# Top 40 Consumer Angel Investors in Japan in May 2026 ## Yusuke Sato - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 6 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Internet, Content, Food and Beverage Yusuke Sato is the Co-Representative and Co-Founder at Pulit. ## Yu Akasaka - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 6 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Food and Beverage, Content, Internet 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. ## Kotaro Chiba - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 5 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Internet, Content, Software Kotaro Chiba is the founder of ChibaDojo Fund. Kotaro Chiba attended Keio University. ## Hirofumi Miki - Type: Angel - Location: Shibuya, Kanagawa, Japan - Relevant deals: 5 - Stages: Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed - Focus: Content, Marketing, Internet 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. ## Ayataro Nakagawa - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 4 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Internet, Software, Information Technology 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. ## Hidetoshi Takano - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 3 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Internet, Information Technology, Media and Entertainment 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. ## Kazuma Ieiri - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 3 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Content, Fashion, Recruiting 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. ## 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. ## Takaya Shinozuka - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Angel, Series A - Focus: Internet, Local, Advertising Takaya Shinozuka is the President, CEO, and Founder at Reiwa Travel. ## Shintaro Yamada - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed - Focus: Internet, Finance, Information Technology 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. ## Toru Shimada - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Task Management, Manufacturing, 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. ## Naoki Aoyagi - Type: Angel - Location: San Francisco, California, United States - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Angel, Series A - Focus: Internet, Fashion, 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. ## Yuzuru Honda - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: SNS, Internet, Software Yuzuru Honda is a Founder & Global CEO of FreakOut. ## 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. ## Keisuke Kogure - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Beauty, Women's, Wellness Keisuke Kogure - General Partner @ TLM ## Toshi Yamamoto - Type: Angel - Location: Sunnyvale, California, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed - Focus: Apps, Beauty, Health Care Toshi Yamamoto is an entrepreneur based in Silicon Valley as CEO of ChatWork Japan and US.In 2000, Toshi bootstrapped a business of web marketing and software sales, and made it profitable for the past 12 years.In 2012, Toshi decided to drive all the resources to focus on its own service, ChatWork, set up a US office and moved to SiliconValley. Toshi changed the company name from EC studio to ChatWork at that time.Toshi has also written three books that have been ranked as #1 of all books on Amazon.co.jp. ## Yasuyoshi Yanagisawa - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Post-IPO Equity - Focus: Media and Entertainment, Content, Men's Yasuyoshi Yanagisawa - President & CEO @ FAN Communications ## Hiroaki Kitano - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Angel, Debt Financing - Focus: Health Care, Information Technology, Fitness Hiroaki Kitano is the SVP at Softbank Mobile. He attended Waseda University. ## Narimatsu Jun - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Angel, Series A - Focus: SEO, Mobile, Content Narimatsu Jun - Outside Director @ FiNC Technologies ## Tsunezawa Kahoko - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Shopping, Apps, Travel Tsunezawa Kahoko ## Tatsuo Sakamoto - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Education, Task Management, Recruiting Tatsuo Sakamoto ## Chikako Morimoto - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed - Focus: Human Resources, Employment, Information Technology Chikako Morimoto - External Counsel @ Traimmu ## Soichiro Kawai - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Media and Entertainment, Information Technology, Internet Soichiro Kawai - CEO @ ReBoost ## Yasumasa Manabe - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Information Technology, Drones, Big Data Yasumasa Manabe ## Ryo Ishizuka - Type: Angel - Location: San Francisco, California, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: SNS, Beauty, Content Ryo Ishizuka is the co-founder and CEO of Mercari, a hassle-free peer-to-peer mobile marketplace app. After founding the company in Japan and following its successful launch, Ryo leads Mercari's international expansion as the company grows globally. Prior to founding Mercari, Ryo was the Chief Architect at RockYou, a Silicon Valley startupbacked by Sequoia. At RockYou, he was responsible for developing the core infrastructures to support its rapidly growing traffic, serving more than 20 billion PVs per month. He later served as COO at RockYou Asia to lead its Asian expansion. Born in Japan and raised in the US, Ryo has spent his life constantly moving and building bridges between the two