References
Books and sources used in this course. Reading them is not required; they are here as an entry point if you want to go further. You do not have to buy the books — the ISBN is given so you can look for them in a library.
Building a business
ビジネスモデル・ジェネレーション ビジネスモデル設計書
The nine blocks in Session 2 come from this book. Available in Japanese.
Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers
The original of the Japanese edition above. The block definitions come from here.
Value Proposition Design
A book about designing the value proposition itself, 320 pages. The idea that a blank block is something to investigate was developed in this line of books.
Customer Development / Customer Discovery（steveblank.com の記事群）
The source of "there are no facts inside the building." Written by Blank himself.
Using business model tools in entrepreneurial start-ups: insights and inconsistencies
Used in Session 2. Founders report that the canvas can make them feel every question is answered. The course text paraphrases; it does not quote.
政府統計の総合窓口（e-Stat）
The entry point for Session 4. National statistics live here, and some tables go down to the municipality.
統計こおりやま（住民基本台帳人口）
Used in Session 4. Population by district in five-year age bands, as spreadsheets.
「新品は高い」「選択肢が増えた」ユニクロ古着販売を拡大 右肩上がりのリユース市場 魅力は経済性・希少性 企業参入も
Used in Session 4. A worked example of how a market-size figure shifts with the year and the source. Actual figures and a forecast are spoken in one stretch, which is the point. 4:21.
ビジネスモデル2.0図鑑
One hundred business models, each drawn on a single spread. Extends Session 2.
リーン・スタートアップ ムダのない起業プロセスでイノベーションを生みだす
The thinking behind this course's method: test before you build, rebuild when you are wrong. 406 pages.
起業の科学 スタートアップサイエンス
Essentially a longer version of this course, from problem validation through fundraising. 280 pages.
ストーリーとしての競争戦略 優れた戦略の条件
544 pages, but plainly written and mostly about Japanese companies. Useful when shaping the Session 14 pitch.
イシューからはじめよ［改訂版］ 知的生産の「シンプルな本質」
Session 4 narrows down who to count; Session 9 ranks which numbers matter. Both are about choosing what to solve first, which is this book's subject. 272 pages.
ゼロ・トゥ・ワン 君はゼロから何を生み出せるか
This book disagrees with the course. In Session 6 you went and looked at rivals, then put the difference into words; this book says to look for a place where you need not compete at all. The course does not settle which is right — read it, then decide for your own plan.
経営戦略全史
A century of strategy thinking in one 432-page book. A map, if you go on to study management.
Marketing
The Inmates Are Running the Asylum
A book about why hard-to-use products get built, and personas appear inside it. Personas come from this book. It is a separate tool from the nine blocks.
Principles of Marketing (3rd ed.)
The four ways of dividing customers in Session 2 (geographic, demographic, psychographic, behavioural) come from a table in this textbook. It covers all of marketing; segmentation is one part of it.
コトラー, アームストロング, バラスブラマニアン, 恩藏のマーケティング原理
A Japanese edition rewritten for Japanese readers from the current (19th, 2024) edition of the textbook above. Not a straight translation.
The Mom Test: How to Talk to Customers & Learn if Your Business is a Good Idea When Everyone is Lying to You
Session 3's rules — do not pitch your idea, ask about the past — come from this book.
Leading Questions Can Skew Your Research Results
A short article on how leading questions skew answers. An easy length to read.
How Many Test Users in a Usability Study?
The source of the "five users" rule. It is about observing use, not about how many people to interview.
Creating a screening survey for your experience research study
A guide from the Massachusetts Digital Service on writing screening questions for research participants. Session 3 cites it for asking about what people have actually done, not what they might do.
Question order
Pew Research Center's explanation of how question order affects answers. Session 3 cites it for the point that earlier questions change later answers.
マーケティングにペルソナは必要か/架空の人物像を設定するのは「意味がない」？/具体的な1人の顧客を徹底的に掘り下げる“N1分析”とは【西口さん、マーケティングって本当に必要ですか？#10】
Used in Session 3. What it rejects is the persona invented in a meeting room, not one built from real people. Personas began as a distillation of seven or eight interviews, and turned fictional when marketing adopted them in the 1990s. This course follows the same order: write one in Session 2, then go and meet real people in Session 3. 18:47.
