✦ YC SUMMER 2026 — RESULT: JUNE 5 · ✦ ANTLER JAPAN BATCH 5 — POSITIVE FIRST MEETING · ✦ ANTHROPIC CLAUDE PARTNER PROGRAM — APPLYING · CODE WITH CLAUDE TOKYO · JUNE 10 · ✦ NRI × METI DIVERSITY REPORT — CONFIRMED · ✦ YC SUMMER 2026 — RESULT: JUNE 5 · ✦ ANTLER JAPAN BATCH 5 — POSITIVE FIRST MEETING · ✦ ANTHROPIC CLAUDE PARTNER PROGRAM — APPLYING · CODE WITH CLAUDE TOKYO · JUNE 10 · ✦ NRI × METI DIVERSITY REPORT — CONFIRMED ·
DUNKSOFT Co., Ltd. · Est. 1983 · Tokyo · Tokushima · 43 Years
天 測 · 彩 · 未 来

Japan's cultural memory
is the password.

We built authentication on 2,000 years of written language —
the one security primitive that Big Tech cannot clone.
Now building with Anthropic. Co-created with Claude.

YC SUMMER 2026 ANTLER JAPAN BATCH 5 ✦ ANTHROPIC PARTNER — APPLYING PCT PATENT PENDING
See Our Momentum → Explore Products
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LIVE MOMENTUM · 直近の動き

Everything is moving.
Right now.

May 2026 — multiple signals converging simultaneously.

2026.05.25
Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, Jimbocho Branch — Direct message from Branch Manager Yamanaka
Following an invitation to the Kanda Ai-no-Kai radio program, Branch Manager Yamanaka sent a personal thank-you. The relationship has evolved from institutional to human. A face-to-face meeting is being arranged.
NEW
2026.05.25
NRI × Ministry of Economy — Diversity Case Study Confirmed
Selected as one of 10 companies for the Nomura Research Institute × METI report on diversity and foreign talent. NRI consultant Toshiki Ichibara noted personal resonance as a "visual thinker" with CHROMAKEY AUTH™'s approach.
CONFIRMED
2026.05
Antler Japan Batch 5 — First Interview: Positive
Positive reaction from Scouting Manager Hoshi Satomi. Co-founder matching session invited. Profile sought: Marketing + Finance (engineering not required).
IN PROGRESS
2026.04.17
Y Combinator Summer 2026 — Application Submitted
Applied with kanji × HEX color = 128-bit authentication token architecture. Result announced June 5, 2026.
RESULT: JUNE 5
2026.02.24
Day 1 with Claude — 85 Days to Live Authentication System
From first conversation to live authentication architecture in 85 days. Co-created entirely with Claude. The fastest product build in DUNKSOFT's 43-year history.
LIVE
85
DAYS · ZERO TO LIVE AUTH
43
YEARS OPERATING
June 5
YC RESULT DATE
$147B
GLOBAL TAM
OUR PRODUCTS · プロダクト

Two questions.
Two products.

"Who are you?" and "Where are you going?" — answered with the depth of Japanese written language.

01 · AUTHENTICATION
天然色文字
CHROMAKEY AUTH™ · TENSOKU AUTH™
Replace passwords with color-coded kanji patterns. Authentication rooted in cultural memory — impossible to phish, impossible to clone. Kanji × HEX color = 128-bit authentication token. Works for a 91-year-old on her first try. Drop-in API for kintone, healthcare, securities, and any SaaS platform.
WHO ARE YOU? · あなたは誰か
02 · LIFE NAVIGATION
未来通帳
Future Log · TENSOKU Life
Inspired by French maritime journals — a living logbook where you write your destination, chart your skills, and provision your finances. Like Shohei Ohtani's mandala chart, but for your entire life voyage. Pairs with CHROMAKEY AUTH™ for secure, private, lifelong journaling.
WHERE ARE YOU GOING? · どこへ向かうか
03 · AI PLATFORM
Mythos
Mythos · Claude-Powered Intelligence
Claude API integrated into DUNKSOFT's enterprise platform. Enabling organizations — from 91-year-old researchers to regional banks — to work with AI through a culturally familiar, authenticated interface. The bridge between Japan's legacy knowledge and AI's capabilities.
AI × CULTURAL DEPTH · 深さ
04 · MEMORY
記憶の銀行
MEMORY-BANK™
Institutional and personal memory, authenticated and organized through CHROMAKEY AUTH™. Built for the Kanda Academic Society's 91-year-old researcher Kubo-san — whose decades of knowledge deserve to be accessed, not lost. Japan's answer to the knowledge preservation crisis.
MEMORY × AUTHENTICATION · 記憶
ANTHROPIC CLAUDE PARTNER PROGRAM · パートナー

Built with Claude.
Now partnering with Anthropic.

85 days of co-creation — from first conversation to live authentication system. Now formalizing the relationship.

