surveys, Central Location Tests (CLT), and Home Use Tests. In-house moderators handle survey design, screen creation and distribution, aggregation, analysis, and reporting. Offered to enterprise clients for standalone quantitative studies or as a follow-on to qualitative hypothesis testing.
• Other Services (その他のサービス) Additional research methodologies including MROC (Market Research Online Community), desktop research, and workshop services. Supports clients from research through action plan formulation, aimed at companies whose prior research was not translated into business actions.
• VOICE for Hotels Cloud-based automatic survey aggregation and analysis dashboard that enables real-time collection and visualization of survey response data for the hotel industry.
• UI/UX Survey Service (UI/UX調査) A UI/UX survey service designed to evolve design in the field, providing research that extends beyond traditional UI/UX evaluation. Targeted at companies seeking deeper design-stage consumer feedback.
• Employee Satisfaction (ES) Survey (従業員満足度調査) An Employee Satisfaction (ES) survey service structured to serve as a catalyst for organizational improvement rather than concluding with the survey itself. Targeted at companies looking to act on internal employee feedback.

Named customers2 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Kadence International: Research agency specializing in qualitative consumer insight work with strong Japan presence. Closely comparable to Ideation on the qualitative research side of the business.
• GMO Research: Online-focused market research firm operating an Asian panel, providing quantitative and qualitative research to enterprise clients in Japan and regionally — directly comparable to Ideation.
• Intage: Japan's largest marketing research and consulting company covering both qualitative and quantitative consumer research. Operates the same all-round research model Ideation targets, with much larger resources.
• Rakuten Insight: Online market research firm and Ideation founder's former employer. Same qualitative/quantitative research offerings and same Japanese enterprise target market, making it the most pedigree-relevant direct peer.
• Macromill: Japan's largest pure-play online market research firm, providing qualitative and quantitative research to enterprise clients. Direct competitor across Ideation's full service mix, only at substantially greater scale.
• Cross Marketing: Major Japanese market research firm providing both qualitative (interviews, panels) and quantitative (online surveys) research alongside in-house panels, comparable in service mix to Ideation.

Emerging players

• Insight Tech: Tokyo-based consumer insight firm using technology and text mining for market research, including qualitative-style analysis. Smaller-scale and more productized, but adjacent to Ideation's research tooling direction.

Others

• Imas (Video Research): Established Japanese research firm for media, consumer and advertising research. Functions as an adjacent/partial-overlap player rather than a direct competitor in qualitative moderation.

Broad incumbents

• Ipsos Japan: Global market research and consulting firm with established Japan operations across qualitative and quantitative research. Indirect competitor serving the same enterprise buyers in Japan.
• Nielsen Japan: Global research giant with Japanese operations, offering consumer research and audience measurement across many categories. Overlaps Ideation on consumer insights but offers a far broader portfolio.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights8 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/ideation_1111
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@%E6%A0%AA%E5%BC%8F%E4%BC%9A%E7%A4%BE%E3%82%A2%E3%82%A4%E3%83%87%E3%82%A3%E3%82%A8%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B7%E3%83%A7%E3%83%B3
• Facebookfacebook.com/ideation1111
• Instagraminstagram.com/ideation.inc
• TikToktiktok.com/@ideation.inc

Compliance1 record

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 Ideation Co.