Kyoto is a long-established center of craft excellence. Hiroyasu Koma's 30-person start-up firm brought that power together to make a high-performance electric sports car. Unlike in the case of gasoline cars, parts for electric cars can be sourced from outside the insular supplier networks that serve major car makers, so even small start-ups can make cars. Koma sells the technology in completed cars to other companies, a feature of his business model where various firms share development costs.

Along Japan's northeastern coast, efforts to develop young fisheries workers by boosting recognition for local marine produce and organizing training have put one fishing collective in the spotlight. Sensing peril for local fisheries after the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami of 2011, founder Takuya Hasegawa teamed up with workers to reform distribution channels and pursue sales and promotion activities. Join a group aiming to rear 1,000 local fishermen and women by 2024.

Keiichi Yoshino left a career in finance to open a chocolatier in Kyoto, Japan's former capital. Only 4 years in, his brand has already won international awards and been picked up by an exclusive Kyoto hotel. He uses cacao from Indonesia, the world's number-two producer, boosting the economy by raising quality and prices via guidance for local farmers. Now pursuing a similar scheme in the Philippines, we follow a luxury chocolate brand transforming the fortunes of farmers in Southeast Asia.