MESSAGE
Kentaro Ichihara
I have stood many times on the side that commissions systems. What it taught me is this: no matter how much time you pour into requirements, you cannot stop the finished product from being "not what we imagined." And even after launch, you are chased by backward-looking fixes rather than forward-looking improvement. I went through this again and again.
Why can't it be prevented? Because requirements definition itself asks the impossible. You cannot capture the finished form fully in words. No perfect workflow exists, and even when you gather every stakeholder to map it out, gaps always remain. And — there is simply too much you cannot know until you run it.
So the answer is simple: run it first. Instead of deciding everything before building, build the working thing first — we turn the order of creation upside down.
I hand a working prototype to your team within a week. We dialogue through working software, not thick specs. As you touch it, we confirm together what is truly needed.
We don't wait for perfection. We release only what's needed, small, and grow it while it is used on the ground. So unused features — and backward-looking fixes — never pile up. The lead role always belongs to the people who use it.
"Wait — you can do that?" That one line from a client is what drives me more than anything. Trying new things is my life's work, and every time I do, I am left quietly astonished at how far it goes. That is exactly why I want to carry that astonishment — and the benefits the technology brings — to the local businesses that need it most. It is why I keep doing this work.
What makes this possible is the latest technology, AI above all. It cuts the hours a build takes to a disruptive degree, and we return that benefit to small and midsize companies in Kumamoto — as overwhelming speed and lower cost.
Kentaro Ichihara, CEO
Profile
Kentaro Ichihara, after completing graduate studies at Shinshu University, worked for 15 years at Panasonic as a battery manufacturing process engineer and SE. Following a posting at an automotive battery plant in Nevada, USA (Panasonic Energy of North America), he became independent. Now based in Kumamoto, he supports a wide range of work, from advanced R&D to business automation and software development for SMEs.
Career
2010 – 2017
Learning the soul of manufacturing
As a battery-process engineer at Panasonic, worked on equipment control and new plant launches. Earned the First-Class Electric Equipment Assembly certification and QC Level 2, absorbing the spirit of Japanese manufacturing.
2017 – 2022
Taking on the world
At a joint plant with a North American EV maker (Nevada), led inspection-process engineering — driving new line launches and production stabilization with diverse teams for five years.
2025 – present
Back to the ground
Driven by "the right technology, for the people who need it, at a fair price," became independent in 2025 and founded Nexa Engineering — as a company's dedicated engineer, delivering systems that take root on the ground through user-first development that starts from a working prototype.