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• Take Kurosawa and Joey Stockermans launched a website to help foreigners find homes in Japan.
• They’ve bought six homes themselves all over the country.
• Home-flipping and Airbnb aren’t huge money-makers in Japan, but profit wasn’t their main goal.

This as-told-to essay is based on conversations with Take Kurosawa, 35, and Joey Stockermans, 37, two North Americans who started AkiyaMart, a website designed to help foreigners buy homes in Japan. Since launching in 2023, the site has evolved to not only display listings but also facilitate home purchases. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

Take Kurosawa: Our original plan was to make a website to help people search for homes in Japan. But people would start messaging us like, “Hey, I want to buy this property.” We were just like, “We don’t know how to do that.”

So we kind of just started faking it until we made it, to some degree, and putting the pieces together. We realized that we can do this and we understand what the customers want — we understand the friction points in Japan, having gone through the process ourselves so many times.

Joey Stockermans: Now, Take and I — out of the foreigners — are probably in the top 0.1% of people who understand the Japanese real estate process in the English-speaking world.

We know this process almost inside and out at this point. We’ve seen so many deals, and not only seen so many deals, but seen so many complications. And every time there’s a complication, you dig in, and you learn more about the real estate laws in Japan. You learn more about how the process works.

It’s been a lot of work, but I think very rewarding in the sense that we feel very comfortable with the real estate process now.

Kurosawa: About 20% of the people we help are trying to permanently move to Japan because they want to get out of either the US or Europe. Another 50% are looking for vacation homes, and then 30% are looking for investment properties.

We’ve bought more properties in Japan, but our goal isn’t solely to make money

Kurosawa: There was a point in time when we were considering trying to use the properties we own in Japan to make money, but we don’t have any Airbnb licenses yet on any of them.

Stockermans: We’ve only let friends and family stay at our properties before, and we don’t charge them anything. Our focus has really become the website, and that’s where we’re putting our energy.

The properties we own in Japan are really to supplement that, and to market the website — almost like marketing material, where we record our adventure.

Kurosawa: We’ve bought a total of six properties all over Japan. Our goal is to try out the different asset classes: We’ve done short-term rentals, mid-term rentals, long-term rentals. We’re trying to do a land demo, new build. We’ve flipped a property. So it’s just organically happened.

We have our first property, which is in Beppu. We bought one in Tama, which is in Tokyo. That was our most expensive one, around $114,000.

Next, we have Kitakyushu, which we bought for $3,500 and we’re renting it out long term. We’re making about 20% returns on it, which is crazy because we only paid so much for it.

Next, we bought this spot in Myoko, Niigata. Myoko’s really hot right now. It’s probably going to be the next Niseko — it’s like the snow capital. We also bought this for $3,500. We are going to demolish this building and put some tiny homes on it.

Then we bought this property in Nagasaki for $6,500, and we flipped it for $20,000 to a nice couple in California who moved out there with their kids.

Lastly, we bought another property in snow country up in a city called Otaru. We bought this for about $36,000. We’re going to try to flip this. We’re renovating it, getting an Airbnb license, and trying to sell it.

Stockermans: I was very new to purchasing property anywhere in the world — the Beppu house was my first home.

I think we made $4,000 profit on the Nagasaki flip. It was more of an experiment, honestly. The amount of work that we put into it was not worth our time and effort, but we were curious about the selling: how selling works in Japan, whether you can make money off of flips, and if we could leverage our website to help connect buyers and sellers here.

Kurosawa: When we opened up the Nagasaki home for sale on our site, we got 120 applicants within three days.

We didn’t want to come in and be those American bastards who buy and flip and ruin a small town. So we were pretty conscious of who we let into the community. The previous family lived there for 200 years or something like that. So we wanted to be really careful not to just let a random person who’s never been to Japan come here.

Stockermans: A lot of the effort outside of all the logistics of selling the property was vetting those 120 people. This specific town is mostly older retirees. If you put the wrong person in that situation, one, you might be setting that person up for failure themselves, but also, is the community really going to welcome that type of person?

Kurosawa: Obviously, we are developing the business, but I think we have not really indexed on making a ton of money off these properties. We’ve been taking our time with renovations, but it’s been less about making money off these properties and more about spending time in Japan.

We’re exploring more of Japan, and there are still more business opportunities for us

Stockermans: I would say mission accomplished in the sense that we’re spending a lot more time in Japan than I thought we would, and it’s getting more interesting.

Kurosawa: It’s been such a fun journey building this business. I think as we look at these new properties, we’ll start exploring areas in Japan that none of my friends in Japan have ever been.

