# Top 50 Marketplace Angel Investors in Japan in June 2026

## Kotaro Chiba
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 8
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Internet, Drones, Travel

Kotaro Chiba is the founder of ChibaDojo Fund. Kotaro Chiba attended Keio University.

## Yu Akasaka
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 8
- Stages: Seed, Angel
- Focus: Content, Food and Beverage, Apps

During Hosei University student, and intern at Hakuhodo C & D. After joining the Image-net, I do media monetization of EC site as a media planner. Then, new business, engaged in Alliance. Launched a crowdsourcing site "MILLION DESIGNS" of design in the individual, sold to Ransazu Corporation. Established the Eureka Co., Ltd., wasappointed Representative Director CEO.

## Yusuke Sato
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 6
- Stages: Seed, Angel
- Focus: Content, Internet, Food and Beverage

Yusuke Sato is the Co-Representative and Co-Founder of Pulit.

## Hidetoshi Takano
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 5
- Stages: Seed, Angel
- Focus: Internet, Information Technology, Content

Joined Intelligence in 1999. Established Key Players Inc. in 2005. Consultation with more than 3,000 managers and career counseling for more than 10,000 individuals. In addition, we have invested in more than 55 outside directors, advisors and angels in Silicon Valley and Bangladesh in Japan. Over 100 lectures on careers, entrepreneurship andstartups.

## Kensuke Furukawa
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 4
- Stages: Seed, Angel
- Focus: Content, SNS, Software

Kensuke Furukawa was born in June 2, 1981. He graduated Waseda University majoring Political Science and Economics, and in 2000, he launched "Milkcafe", a student community, which has grown to a site with 10 million PV per month. In 2004, he became the CEO of Media Clip, which operates a rental bulletin board service "ShitarabaBBS". After that year, he had transfer "Shitaraba BBS" to Livedoor, and took charge of starting up the Consumer Generated Media sector. In 2006, he joined Recruit, and took charge of starting up a new business at Business development sector. In June of 2009, he left Recruit, and became the CEO of nanapi （formerly Rocket Start), which operates the How-to Site "nanapi".

## Ayataro Nakagawa
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 4
- Stages: Seed, Angel
- Focus: Internet, Software, Content

2011 At university, participated in the founding period as a director of Atcole Co., Ltd., and started the web service experience.2012 Founded Peroli Co., Ltd.,
which operates a curation platform for women "MERY" .2014 Founded Peroli
Co., Ltd. Sold to DeNA
2015 Jointly established Tokyo Founders Fund as an angel investor and startedinvesting in startups in Japan and overseas
2019 Appointed outside director of FIREBUG Co., Ltd.

## Naruhisa Nakagawa
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 3
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Agriculture, Manufacturing, AgTech

Naruhisa Nakagawa is a Founder & Chief Investment Officer at Caygan Capital.

## Kazuhiko Ishikura
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 3
- Stages: Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Beauty, Content, Fashion

Kazuhiko Ishikura is based out of Tokyo, Tokyo and is the Co-Founder and Director of SDF Capital. Kazuhiko previously worked at 3minute Inc. as a Director. Kazuhiko Ishikura attended Aoyama Gakuin University.

## Shunsuke Oyu
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 3
- Stages: Seed, Angel
- Focus: Content, Internet, Media and Entertainment

Shunsuke Oyu is the co-founder of Connehito Inc. 
Started an online Q&A platform “mamari” which is the largest platform for moms in Japan. Connehito was acquired by one of the telecom giant KDDI in 2016.
Selected as a “Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia” at consumer technology department. Angel-investing 50+ companies globally.

## Kazuma Ieiri
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 3
- Stages: Seed, Angel, Series A
- Focus: Content, Fashion, FinTech

Born in 1978 and raised in Fukuoka prefecture, Kazuma founded paperboy&co. inc. (currently GMO Pepabo) and went on to become the youngest CEO ever (at the time) to take a company public in Japan by taking paperboy&co. public on the JASDAQ Japanese stock exchange. After leaving paperboy&co, he continued his startup trail by foundingBASE, CAMPFIRE, and XIMERA. Kazuma also dabbled in the food services industry via the founding of On The Corner (a cafe) and is active in the startup investment scene. He also started the Liverty-house project which attempts to create shared housing for young people in need.

