🌍 The Global Hotel Price Transparency Project
— A 60-Year-Old Founder’s Final Global Challenge —

Susumu Hasegawa
Founder, Global Hotel Price Transparency Project
A global challenge launched from Japan at age 60
Susumu Hasegawa
Founder, Global Hotel Price Transparency Project
Japan

This is not a travel project.
This is a global transparency movement.

This is my final entrepreneurial challenge.
I am now 60 years old.
And I have just begun the most important challenge of my life.

Not for myself.
But for the next generation.
For young people and children around the world
who will shape the future.

This is the story behind
the birth of the Global Hotel Price Transparency Project.

Today, hotel prices are not transparent.

The same hotel.
The same date.
The same room.

Yet prices vary dramatically
depending on the booking platform.

Sometimes by hundreds of dollars.
Sometimes even more.

Most travelers never see the true lowest price.
Because many private or hidden rates
do not appear in search results.
They often appear only after tapping
“Go to site.”

This structure exists worldwide.
Yet almost nobody
is documenting and verifying it systematically.

So I made a decision.

To build
the world’s first infrastructure
that documents real hotel price differences
across cities and booking platforms.

Not theory.
Verified reality.

I admired entrepreneurs from a young age.
At 22, I joined Tokio Marine Insurance.
At 26, I left and started my own business.
Since then, my life has always been a challenge.

In April 1997,
following the once-in-a-century deregulation of Japan’s Insurance Business Act
as part of the nation’s “Financial Big Bang,”
I founded Cosmos Insurance Brokers Co., Ltd.,
one of Japan’s first independent insurance brokerage firms,
with initial capital of 10 million yen.

This regulatory reform opened a completely new market.
I stepped into that moment to help create a more transparent
and consumer-driven insurance industry in Japan.

In April 1998, I founded
“Hoken Square Bang!”,
Japan’s first insurance comparison website.

In October 1998,
I established Twenty-One Insurance Company,
a captive insurance company in Bermuda,
one of the world’s major insurance jurisdictions.

In October 1999,
I founded Web Crew Inc. with capital of 10 million yen.

Web Crew later grew rapidly
as one of Japan’s leading comparison platform companies
and was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers market in 2004
with capital exceeding 1.5 billion yen.


After that, my journey continued
across technology, infrastructure, and society.

In 2001, I partnered with
NTT Communications and NTT Docomo
to develop mobile safety technology.

In 2003, I worked with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
during the launch of Japan’s ETC highway system.

In April 2003, we released
the world’s first full ETC package:
an onboard ETC device and ETC card sold together.

Throughout my career,
I have stood at the intersection of
technology, infrastructure, and society —
always building systems that move people forward.

Those experiences became the foundation
for what I am building today.

In 2005, at age 40,
I stepped away from the front lines of business.

Together with my three sons,
I pursued a shared dream:
Formula 1 and MotoGP.

From 2002 to 2016,
our family challenged the world of motorsports.

My eldest son chose a different path in life.
My second son became
the 2025 Gold’s Gym Japan Cup champion.
My youngest son advanced through
All Japan Championships and World Endurance racing,
and became an HRC MotoGP development test rider.

Today, my grandson has begun training
to pursue the same dream.

Life moves in cycles.
Dreams never disappear.

When I was 30,
I met Kazuo Inamori, founder of Kyocera.

He told me:
“Hasegawa-kun, do not have emotional worries.”

With Honorary Chairman Kazuo Inamori
Founder of Kyocera & KDDI

His words continue to guide me:
“Never give up until you succeed.”
Those words stayed with me for life.

Another phrase, often attributed to Harvard,
also shaped my mindset:

“If you must suffer, enjoy the suffering.”

These words still guide me today.

My wife is seven years older than me.
She rebuilt her life to be with me.

In 2024, her parents passed away.
Their home in Handa City became empty.

In October 2025,
we moved there together
with my own parents.
Four of us now live in that home.

I wanted my wife
to spend the rest of her life
in the place where she was born and raised.

That decision changed everything.

In December 2025,
I learned about massive global investments in AI.

And I realized something.

If others can risk everything
to build the future,
why shouldn’t I begin again at 60?

While swimming my daily 2,000 meters,
I made a decision.

I will build
the world’s first hotel price transparency infrastructure.
Not a blog.
Not an affiliate site.
An infrastructure.

A system that documents real price differences
across cities and platforms worldwide.

Starting from Japan.
Then expanding globally.

This is my final challenge.

This project is not only for travelers.

It is for young people and children
who will live in a world shaped
by invisible systems.

I want them to know:

The world is not always transparent.
Systems can be changed.
Age does not limit challenge.
Pain can be turned into fuel.

After living 60 years,
I feel this clearly:

Life truly begins
when you decide to challenge again.

The Global Hotel Price Transparency Project
has already begun worldwide.

Cities currently under verification:

Paris 🇫🇷
London 🇬🇧
New York 🇺🇸
Dubai 🇦🇪
Bangkok 🇹🇭
Singapore 🇸🇬
Tokyo 🇯🇵

From Japan to the world.

We document real price differences.
We verify hidden rates.
We make the invisible visible.

This is not just a project.
It is a message to the future.

My journey and daily activities are shared across platforms —
from motorsports challenges to personal reflections,
creative work, and the rebirth of a global project at 60.

These platforms document
my ongoing journey,
daily life,
and the real-time development
of the Global Hotel Price Transparency Project.

This challenge is happening now.

I am 60 years old.
And I am just getting started.
If you must suffer,
enjoy the suffering.
If you must challenge,
challenge fully.
Let us make

the invisible world visible — together.
The global challenge has already begun.
And it will not stop.
This project began with a simple belief.
The world still contains many hidden structures.
Prices, systems, and information are not always transparent.

But even one individual can question them.
Age does not matter.
Location does not matter.
What matters is the will to look, verify, and act.
From Japan, I started this small verification.
It may remain small.
But transparency always begins somewhere.
I hope younger generations will remember:
You can question the world as it is.
And sometimes, you can change it.

There is no path before me.
My will creates the path.
僕の前に道はない。
意思の力が道を切り開く。
— Susumu Hasegawa
Founder
Global Hotel Price Transparency Project
Japan
2026 🌍