顧客のインサイト(＝隠れた本音)を引き出すインタビュー方法/WHY(＝なぜ)を聞いてはダメ/”顧客ピラミッド”と”カスタマージャーニー”を学ぶ【西口さん、マーケティングって本当に必要ですか？#12】
Used in Session 3. It points the same way as the course on not asking "why". It covers whom to ask, what to ask, and in what order, using a customer pyramid and a customer journey. 21:20.
Accurately measuring willingness to pay for consumer goods: a meta-analysis of the hypothetical bias
The source of Session 3's "about 21% higher." A meta-analysis of 115 effect sizes from 77 studies in 47 papers. Open access.
ドリルを売るには穴を売れ 誰でも「売れる人」になるマーケティング入門
Half the book is a story about turning a failing restaurant around, covering value, targeting and pricing.
たった一人の分析から事業は成長する 実践 顧客起点マーケティング
Why one deep interview beats a broad survey, written from practice. 240 pages. What the author rejects is a persona not built from real people; the book and the Session 3 video say the same thing.
「TAG LIVE LABEL」オリジナルラベル缶＆ガシャポン®2商品を先行販売！ ※5/14更新
Used in Session 6. Oolong tea, ¥900 including tax — one of the few vending-machine can prices confirmed from a primary source.
【会場限定グッズ】その日、その場所だけの特別な1本「TAG LIVE！LABEL KBTオリジナルデザイン缶」販売のお知らせ
Used in Session 6. The same kind of can at ¥700 including tax — sold over the counter at the arena, not from a vending machine.
ジョブ理論 イノベーションを予測可能にする消費のメカニズム
A whole book on Session 6's point: people hire something to get a job done. 392 pages.
令和7年度 循環型ファッションの推進方策に関する調査業務 〜2025年版 衣類のマテリアルフロー〜
Used in Supplementary 2. One chart links what is made, discarded, collected and resold. The source itself notes it may not reflect 2025 as such.
令和6年度 リユース市場規模調査 報告書
Used in Supplementary 2. Shows how the state measures the second-hand market, and that the headline figure comes from a private tally.
リユース業界の市場規模推計2025（2024年版）
Used in Supplementary 2. The source of the 3.2628 trillion yen figure for 2024: a trade paper's own tally, not a government statistic.
Finance
2026年3月期 決算短信〔日本基準〕（連結）
Used in Session 1. Net sales and operating income come from here.
2026年3月期 決算短信〔IFRS〕（連結）
Used in Sessions 1 and 2. Revenue and growth by segment come from here.
2025年度 通期 決算説明会資料
Used in Session 1. Advertising revenue alone (¥578.9bn) is on p.9 of this deck, not in the earnings report.
2026年3月期 決算短信〔日本基準〕（非連結）
Used in Session 1 and Supplementary 3. Growth by business area is broken out here; the supplementary uses the scale rather than the growth rates.
2025年8月期 決算短信〔IFRS〕（連結）
The Uniqlo example in Session 2 draws its figures from here.
2025年3月期 決算短信〔日本基準〕（連結）
Used in Session 8. Ordinary profit is positive, yet an extraordinary loss turns the bottom line negative.
2024年12月期 決算短信〔IFRS〕（連結）
Used in Session 8. Consolidated and parent-only figures point in opposite directions.
2025年3月期 決算要旨〔IFRS〕（連結）
Used in Session 8. This is a results summary, not a tanshin. Revenue hit a record while operating profit fell.
2026年3月期 決算短信〔日本基準〕（連結）
Used in Session 8 to read profit step by step. Ordinary profit (542.1bn yen) is larger than operating profit (360.1bn yen) — the steps do not always go down.
新規開業・スタートアップ支援資金（国民生活事業）
Used in Session 11. The loan ceiling and repayment terms are stated directly on the page.
2025年度新規開業実態調査（アンケート結果の概要）
Lets you put your Session 10 estimate next to what people actually spent (mean 9.75m yen, median 6.00m yen), and is the source for Session 11's funding figures. The sample is firms the bank financed, not all new businesses.
【年間56万トンの衣類廃棄に挑む】大阪から始まるサステナブル革命！服を捨てる常識が変わる
Watch 3:10-6:24, about three minutes, inside the plant that sorts collected clothing. Collection, sorting and processing appear in sequence, which is what breaking work into tasks looks like in Session 10. It also states the yield: about one per cent can be resold as is. The full video runs 10:04.