## Takaya Shinozuka
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 3
- Stages: Seed, Angel, Series A
- Focus: Internet, Local, Sports

Takaya Shinozuka is the President, CEO, and Founder at Reiwa Travel.

## Kazuhiro Ishikura
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 3
- Stages: Seed, Angel
- Focus: Beauty, Content, Fashion

Kazuhiro Ishikura served as the head of the Akatsuki Business Management Department in 2013 and as a corporate auditor of Akatsuki in 2014, contributing to the company's listing on the TSE Mothers and TSE 1st sections. Appointed 3minute CFO in 2015, engaged in business start-up and organizational design, and succeeded in large-scale M & Adeal with Glee. After leaving the company, he became a WARC director in November 2018. Certified public accountant.

## Masaru Tange
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 3
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: E-Commerce, Internet, Food Delivery

Masaru Tange graduated from Kyoto University and joined Incs Inc. in 2000 where he started their IT business and strategy consulting group with only 2 members and developed it into the company's main business with a team of 140 consultants with annual revenue of $50M in 5 years. He then founded SHIFT Inc in 2005 in his studio apartment. He wasthe only employee. The business world wasn't very kind to him - he made no revenue for a while but he kept experimenting with the business model listening to the needs of customers. In 2009, he finally found traction in the "software testing industry." In 2014, Masaru successfully IPO'ed the company. Shift now has 500 employees.

## Hirofumi Miki
- Type: Angel
- Location: Shibuya, Kanagawa, Japan
- Relevant deals: 3
- Stages: Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Content, Internet, Software

After JTB Co., Ltd. and CYBIRD Co., Ltd. as an initial member of Glee Co., Ltd. is responsible for business development. Currently, he is mainly engaged in venture support in the Internet area, investing in venture and venture capital, and served as management advisor for dozens of companies. Hands-on business development, growth strategydevelopment, financing advice, HR organization design support, partner referral and Recruit Support. He is also engaged in business support for ventures in the healthcare and university venture fields. He served as Digital Health Meetup Advisor, NEDOTCP Mentor and Future 2016 Mentor.

## Daisaku Harada
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Finance, Tourism, Automotive

Daisaku Harada is the Director of Management Strategy at Mercari. Daisaku attended Chuo University.

## Yusuke Tanaka
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed
- Focus: Tourism, Consulting, E-Commerce

"Shin"ichiro joined Yahoo Japan in April 2013. From July 2013, he joined YJ Capital. He has served as COO of YJ Capital since January 2015. Prior to Yahoo! Japan, Shin was General Director of Dream Incubator Vietnam from 2007 to 2012, managing US$50 million private equity funds in Vietnam. He was formerly a Project Manager at DreamIncubator Japan. He started his career at Future Architect as a system engineer.Shin received his bachelor's degree in Policy Management from Keio University.

## Naoki Aoyagi
- Type: Angel
- Location: San Francisco, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Angel, Series A
- Focus: Fashion, Internet, Software

Naoki Aoyagi is a Senior Vice President at GREE, Inc. and Chief Executive Officer of GREE International, Inc. He joined GREE, Inc. in March 2006 from Deutsche Bank, where he had specialized in tech and media sector IPOs and M&A advisory work. At GREE, Aoyagi oversaw the Company's partnership with KDDI and its IPO before leading thedevelopment of GREE’s global operations, a role he continues today. Aoyagi earned a bachelor's degree in policy management from Keio University in 2002.

## Shintaro Yamada
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Angel
- Focus: Internet, Finance, Content

During his years at Waseda University, Shintaro worked at Japan’s biggest e-commerce mall, Rakuten, Inc. On August 1st 2001, Shintaro established “Unoh Inc.” after graduating university. At Unoh he was responsible for designing and developing several web services, one of which was the online magazine subscription . Services provided by Unohinclude planning, development and management of the film enthusiast community site “Movie Life” (acquired by PIA Corporation) as well as “Sugu.CC” , “NeoAd” (both acquired by GMOAP) and the photo sharing site “Photozou” (acquired by Digital Garage).In 2009 Unoh entered into social gaming, creating multiple successful social games. Among these games, “Machitsuku!” has been its biggest hit with over 5 million users. On August 3rd 2010, Unoh joined Zynga and Shintaro became General Manager of Zynga Japan. He resigned on January 2012. After traveling around the world, He established the new company “Mercari, Inc.” on February 2013 and released the resale shopping app “Mercari” on July 2013 in Japan.He is a true Internet geek, spending a lot of time on the Internet and boasts around 180,000 followers on Twitter.

