Digital Detox Phone

Step Out, Turn Off.

Joy lives outside the screen.

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The problem

165min

Time spent on smartphones each day in Tokyo.
A record high.

Source: Hakuhodo Institute of Media Environment, Media Teiten Survey 2025 (Tokyo, ages 15–69, daily average over a week)

That’s about 42 days a year.

165 minutes × 365 days is about 1,000 hours, or 42 whole days of every year spent on a screen.

I was in those hours too.

A person facing a screen indoors. The friends, tree and fish outside are crossed out.

Somewhere along the way,
I was spending most of my day on a screen.

Someone at a desk, swiping through an endless phone feed

Social media is fun. Games are fun.
That's why I couldn't stop.

A room where someone lies in bed looking at a phone from morning to night. Outside the window the sun sets and the moon rises.

It was morning, and then it was night.
Another day with nothing to show for it.

What I really wanted was to go outside.

But I set limits,
and turned them off every time.

I’ll just stay as I am.

Wait a second.

There’s Soto Phone.

Soto Phone

Soto means
“outside” in Japanese.

No social media or games, the apps that keep you glued to the screen. And the time you put your phone down becomes points to spend outside.

A phone for heading outside the screen.

MorningJust the map, and off to the river.

What's inside

Only what you need
to head outside.

Inside

  • Calls
  • SMS
  • Maps
  • Transit
  • Weather
  • Camera
  • Music
  • Alerts
  • Clock
  • Notes
  • Points

Not inside

  • Social
  • Games
  • Video
  • App store
  • Browser

The screen stays black and white, and color returns only when you open your photos. Pay with your own cards. Support for transit IC cards (such as Suica) is under consideration.

AfternoonPoints saved up, spent at a hot spring.

Points

Time with your phone down
turns into points.

You earn points for every hour you keep Soto Phone’s screen off. Spend them at partner shops nearby.

  1. 01Pick your phone-free timeDinner, before bed, and so on.
  2. 02Keep the screen offMake it and earn +10 pt an hour
  3. 03Pick a place on the mapShops picked by pros that take your points.
  4. 04Spend it theree.g. a bathhouse ticket: −100 pt

1 hour at dinner × 10 days = 100 pt = 1 bathhouse visit

Why do I get points?

Partner shops pay for them. For a shop, it replaces advertising: they pay Soto only when a customer actually walks in.

Point numbers are examples. Partners and rewards are still being prepared.

Trial

Now accepting
trial sign-ups.

When the prototype is ready, a small group will use it for two weeks.

Apply for the trial

Letter

Why I'm building this.

I've never built a phone.
But I know what it's like to be controlled by one.

I'd look at my screen, and the day would be gone. I set limits to stop, and turned them off myself. Willpower didn't work.

I think a lot of people feel the same way. So I decided to build a phone that makes you want to go outside, without relying on willpower.

I can't build it alone. I'll share the road to launch honestly, right here. I'd be glad if you followed along.

Kazuma Sasaki, Founder, Soto Phone

EveningA sunset, with no notifications.

Pre-order

Joy lives
outside the screen.

We'll tell you first when it launches.
Prototype trials will be announced here first, too.

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