$100M
PARTNER SUPPORT FUND
Anthropic's Claude Partner Program recognizes companies building products with Claude at their core. DUNKSOFT is applying as the world's first kanji-based authentication company co-built with Claude. The $100M partner support fund — combining API credits, technical access, and potential direct investment — positions DUNKSOFT's Series B+ within the global AI ecosystem. Code with Claude Tokyo on June 10 will be our first public demonstration to the Japanese AI developer community.
THE KUBO-SAN STORY — WHY THIS MATTERS
Kubo-san is 91 years old. She holds decades of irreplaceable knowledge as a researcher at the Kanda Academic Society. She cannot use conventional digital authentication. CHROMAKEY AUTH™ removes that barrier — color-coded kanji she has known for 80 years become her password. This is not a niche use case. This is Japan's most urgent digital inclusion challenge, and it will be every country's challenge within a generation.
NRI CONSULTANT'S RESPONSE — "I RESONATE AS A VISUAL THINKER"
When Nomura Research Institute consultant Ichibara encountered CHROMAKEY AUTH™, his response was not analytical — it was personal. "I resonate with this as a visual thinker." When a senior NRI consultant self-discloses this way, and when a Mitsubishi UFJ branch manager sends a personal thank-you after a radio appearance, it signals something beyond product-market fit. It signals cultural resonance — the deepest form of adoption signal.
TRACTION · 実績

43 years of trust.
Now converting.

Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, Jimbocho Branch — Relationship Deepening
Branch Manager Yamanaka's personal outreach following a radio appearance. The path from community trust to financial institution partnership is opening.
MAY 2026
NRI × METI — Diversity Case Study (10 companies nationally selected)
Confirmed inclusion in the national diversity and foreign talent report. NRI consultant expressed personal resonance with the visual-thinking authentication approach.
CONFIRMED
Tokushima Godo Securities — Pilot Onboarding Q2 2026
First paying customer. 43-year trust relationship converted. The beachhead for Japan's securities industry rollout and the path to Japan Securities Dealers Association standard adoption.
LIVE PILOT
Mutsumi Hospital + Tokushima Medical Vocational School
Both proposals submitted simultaneously. kintone infrastructure already in place — CHROMAKEY AUTH™ is the only addition needed. Two organizations, one proposal cycle.
PIPELINE
kintone After-School Care System — Existing Deployed Customers
Hanamaru Gakudo (Ishigaki Island) and others. Auth layer ready to add to an existing customer base — zero new sales required for initial rollout.
EXISTING BASE
WHY JAPAN · NOW · なぜ今、日本か

Safe. Trusted. Suddenly global.

🏯
TRUST & STABILITY
As geopolitical instability rises globally, Japan is recognized as one of the world's most secure, stable, and rule-of-law-governed nations. Institutions trust Japanese-origin technology.
👴
AGING IS THE PREVIEW
Japan is 30 years ahead of the world in aging demographics. Every authentication problem Japan solves today is the global problem of 2035. Kubo-san (91) is the user persona for tomorrow's world.
⛩️
CULTURAL DEPTH AS IP
2,000 years of written language. No AI model trained on Western data can reproduce what a Japanese reader feels when they see colored kanji. That feeling is the patent.
🌐
KANJI ZONE = 1.5B USERS
Japan, China, Taiwan, Korea — the kanji-using world is 1.5 billion people. CHROMAKEY AUTH™'s beachhead here unlocks the largest culturally coherent authentication market on earth.
🤖
AI × CULTURAL MEMORY
Claude + DUNKSOFT = the only AI co-built authentication system rooted in non-Western cultural cognition. Anthropic's global reach + Japan's cultural depth = an unreplicable combination.
🏦
FINANCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE
From regional securities firms to Mitsubishi UFJ Bank — Japan's financial sector is actively seeking authentication modernization. CHROMAKEY AUTH™ is the culturally appropriate answer.
THE FOUNDER · 創業者

He didn't discover the problem.
He witnessed it for 43 years.

星野
Koichiro (Roberto) Hoshino · 星野 晃一郎
PRESIDENT & CEO · DUNKSOFT Co., Ltd. · Est. 1983
In 1983, an engineer named AIDA founded DUNKSOFT with a dream of building robots that protect people — inspired by Astro Boy. Three years later, he died suddenly. Hoshino, then a 2nd-year employee, was asked by AIDA's family to carry the company forward. He had been planning to go to America. Instead, he stayed.

43 years later — having built digital infrastructure for Japanese healthcare, finance, education, and local governments — he applied simultaneously to Y Combinator and Antler Japan, while pursuing the Anthropic Claude Partner Program. It is the first time external capital has ever entered DUNKSOFT.

On February 24, 2026, he began his first conversation with Claude. 85 days later, a live authentication system existed. The dream of going to America, deferred for 38 years, is now being realized in the best possible form.
"I did not discover this problem. I witnessed it for 43 years." — Koichiro Hoshino · YC Application · April 2026

Ready to navigate
the future together?

DUNKSOFT is raising its first-ever external round.
YC result: June 5. Code with Claude Tokyo: June 10.
We welcome conversations with investors who understand
that the deepest moats are cultural, not computational.

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