## Yoichi Aso
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Angel, Seed
- Focus: E-Commerce, Apparel, Content

Yoichi Aso is the President and CEO at Alpha Drive.

## Ken Soga
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Series D
- Focus: Music, Content, E-Commerce

Ken Soga is an individual investor.

## Noboru Hachimine
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Angel
- Focus: SNS, Sales, Rental

Noboru Hachimine - President & Founder @ OPT

## Toru Shimada
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Angel
- Focus: Internet, Task Management, Content

Toru Shimada is a Senior Executive Officer and Director of Rakuten. Mr. Shimada is a Director of Rakuten Baseball, Inc., and Head of Asia Regional Headquarters Office of the Company.Mr. Shimada joined Rakuten in 2004. Prior to joining Rakuten, Mr. Shimada was founder and Director of INTELLIGENCE, LTD from 1989 to 2004. Prior to INTELLIGENCE, LTD.Mr. Shimada worked at RECRUIT CO., LTD. from 1987 to 1989.

## Keisuke Kogure
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Angel
- Focus: Beauty, iOS, Legal

Mr. Keisuke Kogure serves as general partner at Mint.

## Tsunezawa Kahoko
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Angel
- Focus: Shopping, Apps, Travel

Tsunezawa Kahoko

## Mamoru Taniya
- Type: Angel
- Location: Hong Kong, Hong Kong Island, Hong Kong
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Apps, Content, FinTech

After graduating from the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo, he joined Solomon Brothers, where he became the youngest managing director in Asia, where he was in charge of Asian investment. After that, he created one of the largest independent Asuka assets. He also launched Japan's first independent online life insurance company,LifeNet Life Insurance, and inspired Japan's first International.

## Christine Herron
- Type: Angel
- Location: San Francisco, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B
- Focus: E-Commerce, Social Media, Personalization

Christine Herron is an early-stage investor and diversity advocate, and co-leads the Intel Capital Diversity Fund while leading investments in early-stage companies. She is responsible for diversity investing across Intel Capital sectors, to support technology companies founded or run by women, underrepresented minorities, LGBTQ, or veterans. AtIntel, Christine's direct portfolio includes 500 Friends (ACQ: Merkle), betaworks, Brit Media, E la Carte, Funders Club, Goldbely, Jelli, Movable Ink, SmartZip, Storenvy (ACQ: OpenSky), Two Bit Circus, and Yummly (ACQ: WHR), and Intel Education Accelerator companies Comprendio, Immersed Games, Sutori, and Vidcode.Previously, Christine was an investor with seed stage venture fund First Round Capital, working with Better Finance, Double Verify, Get Satisfaction (ACQ: Sprinklr), Mint (ACQ: INTU), and Xobni (ACQ: YHOO). At Omidyar Network, she developed the Media and Web 2.0 practice strategy and led deals such as Common Sense Media and Socialtext.At Geocapital Partners, Christine focused on early Internet and network technology, leading Series A funding for AXON Networks (ACQ: 3COM), D-Vision (ACQ: ADSK), FocusVision (MBO), Netcom (IPO: NETC), and ViaGrafix (IPO: VIAX). Christine was also a founder or early employee at GiftWorks (ACQ: FrontStream), Mercury2, and NetObjects (IPO: NETC).Christine earned an MBA from Stanford University and a BA from Columbia University. She is a founding advisor or mentor to 500 Startups, Bullpen Capital, and StartX, and serves on Alonzo King's LINES Ballet Board of Directors. She is active on @christine and a frequent speaker.

