Hi, this is Inokai from iU Blog!
Since iU is a university that aims to become an entrepreneur, there are many opportunities for students to hold meetings and prepare materials for presentations. Some students work quietly at home, while others use the empty classrooms at iU to work. However, there are also students who use DMM.make AKIBA as a third option.
To use DMM.make AKIBA, the initial cost is about 90,000 yen and the annual membership fee is about 500,000 yen. AKIBA is a facility that costs a total of 600,000 yen per year, but iU students are able to use DMM.make AKIBA for free. What kind of facility is it?
What is DMM.make AKIBA?
In this article, I’d like to introduce what kind of facility DMM.make AKIBA is, which is shrouded in mystery and has an extremely high annual membership fee.
DMM.make AKIBA is a facility that operates under the concept of “turning ideas into solid forms” with your own hands, and offers shared offices, event spaces, meeting rooms, and other business facilities. make AKIBA Base
DMM.make AKIBA Studio, which enables prototyping by using a wide variety of equipment to gradually bring prototypes to completion.
AKIBA Studio is a comprehensive manufacturing facility consisting of these two facilities where you can do everything related to hardware development from start to finish.
First, let’s take a look at DMM.make AKIBA Base.
DMM.make AKIBA Base
DMM.make AKIBA Base has three main types of spaces.
FreeAddress・・・ A space where you can freely hold meetings and work.
Team room area・・・ A space where you can rent a dedicated office.
Meeting room:・・・Space for meetings by reservation only (multiple sizes available).
DMM.make AKIBA is a place where presentations, seminars, and events can be held. Free address* office space and private office space are available, and meetings can be held in the meeting room. In addition, there are event spaces with projectors and sound equipment.
*Free address: An environment where you can work freely at any available seat rather than in a fixed place.
One of them has more than half of the chairs, which cost about 200,000 yen and are made by Herman Miller, so they are very comfortable to sit on and work in.
DMM.make AKIBA Studio
DMM.make AKIBA Studio is a development base with various equipment necessary for hardware development, and is divided into 14 rooms according to equipment and purpose, with the total amount of equipment amounting to 500 million yen.
The following table shows the equipment available at the studio and its main uses.
| Number/Name | Available equipment | What you can do |
| 01 Works | Various machine tools such as lathes, milling machines, 3-axis CNC cutting machines, laser cutters, etc. | Processing of wood, acrylic, metal, leather, cloth, etc. |
| 05 Measurement | Various inspection equipment such as thermal shock testers, X-ray inspection equipment, thermography, illuminometer, etc. | Measurement and testing to suit the purpose and application. |
| 07 Sewing | Sewing machines such as occupational sewing machines and digital embroidery machines | Thick fabrics and special sewing methods such as embroidery and sewing |
| 09 Circuit | Circuit design tools such as soldering irons, and measurement equipment such as oscilloscopes | Work required for circuit design, such as soldering and current-carrying inspection |
| 10 Design | High-end PC terminals and a wide variety of software, including CAD and CAM. | Design, modeling, rendering, etc. |
| 11 Digital fabrication | 3D printers, 3D scanners, etc. | Checking the shape of the model and analyzing the code of the program |
| 14 Painting | Painting booths and drying ovens | Full-scale color mixing and painting |
These are the rooms where we mainly handle and work with equipment. These are the rooms where you can design, cut, paint, and test materials for making prototypes.
| Number/Name | Available equipment | What you can do |
| 02 Learning | Various machine tools such as lathes, milling machines, 3-axis CNC cutting machines, laser cutters, etc. | Processing of wood, acrylic, metal, leather, cloth, etc. |
| 03 Shop | Various inspection equipment such as thermal shock testers, X-ray inspection equipment, thermography, illuminometer, etc. | Measurement and testing to suit the purpose and application. |
In addition, courses and trainings to acquire necessary knowledge and skills are regularly held at 02 Learning, and consumables and materials are sold or rented out at 03 Shop.
DMM.make AKIBA Studio has very useful equipment, but unfortunately, it will be closing its doors on August 31, 2021. However, it seems that you can continue to use some of the equipment at DMM.make AKIBA Base after the closure!
If you want to use expensive equipment at Studio, please visit as soon as possible!
Can be used as an address for corporate registration.
When you start a business, you need to register your address, but you can use DMM.make AKIBA as your registered address.
In fact, some of the students who started their own businesses at iU also use DMM.make AKIBA as their registered address for corporate registration, so why not use it when you decide to start your own business?
However, there is one caveat: if you register DMM.make AKIBA as your address when you register your company, you will be charged an additional fee. The reason why they chose the costly option is because DMM.make AKIBA is currently using the “START LINE” program to support entrepreneurs and creators.
By using this program, the number of people who can visit DMM.make AKIBA with iU is not limited (see below for details), and you can use it without worrying about the deadline of returning the card key, etc. Also, you can be exempted from the fees for some startup support services. There will also be opportunities to be matched with sponsors and partners of DMM.make AKIBA.
If you are interested in enrolling in the iU and starting your own business, please consider participating in this program.
It’s not always available for students.Now that I’ve introduced DMM.make AKIBA in a nutshell, there is one last thing to note.
iU students can use this facility for free, but the security is very strong and you cannot enter without a card key. Card keys can be borrowed from the IM office, which is the contact point for the iU, but there are a limited number of them and they have to be returned within a week. If there is no one else with a reservation when you return it, you can borrow it again on the spot, but if there is someone else with a reservation, you cannot borrow it.
Since we are still only in our second semester, it may be unlikely that the reservation will be filled, but as the number of students increases in the future, it may not be easy to borrow.
Also, you have to go through a guidance before borrowing a card key, so if you are interested in DMM.make AKIBA, please go through the guidance before using it.
Afterword
In this article, I have introduced DMM.make AKIBA, but how was it?
I don’t think it’s very public knowledge that you can use DMM.make AKIBA when you enroll in iU. I often use the Base of this facility, and I find that the quality of the desks and chairs is quite good, and I am able to concentrate much better than when I work at home. If you need hardware support when you start your own business at iU, you should definitely take advantage of it!