About

Mission

Notice the richness of your life, and live each day with care.

No two days in a life are the same. So Mori stays close to your days and your work, and gently captures what happens and what you think, as a journaling AI.

From your conversations and activity, it reads the patterns you do not notice yourself, the habits, the quiet decisions, and the new realizations of the day, and arranges them into a form you can take in at a glance.

Mori is a companion that looks at the richness already in your life, and supports your everyday.

Not meeting minutes. Your life. That is what Mori is built to keep.

About us

Mori is made by franky, Inc., based in Shibuya, Tokyo. Since 2017, franky has built lifestyle brands close to daily life, including WIND AND SEA (fashion), moln (travel), and PERVERZE (fashion). Mori is franky's first hardware product.

About the founder: Yu Akasaka

Yu Akasaka is the founder of franky, Inc. He founded Eureka, Inc., where he launched Pairs, one of Japan's largest matchmaking services, and sold the company to Match Group in 2015. Since founding franky in 2017, he has grown lifestyle brands including WIND AND SEA, and backed around 90 founders as an angel investor. Mori is the first hardware he has ever made.

It began with something personal. The decade and more since his first company should have been full, yet looking back, the details were already gone. Who he talked to that day, what he was thinking when he decided. He tried journals many times; they never lasted. The time for living always filled up before the time for writing.

Then could there be a way to keep a record without writing at all? That question started Mori. Product design by Fumie Shibata of Design Studio S; UI/UX and graphics by Takram. Make a recording device you actually want to wear every day. Make the record a journal you want to reread. After rounds of prototyping and testing, Mori ships its first unit in July 2026.

What Akasaka wants to build is technology that does not hurry people. If Mori quietly takes over the remembering, you can put down your notes and return to the conversation in front of you. It is the newest form of the work franky has always done through its brands: making everyday life better.

Mori's mission is to help people notice the richness of their lives and live each day with care. More happens in an ordinary day than we think. Keeping it is where we begin.

From the Product Lead: Shotaro Wajima

Mori is a new form of product and a new shape for daily life, made possible by recent shifts in technology. Transcription has become more accurate, processing costs have fallen, and LLMs have made it possible to turn audio into something more than a record: a form people can use to look back on their own days.

At work, many tools now transcribe and summarize meetings through desktop apps, mobile apps, and dedicated hardware. They make business hours more efficient. What we felt, though, was that everyday life also has moments worth keeping.

We wanted to go beyond saving and summarizing records. With these technologies, we saw a chance to help people notice parts of themselves that had rarely been captured before, and to understand themselves more deeply through a product that fits naturally into daily life. Mori is built through both software and hardware with that idea in mind. Audio and human conversation have not been easy for machines to hold as useful data. We want to keep exploring how technology can handle them in ways that make life richer.

Team

Mori is made by people from many different backgrounds.

Yu Akasaka

Founder / CEO

Founded Eureka, Inc., launched Pairs, one of Japan's largest matchmaking services, and sold the company to Match Group in 2015. Founded franky in 2017.

Shotaro Wajima

Product Lead

After VC research and M&A analysis, led product at luxury fashion marketplace Stok from launch through growth (the business was later acquired by SODA). At Mori, he leads business and product.

Fumie Shibata

Product design / Design Studio S

After graduating from Musashino Art University, she worked at a major home appliance manufacturer before founding Design Studio S. Her work spans electronics, everyday goods, medical devices, and hotel direction. Her awards include the iF Gold Award, red dot design award, Mainichi Design Award, and Good Design Gold Award. She is a professor at Musashino Art University and has served as jury chair of the Good Design Award.

Takram

UI/UX design / VI design

A design innovation firm with studios in Tokyo, London, New York, and Shanghai. From wagashi to space, from startups to the public sector, Takram partners with changemakers to carry value across disciplines, cultures, and borders.

Hiroki Kojima

Backend / Infrastructure

Joined Eureka, Inc. as a new graduate in 2014. As a backend engineer, worked on Pairs and helped design, build, and improve the platform that supported its growth. Joined franky in 2024; on Mori, he is responsible for backend and infrastructure design and operations.

Kenichi Saito

Software Engineer

Works on Mori's software development.

Engineering
Based in Tokyo, one team builds everything from hardware and firmware to the app and the AI pipeline.

Company

Brand

The name

The name Mori carries the philosophy of memento mori: remember death, and live this day with care.

It is also the Japanese word for forest. A place where memory accumulates, quiet and still. As daily journals add up like trees, your record slowly becomes a forest of your own.

Forest Green

Mori's first color is Forest Green. The calm of standing among trees, carried by something you wear every day. Rather than gadget black or silver, we chose a color that belongs with your clothes and your life.

Design intent

Product design is by Fumie Shibata of Design Studio S; UI/UX and graphics by Takram. The body is 15 g and 32.6 mm square, worn as a watchband, clip, or necklace. We aimed for something closer to a small charm you keep with you than a machine you put on.