Kurosawa: We’re starting to help bridge Japanese connections with foreigners. I think the deeper we dive into the tech game, we quickly realized a lot of these Japanese websites — and a lot of Japanese realtors — have no idea how to interact with foreigners. And also, a lot of these owners don’t know how to sell to foreigners.

More people are now coming to us to be like, “Hey, we need your help. We want to sell to foreigners because locals aren’t going to buy this property.”

So we’re uncovering more adventures. I think the big theme is how can we connect Japan to these foreigners, because there’s obviously a lot of friction — and a lot of opportunity, in my mind.

The deeper we go, the more opportunities and things we can build.

• I’ve been estranged from my mom for several years.
• Looking back, I can see how my childhood is shaping the way I’m raising my sons.
• I’m working hard to support their emotions and foster a healthy bond with both of them.

When I tell people that I’m estranged from my mom, I’m nearly always met with an apology. My reply is always to assure them it’s OK, because ultimately, it is OK.

Going no contact with my mom six years ago was a difficult decision to make, but it has had an incredible impact on the way I show up as a parent to my sons, now 8 and 10.

Ultimately, I believe the decision to take a step back from my relationship with my mom has made me a better mother.

My childhood still influences me

On the surface, my own childhood certainly looked idyllic. My dad worked, and my mom stayed home. I did well in school. I was involved. If I expressed interest in an activity, my mom signed me up. She schlepped me around town, to games and competitions, to art classes and orchestra practices. I stood out academically; my report cards always read “a pleasure to have in class.” I was a rule follower by nature, seemingly clinging to the order and structure that school offered me.

At home, I remember raised voices and arguments being the norm. I often busied myself with schoolwork and activities to avoid the chaos of home. It was a win-win. The adults in my life could point to my accomplishments as a sign of their success, and I could stay occupied in spaces that offered structure, praise for my efforts, and refuge from the discomfort that I remember feeling at home.

I want my kids to have a different type of childhood

Now that I’m a mother, I find myself looking back on childhood memories, discovering them colored by a new understanding of the dynamics that had played out. I can see a little girl so overwhelmed and flooded with feelings that she couldn’t make sense of them.

While I can now empathize a bit with my mother, who dealt with some extenuating circumstances that would be difficult for anyone to navigate, I also recognize that it was probably not the best environment for me to be in as a little girl.

I’m carving my own path

I now have a deeply feeling kid of my own, and boy, can we rile one another up. He quickly escalates when things aren’t perfect, the tears and yelling so deeply familiar. I see myself in him, but it also feels different now. I know I can stop the cycle.

I remember feeling such big feelings in such a small body as a child. Just like my son, the sobs came readily for me, too. Any frustration, any struggle, and it would rise in my chest, spilling out despite my best efforts. There wasn’t anyone to guide me through making sense of it, but it doesn’t need to be that way for my boys. I listen to them and support them.

What I learned in unpacking my own past is that the cycle of rupture and repair doesn’t have to continue. Distancing myself from my mother has made a new way of approaching life and motherhood a possibility. My job is to model regulation and support my sons, even when their feelings and struggles are hard.

While I no longer resent my mom, I do wish she had done the work to save me from the burden I carried for so long. I hope that eventually my sons can look back and appreciate the work I’m putting in every day to make sure we have a long, healthy relationship that has us enjoying each other’s company for many years.

• Kevin O’Leary follows Steve Jobs’ daily “signal and noise” goal-setting technique.
• O’Leary prioritizes three main tasks each day.
• “I don’t let anything get in the way until those three things are done,” he told Business Insider.

“Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary has learned many things from the CEOs and world leaders he rubs shoulders with, but one of his most important daily rituals comes from an iconic innovator: Steve Jobs.

O’Leary told Business Insider that a goal technique he uses every day came straight from studying the Apple founder. He picked it up after working alongside Jobs in the mid-1990s, when O’Leary’s educational software company The Learning Company was working with Apple to get the Mac computer into schools.

“He believed that you needed to do three things, and you had to get them done every day,” O’Leary said of Jobs.

“You need a ratio of at least 70% signal, which are the three things, and the 30% can be noise — whatever is going to stop you from getting the three things done,” he continued. “So I pick three things I want to get done that day, and I don’t let anything get in the way until those three things are done.”

O’Leary said one of the three things he has to do every day is exercise. He usually wakes up at 5 a.m. and works out for over an hour, usually biking about 12 miles.

“I have to do that; otherwise, bad things happen,” he said.

On the noise side, part of the 30% that gets in O’Leary’s way is his overflowing inbox. It’s become such a distraction that he’s stopped trying to keep up with email.

