Hello, this is Matsubara, CRM Evangelist.

People are often surprised, but I used to be homeless.

I lost my parents soon after graduating from high school, and I had nowhere to go.
It was a state that we would now call "social isolation."
I had no money, no job, and no one to rely on. That's where I started.

In 2001, at the age of 19, my first job was as a systems engineer.
The reason I chose IT is because I felt that "if you have the skills, your background doesn't matter."
Even without a formal education or a network of connections, if you have the skills to write code, you'll be valued. That intuition was correct.
Within a year of joining the company, I was appointed as a top web engineer (architect).

That experience shaped my life's beliefs.

"Don't be constrained by your circumstances; forge your own potential."

I could never have imagined at the time that this belief would later connect to the philosophy of CRM 4.0.

My encounter with CRM—my discomfort with the phrase "managing customer relationships"

In 2003, I moved to Accenture Technology Solutions (now Accenture) as a founding member.
Throughout my involvement in core system and CRM implementation projects for large corporations, I've always felt a sense of unease.

I feel uncomfortable with the term "Customer Relationship Management (CRM)."

The word "management" was bothering me.
The basis of CRM is a marketing method called "relationship marketing," which approaches customer insights (the deep-seated psychology of customers).
Customers are not "objects to be managed."
Customers are human beings.
It has emotions, values, and a life context.
I had an undeniable unease about applying the concept of "management" to that person.

But at the time, I couldn't put it into clear words.

The Microsoft Era: Advocating CRM 2.0 and Receiving Worldwide Awards

I moved to the United States in 2006 and deepened my knowledge of CRM at a US-based software company.
The following year, in 2007, I was approached by Microsoft Japan and participated in the establishment of their business unit as the product manager for Dynamics CRM.

During this period, I proposed the concept of CRM 2.0.

If CRM 1.0 was a "system for recording and managing customer information," then CRM 2.0 represented a shift in thinking: "designing customer relationships as a platform."
xRM (Anything Relationship Management) is a concept that involves "managing not only customers, but all kinds of relationships."

This proposal was recognized by Worldwide (WW).
I had the feeling that "my ideas had finally reached the world."
In fact, the fundamental concepts of the current marketing (CRM) world are based on CRM 2.0.

However, the feeling of unease I had had had had a long time had not disappeared.
In fact, it had grown larger. Even with CRM 2.0, we still haven't been able to break free from the "management" mindset.
It's good to "design" relationships.
But how can a system handle things that cannot be quantified, such as customers' emotions, values, and subconscious thoughts?
This question wouldn't leave my mind.

Independence—the conviction that "there is a CRM that only I can create."

In 2012, I spun out of Microsoft and established my own CRM team.

Why did he leave his position at a major corporation?

I was convinced that "as long as I was within an organization, I couldn't create the CRM I truly wanted to create."
Large corporations have their own logic.
"Making products that sell" and "responding to existing markets"—those are correct approaches.
But what I wanted to create was "a true CRM that no one has defined yet."

"CRM that resonates with customer emotions," "CRM that fosters co-creation rather than management"—to turn these concepts into a product, I had no choice but to build it from scratch myself.

In 2015, we established the CRM Business Division at Artisan Co., Ltd., and in 2020, we spun it off and established Arcus Japan Co., Ltd.

The meaning of the name Arcus Japan

The name "Arcuss" is a made-up word.

"AR"tists for "CU"stomer "S"ucce"S — "A group of artisans dedicated to customer success"

Why a "group of craftsmen" rather than a "group of experts"? Experts are "people who possess knowledge," but craftsmen are "people who can create." There are people all over the world who can talk about CRM, but there are few who can "continue to create" CRM that truly works in the customer's field. We want to be the latter.

This name has another meaning: "A group of experts from Japan delivering customer success globally"—our mission is to transform Japan's hospitality culture into technology and share it with the world.