## Soichiro Kawai
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Angel
- Focus: Internet, Mobile Apps, Human Resources

Soichiro Kawai - CEO @ ReBoost

## Richard Chen
- Type: Angel
- Location: San Francisco, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Angel, Series A
- Focus: Mobile, Software, Apps

Richard Chen

## Shintaro Tabata
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Angel, Series A
- Focus: Sharing Economy, Audio, Content

Shintaro Tabata - Senior Vice President and Head of Corporate Sales @ Line

## Yasuyoshi Yanagisawa
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Post-IPO Equity
- Focus: Media and Entertainment, Food and Beverage, Content

Yasuyoshi Yanagisawa - President & CEO @ FAN Communications

## Yasuyuki Kin
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Media and Entertainment, Recruiting, Career Planning

Yasuyuki Kin

## Osamu Ogasawara
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Angel
- Focus: SNS, Content, Fashion

Osamu Ogasahara is the founder, CEO, and president of FGN ABBA Lab.

## Uenoyama Katsuya
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Angel, Corporate Round
- Focus: Fashion, Software, Advertising

Uenoyama Katsuya - CEO @ PKSHA Technology

## Fumiaki Koizumi
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 2
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Internet, E-Commerce, Information Technology

Fumiaki Koizumi - Executive Director @ Mercari

## Maneesh Arora
- Type: Angel
- Location: San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Mobile, Internet, Mobile Apps

Maneesh Arora is CEO & co-founder of MightyText. He is a product builder who previously worked at Google and Zynga.

## Ogawa Ryo
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed
- Focus: Apps, Social, Finance

Ogawa Ryo - CEO @ Timee

## Masashi Kurata
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Apps, Gift, Logistics

Masashi Kurata is the CEO of UTAITE Co., Ltd.

## Toshiro Wakimaru
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed
- Focus: Task Management, Food and Beverage, SNS

Toshiro “Tosh” Wakimaru is the Chief Operating Officer of MedPeer, Inc. , Tokyo, Japan since May 2010. Medpeer is the “Medical Doctor Exclusive” SNS in Japan that has just successfully gone to the market in 2014.Prior to the current job, Tosh had been actively working for Price Waterhouse Consulting, Japan LLP (now IBM Japan, Ltd.) aftergraduating from the Boston University School of Management in 1996. While there he completed numerous projects in corporate strategy, operation improvement, and new business development focusing on the retail, service, and healthcare industries with a secondment to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

## Shogo Kawada
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Angel
- Focus: Software, SaaS, Media and Entertainment

Shogo Kawada is Co-founder and Adviser of DeNA, a global Internet company focused on a social games platform, social games, e-commerce and other Web services for mobile devices and PCs.

## Sakano Atsushi
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series B
- Focus: Medical, Nursing and Residential Care, SaaS

Sakano Atsushi

## Tatsuo Sakamoto
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed
- Focus: Information Technology, Education, Recruiting

Tatsuo Sakamoto is a Head of Sales, Japan at MOLOCO. He Attended The University of Tokyo.

## Shinji Senba
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed
- Focus: Social, E-Commerce, Sustainability

Shinji Senba is a Director of Green Innovations Holdings.

## Suzuki Yuto
- Type: Angel
- Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: SaaS, Social, Content

Suzuki Yuto

## Yuto Nagatomo
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Angel
- Focus: SNS, Video, Beauty

Yuto Nagatomo - President, CEO, and Founder @ Cuore Co., Ltd.

## Kai Asakura
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed
- Focus: Beauty, Cosmetics

Kai Asakura

## Ichiro Umeda
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed
- Focus: Medical, Payments, Health Care

Ichiro Umeda is the Chairman of the New Era Strategy Institute.

## Hironari Umino
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed, Series A
- Focus: Apps, Beauty, Incubators

Hironari Umino - Chairman @ Increments

## David Lloyd
- Type: Angel
- Location: London, England, United Kingdom
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Pre-Seed
- Focus: E-Commerce

David Lloyd - General Manager, UK, Netherlands & Nordics @ Alibaba Group

## Yoshikazu Azuma
- Type: Angel
- Location: Minato, Chiba, Japan
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Series A
- Focus: Retail, Security, Marketing

Yoshikazu Azuma - Representative Director and CEO @ TWO

## Hideki Hayashi
- Type: Angel
- Relevant deals: 1
- Stages: Seed
- Focus: Drones, Robotics, Consulting

Hideki Hayashi

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