“I don’t do emails anymore because I get anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 a day,” O’Leary said. “I’ve tried every system to take the crap out, but over the years, my email address has gotten out there, and so it’s just a constant stream of noise and garbage. As we speak, I see the emails just pouring in. I’m never going to get to them, so I don’t try.”

The “Marty Supreme” star says in his line of work, it’s best to focus on what he really wants to accomplish and block out all the noise.

“In entrepreneurship, and certainly in what I do today as an investor, there is no holiday, there’s no workday — that doesn’t exist,” O’Leary said. “It’s what you want to do with your time.”

• Toys R Us opened pop-up stores at some US malls this holiday season.
• The retailer has been the subject of multiple revival efforts since it ended operations in 2018.
• Here’s a look at the history of Toys R Us, from its founding to zombie-brand status.

Toys R Us is back — again.

The latest phase of the toy store chain’s comeback came this holiday season as Toys R Us stores popped up at a handful of malls around the US. The temporary stores are part of a broader revitalization opportunity by brand management company WHP and Go! Retail Group.

It’s the latest example of how the once-dominant chain is trying to make a comeback.

Toys R Us used to operate around 700 stores in the US. Then, after years of faltering financial results, the chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy before deciding to liquidate and close its operations in 2018.

Since then, there have been multiple efforts to revive the brand, including opening locations within Macy’s department stores and teaming up with Amazon.

Here’s a closer look at the history of the historic toy company, from its founding just after World War 2 to the revival attempt.

Toys R Us was founded in 1948 by Charles Lazarus after he returned from World War II.

Lazarus was inspired by what was then the emerging post-war “baby boom” and sought a way to capitalize.

The company started as a baby goods and furniture store called Children’s Bargain Town in Washington, D.C.

In the subsequent years, Lazarus began expanding into toys and the company officially adopted the name Toys R Us in 1957.

Over the next two decades, Toys R Us played a significant role in putting iconic toys on the map for American youngsters, such as Mr. Potato Head.

Lazarus was able to corner the market by buying and selling so many toys that he could negotiate more lucrative contracts than his competitors.

The company was also known for bringing big names in for promotional events or philanthropic work, such as NBA Hall of Famer Magic Johnson.

Kids and their parents would line up for hours to meet their favorite stars — and do a little shopping while they were there.

In 1966, Lazarus sold the company to Interstate Sales to help finance a larger national expansion.

According to Encyclopedia.com, he transitioned from chief executive to head the Toys R Us division, which was already thriving at profits of $12 million.

In 1969, Toys R Us developed its beloved Geoffrey the Giraffe character.

The mascot became synonymous with the brand and its advertising campaigns over the decades.

In 1974, parent company Interstate Sales filed for bankruptcy.

Lazarus handled the restructuring process, according to USA Today.

Lazarus sold off struggling pieces of the business and got the company back on track.

In 1978, it was able to file its initial public offering.

In 1983, the company opened a clothing store spinoff called Kids R Us.

The Toys R Us empire was steadily expanding.

Lazarus eventually stepped down as chief executive in 1994.

The move signified a series of woes for the brand, including high executive turnover and the looming pressure of ecommerce.

Building upon the success of Kids R Us, the company expanded into baby clothing with Babies R Us in 1996.

The stores saw success with selling baby-related merchandise.

In the 1990s and early aughts, Toys R Us began expanding into major cities like New York.

In the Big Apple, Toys R Us opened its iconic multi-story store with a fully functioning Ferris wheel in 2001.

Around this time, Toys R Us and its spinoff brands began to experience mounting competition from fellow big-box stores like Walmart and Target.

In fact, according to The Associated Press, in 1998, Walmart had already surpassed the company as the top US toy seller.

The mounting competition led to the eventual closure of Kids R Us.

All 146 Kids R Us stores were closed in 2003.

In 2005, a conglomerate of private equity firms — including Bain Capital, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, and Vornado Realty Trust — purchased Toys R Us for $6.6 billion, taking the company private in the process.

According to USA Today, the plan was to boost Toys R Us sales and position the company for a stock offering that would allow investors to cash out.

In an attempt to compete with the ecommerce boom, the company purchased Etoys.com and Toys.com in 2009.

That same year, it bought KB Toys and the famed New York City toy store, F.A.O. Schwarz.

In 2010 the company registered once again to go public.

However, by 2013 it withdrew from the process due to sales slumps, according to USA Today.

In 2015, Dave Brandon – formerly the CEO of Domino’s Pizza — took over the helm of Toys R Us.

According to USA Today, Brandon marked the fourth CEO over the course of 16 years “tasked with turning the company around.”

Still, the company continued to struggle, especially during the 2016 holiday season.

