First of all, they had to make a serious effort to raise their level of name recognition. In order to do so, Nakamura saw no other way than to build up a record of achievements and results. In the short three and a half years since its founding, Kopernik has successfully completed nearly 60 projects, from the launch of each one, to the search for sponsors, to seeing through the steps on the ground to bring to over 90,000 people in 11 developing countries technologies that will change their lives for the better. Each of these projects has been able to bring real assistance to the “ordinary people” in the developing world.
“Some of the most popular ones with local residents are solar lights, water filters, and portable cooking stoves,” says Nakamura. These are tools for lighting up their days, purifying life-sustaining water, and preparing food. Technologies that satisfy these needs are indispensable in their everyday lives. The technological solutions to these needs made possible by Kopernik dramatically benefit the lives of the people who receive them.
“By bringing solar lights to a remote village in East Timor, we’ve been able to improve people’s lives. Children can now study even after dark, and adults are able to do work at night to generate extra income. Most people in that village were buying kerosene every month to use for lighting, so they have been delighted that solar lights can be charged up using sunlight, and become even more cost effective the longer they are used.”

Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean that local residents always fully embrace all of the products that are made available to them through Kopernik's projects. Even though these projects are partially funded by donations in order to adjust the price to one that is suited to the local market, the local residents are still consumers and as such have their own preferences and opinions about the products and technologies.
“For example, the type of water purifier we had initially introduced used ultraviolet rays to eliminate bacteria, but it was really unpopular when we demonstrated it for the local residents. When we let them try another type of purifier from a different manufacturer, they were satisfied. One major point here is that there’s no way to know what will work without actually taking it to the people who will use it and letting them try it out.”

Knowing what is needed

On March 11, 2011, the Great East Japan Earthquake struck Japan.
Nakamura, who just happened to be in Tokyo on business right when the disaster hit, got in touch with people at the disaster site to ask if there was anything that Kopernik could do to help. “Looking at the list of things that were needed, we saw that portable lights and batteries were included. We realized that with lifelines severed, the victims of the disasters faced a lack of lighting.”
Kopernik immediately put together a shipment of solar lights and sent them to the disaster areas. This is the type of aid for the victims of natural disasters that Kopernik provides in addition to its other projects. In the case of Japan’s recent disasters, the goods were paid for completely by donations. Even after concluding the donation of aid goods to the disaster areas, some of the same technologies were also sold in Tokyo and in other places outside of the disaster areas in response to emergency needs. “Solar lighting like this is a truly simple technology, but it has proven to be extremely powerful.”
In Japan, there is a tendency to think that only technologies that use electricity or that are complicated to operate can be considered beneficial or on the “cutting edge.” In actuality, however, “low-tech” technologies can be even more beneficial (which is to say, useful) in these situations.
It turned out, however, that when the time to deal with disaster actually came, what was needed was something even simpler.“The reason that we at Kopernik were able to respond so immediately to those disasters is that the conditions at the time in the disaster areas where lifelines had been cut off were very much the same as conditions in poor villages in the developing world. Kopernik was able to respond without delay because of its familiarity with exactly these conditions,” Nakamura explains.

Kopernik also serves as a consultant to many of the large numbers of businesses that are interested in new markets in the developing world. The most important thing for them to understand in those situations is how completely different the environments in those places are from that of Japan. “We want to start by getting them to understand local needs. We really want them to challenge themselves to actually go to these places and see those needs first-hand.” In order to distribute technologies to these kinds of developing countries, Nakamura is trying to establish “technology stores.” “There are already small shops in rural parts of developing countries where daily items like shampoo are sold. By setting out samples from different companies in such shops, those businesses are gaining a more detailed understanding of local needs and using these shops as logistical bases,” he says.
“Alleviating poverty is very important, of course. Still, when the work to do so starts and ends with charity, the effects of that work are neither spread nor sustained. This type of experimentation leads to a greater understanding of the needs in the developing world generally. In other words, rather than just alleviating poverty, this kind of work leads to opportunities for the creation of new markets.”