They ran tea shops and podcasts. Now they're in the arms trade.

Toru Tokushige, CEO of Terra Drone. Noriko Hayashi for BI In early May 2025, Toru Tokushige was alone in his Tokyo office when the general came knocking. It was the Golden Week, Japan's biggest holiday, and everyone else was on vacation. Manabu Shimamoto, a retired major general, had come to implore the 56-year-old CEO of Terra Drone to help secure Japan's future. Their country desperately lacked drones, Shimamoto explained. Small drones. Cheap drones. Drones that could literally fly off the…