Takamasa Suchi: Urban Development through Self-Propelled Ropeways

2023/01/26

Since I have loved "vehicles" and "space" since I was a child, I entered Keio University because it had a space elevator club and participated in SPEC (Space Elevator Challenge, where universities compete with machines that climb ropes vertically). On the other hand, feeling somewhat unfulfilled, I initially founded this company in 2018 as a contract developer for zipline hardware.

Through several development projects, I felt that realizing space elevator development would take a tremendous amount of time. With the desire to implement that vertical rope self-propulsion technology into society sooner, I began developing "Zippar," a self-propelled horizontal ropeway.

Initially, I conducted experiments using facilities outside of Keio University. However, when we reached the demonstration stage for the single-seater model, a dedicated line became necessary, so I planned to string a rope over Gulliver Pond (Kamoike) at SFC for experiments. Currently, we are developing a 12-seater market-ready model in Hadano City, Kanagawa Prefecture. Additionally, since there will be a public call for the reconstruction of the Ueno Zoo monorail next year, we are preparing to form a third-party committee and considering potential investors.

While we Japanese people now enjoy smooth transportation supported by railways, buses, and roads, the post-war transportation situation was riddled with challenges. In 1956, the Watkins Mission, sent by the World Bank for the construction of the Meishin Expressway, reported that "The roads of Japan are incredibly bad. No other industrial nation has so completely neglected its highway system." However, starting with the Meishin Expressway and the Shinkansen, Japanese transportation has now risen to the top level.

Currently, the Philippines and Malaysia are in a situation much like old Japan, with exploding populations and fragile transportation infrastructure. However, current public transportation systems are too expensive to fully solve their problems. By introducing Zippar—a relatively inexpensive public transportation infrastructure costing 1.5 billion yen per kilometer—to regions with transportation issues around the world, including Japan, I want to make public transportation accessible to everyone through Zippar. Zip Infrastructure's mission is to create a world where anyone can access a station within five minutes, similar to central Tokyo. I would be grateful for the support of my seniors in the form of collaboration or investment.