countries. ## Yusuke Mitsumoto - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Angel, Series C - Focus: Internet, Financial Services, Energy Yusuke Mitsumoto is the founder of Cash. ## Masahiro Kotosaka - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Angel - Focus: Education, EdTech, Fashion Masahiro Kotosaka is an Associate Professor at Keio University and an Associate Fellow of The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences. He is an expert in Internationalization strategy and early stage business development, and advisor to several global start-up companies. Before moving to Keio, he was an associate professor ofmultinational management at Ritsumeikan University, a teaching & research associate at the University of Oxford, and a consultant at McKinsey & Company based in Frankfurt and Tokyo. As a practitioner, he worked for strategy/marketing projects with sixteen client organizations across nine industries and nine countries and spent four years running three profitable IT/Retail businesses before joining McKinsey. He graduated from the University of Oxford with D.Phil. (Ph.D) in Management Studies and MSc in Management Research with Distinction. ## Kensuke Furukawa - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Content, Media and Entertainment, 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". ## Taiga Matsuyama - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Angel, Series A - Focus: Software, E-Commerce, Internet Taiga Matsuyama graduated form Waseda University, Matsuyama has been engaged in venture company support for more than ten years in Tokyo, after experience as a consultant at Accenture.Matsuyama became one of the board member of NetAge, Inc (IPO 2006), start-up incubator known by having invested in MIXI – Japanese top SNS and support severalstart-up companies.He also has contributed to the activity for create the start-up eco-system in Tokyo through the NPO Organization BVA (Bit Valley Association). Currently he has established Kronos Fund with angel investors, venture capital fund for investment in emerging early-stage companies.Kronos Fund has invested in more than 20 companies. ## Eiko Matsumura - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed - Focus: Apps, Beauty, Health Care Eiko Matsumura - President / CEO @ BASKET ## Hayama Takashi - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed - Focus: SNS, Beauty, Medical Hayama Takashi - Outside Director @ Eco Style ## 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. ## Shohei Sasaki - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Content, Fashion, Consulting Shohei Sasaki - CFO @ LeapMind ## Ryosuke Matsumoto - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Angel, Series A - Focus: Art, Reservations, Software Ryosuke Matsumoto is the founder and CEO of Community Factory Inc.Ryosuke is born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1981. He joined launching of the publication venture company, and ran a cafe while he was attending Chuo University in Tokyo. Since he joined launching the social media venture company in 2004, he has been in social media business. In2006, Ryosuke founded Community Factory Inc. which specialized in planning and operating social media and blog services.Community Factory started to specialize in social application for mobile from 2009, and Community Factory draw investments of around 4.5 million US dollars from venture capitals and mixi inc. then the biggest social media in Japan. DECOPIC, Community Factory's one of the apps for smartphone, has been downloaded 6 million times in the 6 months since its release, and it is rapidly gaining users mainly in Asian countries.In Sep 2012, Ryosuke and other stock holders sold Community Factory to Yahoo Japan Corp., and he remains as CEO of Community Factory. ## Yuki Naito - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Series B - Focus: Manufacturing, Internet, SNS Yuki Naito - CEO,President @ Drecom ## Nobuhiro Ariyasu - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Content, Internet, Finance Nobuhiro Ariyasu is the CEO at Coach United. ## Hironari Umino - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Apps, Beauty, Incubators Hironari Umino - Chairman @ Increments ## Keith Yuki Isobe - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A, Series C - Focus: Advertising, SaaS, Information Technology Keith Yuki Isobe is an Investor and Managing Director (#VentureCapital | Digital Garage Group TSE4819 ). Most recently, he served as Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Geniee International Group, President and COO at Adstars and President Director at Geniee Technolody Indonesia (TSE6562 A Member of SoftBank Group). Prior to that, he was BoardDirector and CFO of MEDCARE, a Next-Unicorn HealthcareTech and Board Director of Waseda M&A Partners, a Startup Programmatic M&As. Contact Email Addresses: yuki-isobe@garage.co.jp (DG Ventures at Digital Garage TSE4819) ## Yoshinori Fukushima - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Angel, Series A - Focus: Internet, Marketing, Media and Entertainment Completed the Graduate School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo. He developed the service of “Gunosy” while he was in graduate school. Established Gnosy in 2012 and appointed CEO. In 2013, he was appointed President and CEO. 2012 IPA Unexplored Super Creator. He also served as President of LayerX. ## Takuma Iwasa - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed - Focus: Water, Beauty, IT Management Takuma Iwasa is a Founder & CEO at Cerevo. # 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