経営者保証
Used in Session 11. It states, in the government's own words, what a personal guarantee means.
さおだけ屋はなぜ潰れないのか? 身近な疑問からはじめる会計学
A 232-page paperback that needs no bookkeeping background, leading into Session 8.
新版 財務3表一体理解法
Takes Session 8 further: how the three financial statements connect, in one paperback.
【一挙まとめ】アパレル業界の未来！ユニクロ古着ビジネスの舞台裏／「衣服ロス」在庫に新たな価値を／冷感・防臭・撥水など機能をもつ特殊な布「カバロス」
Watch 6:51-7:41, fifty seconds. Someone works out what to charge for a collected garment: washing and shipping cost money, so pricing it too low loses money. Those are the variable costs from Session 8, spoken aloud. The full 26:57 is three separate reports; this stretch is enough.
The Genesis of Double Entry Bookkeeping
Used in Supplementary 1. Double entry emerged in 13th-century Italy, chiefly to control credit. Also the source for the 1494 Pacioli citation.
Joint Stock Companies Act 1856, Table B
Used in Supplementary 1. The model articles attached to the 1856 Act: accounts at least once a year and an annual balance sheet. Optional for companies, not mandatory.
明治23年商法計算規定の制定の背景
Used in Supplementary 1. Source for the half-yearly closing required of joint-stock companies under the 1890 Commercial Code (a summary, not the text).
商法（明治32年法律第48号）
Used in Supplementary 1. Article 26 requires an inventory and balance sheet once every year at a fixed time.
会社計算規則（平成18年法務省令第13号）
Used in Supplementary 1. Article 59(2): the period for the financial statements may not exceed one year.
Organization
会社法（平成十七年法律第八十六号）
The text of the Companies Act articles cited in Sessions 11–13. It is free to read online.
THE TEAM 5つの法則
Extends Session 13, splitting teamwork into aim, boarding, communication, decision and engagement.
平成30年版 子供・若者白書（特集 就労等に関する若者の意識）
Used in Supplementary 4. A 2017 survey of 10,000 people aged 16–29 on why they work (up to two answers); earning an income was by far the most common (84.6%). The link is the National Diet Library's archived copy.
精選版 日本国語大辞典「働く」
Used in Supplementary 4. The entry's note on how 'hataraku' originally meant moving the body and later came to mean labour, and the sense of working for others (example from 1711).
労働基準法（第9条・第32条・第37条）
Used in Supplementary 4. Part-timers count as workers (Art. 9), the 8-hour day and 40-hour week (Art. 32), and premium pay for extended hours (Art. 37).
総合労働相談コーナーのご案内
Used in Supplementary 4. Where to ask for help with workplace problems; students and job seekers can consult free, without an appointment.
『働くこと』と『労働法』～大学・短大・高専・専門学校生等に教えるための手引き～
Introduced in Supplementary 4. A guide for teaching working rules and labour law to students.
Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation
Used in Supplementary 3. The 2019 statement itself, with all 181 signatures at the end.
ビジネスラウンドテーブルと「企業の目的に関する声明」について意見交換（経団連タイムス No.3434）
Used in Supplementary 3. A record of hearing the explanation directly from the body that issued the statement.
「株主第一主義」と「ステークホルダー資本主義」―経済及び会社経営の在り方に関する議論の動向―（調査資料 2022-3『格差、分配、経済成長』所収、pp.61-79）
Used in Supplementary 3. Figure 1 tracks dividends, retained earnings and employee pay from fiscal 1990, drawn from MOF statistics.
CEO compensation has grown 940% since 1978
Used in Supplementary 3. Growth in chief-executive pay against typical worker pay, 1978 to 2018, from a private US research institute.
The Formative Years of the Modern Corporation: The Dutch East India Company VOC, 1602–1623
Used in Supplementary 1. How the VOC moved from voyage-by-voyage funding to a permanent company, and its first dividend in 1610. Working-paper version; published in the Journal of Economic History 73(4), 2013.
The Organization of the VOC（Introduction to the Archives of the VOC, inventory 1.04.02）
Used in Supplementary 1. The archive's own guide to the VOC records: long-delayed dividends, and general accounts first due after 1622, every four years from 1647.
Octrooi van de VOC（オランダ東インド会社の特許状、1602年）
Used in Supplementary 1. A transcription of the 1602 charter; Article 7 sets a general account every ten years.