According to Business Insider, the chain lost significant traction to ecommerce giants like Amazon, Target, and Walmart.

The company officially filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2017.

The chain hoped to gain control of its debt and continue to operate its 1,600 stores around the world as normal, according to the Washington Post.

With its hopes for a financial savior ultimately dashed, Toys R Us announced in March 2018 that it would liquidate and permanently close all of its 700-plus stores across the US.

According to Business Insider, the decision threatened the jobs of the 33,000 people employed by Toys R Us at the time.

That same year, the company issued an emotional goodbye as it prepared to permanently shutter its Toys R Us and Babies R Us websites.

“We encourage you to stop by your local store and take full advantage of the deep discounts and deals available,” the message read. “Thank you for your business and support over the years.”

It was later announced that gift-card holders could use any remaining funds at Bed Bath & Beyond stores, according to Business Insider.

The CEO of the toy company MGA Entertainment issued a last-minute bid of $890 million to save the company.

However, the offer was ultimately rejected by Toys R Us.

Throughout the rest of 2018, stores like Walmart began to position themselves to take over the void left behind in the market by Toys R Us.

The chain strategized to overtake Toys R Us’s legacy by adding mass amounts of baby-related products to its inventory.

By the fall of 2018, abandoned Toys R Us stores had been temporarily converted into Halloween costume shops across the country.

According to Business Insider, Halloween costume retailers Spirit Halloween and Halloween City set up shop in the abandoned stores but kept most of the remaining Toys R Us signage and wallpaper.

In February 2019, Toys R Us appeared to rise from the dead when Tru Kids Brands purchased the rights to the company.

Tru Kids Brands also purchased the rights to the Geoffrey the Giraffe mascot with plans to revitalize it.

Later that year, Tru Kids Brands announced it would open a series of holiday pop-up stores under the Toys R Us name.

The stores would sell popular toys directly from manufacturers, meaning that any sales would directly go to the toy companies rather than Toys R Us.

Read more: Toys R Us is officially back from the dead, but its new stores won’t actually make any money selling toys

In October 2019, the company announced it was back online but with a catch — you couldn’t actually buy anything directly from the Toys R Us site.

Instead, users would be directed to make purchases from Target’s website.

In fall 2019, empty Toys R Us stores were once again used for Halloween purposes — this time to host haunted houses.

The haunted houses were a far cry from the joy-filled Toys R Us stores of the 1990s.

In August 2020, it was confirmed that Toys R Us had ended its partnership with Target.

Toys R Us would now partner with Amazon as its fulfillment partner, according to Business Insider.

The coronavirus pandemic decimated in-store sales for many retailers, including Toys R Us.

CNBC reported in January 2021 that the retailer was facing hardships due to dwindling in-store sales amid the coronavirus pandemic. As a result, the chain’s last two remaining stores in the US officially shuttered for good, bringing an end to a years-long ordeal to attempt to revitalize the brand.

The final stores were in Texas and New Jersey, Bloomberg reported.

“Consumer demand in the toy category and for Toys ‘R’ Us remains strong and we will continue to invest in the channels where the customer wants to experience our brand,” a Tru Kids spokesperson told CNBC.

Read more: The last 2 Toys ‘R’ Us stores in the US have closed down after the COVID-19 pandemic hit sales

In 2022, Toys R Us announced it was making yet another comeback, by opening in-store shops at Macy’s around the country.

The Toys R Us in-store locations opened in time for the holiday season that year.

In 2025, Toys R Us opened pop-up shops in time for holiday shoppers.

The stores, operated by Go! Retail Group, include eight flagship locations and 20 seasonal pop-ups around the US.

The stores are different from the original Toy R Us locations.

Although the pop-ups use the Toys R Us name and slogans, they also feature a different product selection compared to the Toys R Us stores of years past, Business Insider found during a recent visit to one store in Maryland. The store included a wide selection of calendars, for example.

While Toys R Us technically still exists, the brand is a shadow of what it once was.

While some shoppers were able to check out the brand’s pop-up stores, the chain has far fewer locations than it did a decade ago.

• Market veteran Peter Brandt has urged those who’ve profited from silver’s rally to be careful.
• The trading guru said that price peaks rarely last and assets can give up all of their gains.
• Silver, gold, and other metals have soared this year, partly because investors use them as hedges.

A Wall Street veteran warned jubilant silver traders to be careful after a searing rally in the precious metal’s price — days before it went into reverse.

Writing on X over the weekend, Peter Brandt congratulated those who’ve won big by betting on silver and platinum in recent months, but cautioned the market could quickly turn on them.

“Being right is fun,” he wrote. “But know this — moves can far exceed anything expected. And tops come quickly when they come. And retracements are almost always full.”