Encountering the word "omotenashi" (Japanese hospitality)—the philosophical foundation of CRM 4.0

Since becoming independent, I have spent a long time continuously outlining the concepts of CRM3.0 and then CRM4.0, the ultimate form of CRM.

I noticed something during that process.
What I mean by "co-creation, not management," and what I mean by "resonating with the customer's emotions, values, and deep-seated psychology"—all of this can be summarized in a single word in Japanese.

"Hospitality"

There are two possible origins for the word "omotenashi" (hospitality).
"Having no hidden agenda" - interacting with others with genuine sincerity and without any ulterior motives.
And "achieving things with things"—moving people's hearts through tools (technology).

Combining these two elements, the definition becomes "reaching the other person's heart through both technology (things) and sincerity (honesty)."
This is the very design philosophy behind CRM4.0.

The source of my long-standing unease with management was the fact that CRM failed to embody the philosophy of "omotenashi" (hospitality), which is fundamental to Japanese culture.

CRM is not an external system; it's a modern technological implementation of Japan's hospitality culture.

The reason EMOROCO CRM Lite was created: "CRM 4.0 being only for large corporations is wrong."

Throughout the development of the CRM 4.0 concept, I kept one question in mind.

"Should CRM 4.0 only be for large corporations?"

99.7% of companies in Japan are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The majority of customer experiences in Japan are created through interactions with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
Local tax accounting firms, neighborhood construction companies, local insurance agencies, long-time real estate agents—these small and medium-sized businesses are the places that most vividly embody Japan's culture of hospitality.

However, enterprise CRM is too expensive for small and medium-sized businesses.
It requires specialized knowledge for setup and operation, making it unsuitable for small companies.
Even if we continue to create "CRM 4.0 for large corporations," the customer experience in Japan will not change for the most people.

This is why we created EMOROCO CRM Lite.

Bringing enterprise-level design principles to small and medium-sized businesses at a price and in a form they can afford.
¥1,500 per user per month, zero initial costs, no-code design—these specifications don't mean we've created a "cheaper version."
This is the result of designing it to be optimized for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Emotional temperature, narrative memos, GIS maps, and the philosophy of CRM 4.0—these are features we developed ourselves that are not even found in enterprise CRMs.

The answer to "Why do we keep making it?"

I'm often asked, "Why have you been able to stick with CRM for so long?"
There is only one answer.

"CRM is still incomplete."

CRM originated in the 1990s, became widespread in the 2000s, and became more sophisticated in the 2010s.
However, "empathizing with customer emotions," "maintaining relationships even when the person in charge changes," and "turning the organization's tacit knowledge into an asset"—no CRM system has yet fully achieved these things.

The experience I had when I was homeless—the realization that "isolated people can create their own possibilities"—still resonates within me today.
The same applies from the customer's perspective. Customers are not beings to be managed, but rather beings who are striving to unlock their own potential.

I believe that when CRM becomes a system that "supports a person's self-realization," I will finally be able to answer the question of why I continued to create it.

The answer hasn't been found yet.
That's why EMOROCO CRM Lite continues to evolve every day.

The future that Arcus Japan aims for

Since spinning out from Microsoft in 2012, we have implemented CRM for thousands of clients domestically and internationally, created specialized designs for more than 20 industries, and incorporated concepts such as AI, GIS, emotional temperature, and narrative into our CRM.

But this is still just the beginning of the journey.

My goal is to support Japanese small and medium-sized enterprises in becoming the most customer-favorite organizations in the world, using CRM as an infrastructure.
Our goal is to transform Japan's cultural heritage of hospitality into technology, and to turn every customer touchpoint, from a single tax accountant's office to a single construction company, into a place for nurturing relationships.

I will continue building CRM until that day comes.

[About EMOROCO CRM Lite] You can experience Matsubara's vision of "hospitality-focused CRM" for free for 30 days starting today.

Digitalization and AI Implementation Subsidy 2026 Compatible Tool Number: DL07-0022934
Product Info:https://www.emoroco.com/

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