hello, yaponiya!

The karaoke was great! But here's what they actually built 👇

Hack Yakumo is the international hackathon we run as part of every batch — our engineers team up with developers from Japan and other countries to tackle real challenges from local companies and city governments. This time, the brief came from the City of Matsue itself.

Matsue has been drawing growing international attention since "Bakebake" — a major NHK drama inspired by Lafcadio Hearn, a writer deeply tied to this region — began airing in 2025. The city wants that momentum to last, but the right information still isn't reaching foreign visitors or residents. That gap became the brief. Hack Yakumo 2026 brought together engineers from Japan, Russia, Kazakhstan, India, and Indonesia to work on it. Five teams presented. Two won.

🥇 Gold — "Matsue Mate" A single app for foreign residents covering waste sorting, administrative processes, and healthcare support. Built with Nodeblocks, Node.js, React, TypeScript, and Express. Judges called it simple, practical, and immediately usable — one noted that it tackles exactly the kind of everyday friction that foreign residents in Japan run into, with a design that feels warm and approachable. 🥈 Silver — "Yokai Road Shimane" GPS and AR bring Lafcadio Hearn's stories and Shimane's yokai folklore to life as you walk through the real locations behind them. Built with Nodeblocks, Node.js, React, TypeScript, and MongoDB. One judge called it: "yokai is Matsue's content, and nobody else's."

After the presentations, the Mayor of Matsue joined the networking reception — congratulated the teams, answered their questions, and spent real time with the engineers who had worked on his city's problems for two weeks. (That's him in photos 2 and 3 👆) NHK covered it too 📺 (in Japanese): https://news.web.nhk/newsweb/na/nb-4030024921 Send the teams some 🔥🔥🔥 All five teams earned it! #about_HY_program