Early on Monday, the market did indeed turn. Silver breached $80 an ounce for the first time before falling to around $70 by the market’s close. They rebounded 10% to around $78 on Tuesday. Silver futures have surged by over 150% this year.

Monday’s plunge followed a decision by exchange operator CME to raise margin requirements for trading various metals contracts, which forced traders to stump up more cash to place their bets.

Brandt, who’s been trading commodities for nearly 50 years and has more than 840,000 followers on X, also struck a wary tone in a Monday afternoon post on X following silver’s drop.

He wrote that in virtually every market cycle, even the “stubborn bulls” who’ve sworn they’ll never sell inevitably reach a point where they “no longer care if price goes to zero or a million, they have had enough pain and they want out.”

Brandt said he’s “not sure” the silver market is there yet. “Time will tell,” he added.

Investors pile into precious metals

Silver, gold, and other precious metals have soared to new highs this year as falling interest rates have boosted their appeal relative to cash and bonds.

Some traders have bought silver to gain exposure to the AI boom, as the metal is a key component in AI infrastructure, such as microchips and data centers. Because it conducts electricity well, it’s used in circuit boards, switches, EVs, and batteries, which is also driving demand for the metal right now.

Investors have also piled into precious metals as hedges against geopolitical and fiscal uncertainty, which threatens to weaken currencies such as the dollar and weigh on other assets such as stocks.

In a separate post late Monday on X, Brandt defended his cautious attitude toward the silver rally, noting that he has been trading silver since it was priced below $4 an ounce in the 1970s and has traded as much as 200,000 ounces in a single order.

“Yet, I am jealous because there is an entire generation of Z babies trading on Silver on laptops from their mommy’s basements that know everything there is to know about Silver,” he posted, followed by a succession of laughing-while-crying emojis.

Brandt also dismissed the idea that silver’s price boom reflects a structural imbalance between supply and demand that will forestall any price decline.

“It has never been different,” he wrote. “Never will be. So enjoy it now.”

“This price action has NOTHING to do with supply shortages,” he wrote in another post. “This now is a game of money.”

• OpenAI alum Andrej Karpathy wrote on X that he’s struggling to take full advantage of new programming tools.
• Karpathy, who coined the term “vibe coding,” wrote that he’s never felt this behind as a programmer.
• He wrote that it feels like a “powerful alien tool” was handed around with no manual.

Andrej Karpathy has long been ahead.

He was ahead of the AI boom, having worked as a founding member of OpenAI in 2015, long before competitors like Anthropic and xAI emerged. He also got into self-driving vehicles early, steering Tesla’s autopilot effort as its head of AI.

Now, he says, “I’ve never felt this much behind as a programmer.”

In an X post on Friday, Karpathy wrote that the industry was being “dramatically refactored,” as individual programmers contribute fewer and fewer lines of code.

“I have a sense that I could be 10X more powerful if I just properly string together what has become available over the last ~year,” he wrote. “A failure to claim the boost feels decidedly like skill issue.”

AI has radically transformed the software engineering industry, introducing code editors like Cursor, Claude Code, and Codex, along with a slew of agentic software development tools. Business Insider’s Amanda Hoover called 2025 “the year coding changed forever.”

Karpathy was a key player in the change. In February, he coined the term “vibe coding.” To vibe code, one prompts AI to generate lines of code. (It gets its name because developers “fully give in to the vibes,” Karpathy wrote in his original post.) The Collins Dictionary named it the word of the year.

Still, Karpathy wrote that it’s like a “powerful alien tool” was handed out without a manual.

“Everyone has to figure out how to hold it and operate it, while the resulting magnitude 9 earthquake is rocking the profession,” he wrote.

In the comments, another one of the biggest names in vibe-coding agreed. Boris Cherny created Claude Code for Anthropic, now one of the most popular AI tools among developers.

Cherny wrote that he felt that way “most weeks,” and that he sometimes finds himself approaching a problem manually, not yet realizing AI can do it faster.

New graduates and early career coders may fare best in this new environment, Cherny wrote, because they don’t assume what AI can and cannot do.

“It takes significant mental work to re-adjust to what the model can do every month or two, as models continue to become better and better at coding and engineering,” he wrote.

Responding to Cherny, Karpathy wrote that he had similar experiences. He analogized the new tools to a weapon, one that sometimes “shoots pellets” or “misfires” — highlighting the work-in-progress nature of AI.

Other times, though, the tools work wonders.

“Once in a while when you hold it just right a powerful beam of laser erupts and melts your problem,” he wrote.

Tell us how you have been impacted by vibe-coding below: