# Japan Tobacco

> Japan Tobacco is a VC fund in Tokyo backing Franchise and Snack Food. See 1 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Tokyo, Japan
- Total investments: 1
- Last investment: Sep 2022
- Lead investor: 100%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/japan-tobacco
- Website: http://www.jt.com

Japan Tobacco is a VC fund in Tokyo focused on Franchise and Snack Food. Japan Tobacco operates diverse businesses across the tobacco, pharmaceutical, and processed food sectors.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Japan Tobacco. Shizune tracks 11 team members at Japan Tobacco. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/japan-tobacco?utm_source=investor_profile

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Franchise | 1 | 100% |
| Snack Food | 1 | 100% |
| Restaurants | 1 | 100% |
| Food Delivery | 1 | 100% |
| Food and Beverage | 1 | 100% |

7 industries tracked in total.

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Hiroshi Obayashi | Audit & Supervisory Board Members | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/hiroshi-obayashi |
| Main Kohda | Outside Director of the Board of Directors | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/main-kohda |
| Chito Sasaki | Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing & Sales Officer, Tobacco Business | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/chito-sasaki |
| Douglas MacArthur | Founder | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/douglas-macarthur |
| Goichi Matsuda | Senior Vice President & Deputy President, Pharmaceutical Business | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/goichi-matsuda |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| YO-KAI EXPRESS | YO-KAI EXPRESS is a tech company that innovates the future autonomous restaurant solution to serve people. The company fills the gap in the availability of food. It provides vending machines to dispense steaming-hot bowls of noodles. The machines serves freshly prepared gourmet food in seconds and it provides different choices of noodle and brothwhich is made using real, fresh ingredients, allowing customers to pay for the food with card or a code. The food is served with chopsticks, a spoon, and a mesh-like carrier so fingers are not burnt while taking the bowl to a nearby table.YO-KAI EXPRESS was founded on 2016 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. | $9.3M | Series A | Sep 02, 2022 |  |

1 of 1 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Chikaranomoto Holdings Co., Ltd.](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/chikaranomoto-holdings-co-ltd) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Pulmuone](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/pulmuone) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## Similar investors

### Similar industry
- [Business Finland](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/tekes) — VC Fund
- [Dirk Schneider](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/dirk-schneider) — Angel Investor
- [Dreamit Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/dreamit-ventures) — VC Fund

### Similar stage
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund
- [General Catalyst](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/general-catalyst-partners) — VC Fund

### Similar country
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund
- [Right Side Capital Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/right-side-capital-management) — VC Fund
- [General Catalyst](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/general-catalyst-partners) — VC Fund

## Featured in investor lists
- [Franchise VC Funds in United States](https://shizune.co/investors/franchise-vc-funds-united-states)

## FAQ

### What does Japan Tobacco invest in?

Japan Tobacco invests primarily in Franchise, Snack Food and Restaurants startups, most often at Series A stage. Most of the 1 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### How do I contact Japan Tobacco?

Public channels for Japan Tobacco include LinkedIn and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.

### Who are the partners at Japan Tobacco?

The team at Japan Tobacco includes Hiroshi Obayashi (Audit & Supervisory Board Members), Main Kohda (Outside Director of the Board of Directors) and Chito Sasaki (Senior Vice President & Chief Marketing & Sales Officer, Tobacco Business), among 11 team members tracked by Shizune. The Team section lists each member with their title, investment count and links.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

# About Shizune
Shizune.co is an investor database. Core features:
- 48,091 startup investors (angels, VCs, accelerators, and others)
- Email, phone, LinkedIn (for intros), socials, and other contact data
- Updated daily from public funding news
- CSV and Excel export

The User can access the full database FOR FREE after signing up: shizune.co