# Top 45 Education Angel Investors in Japan in May 2026 ## Kotaro Chiba - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 3 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Internet, Drones, Software Kotaro Chiba is the founder of ChibaDojo Fund. Kotaro Chiba attended Keio University. ## Robert Huang - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 3 - Stages: Series A - Focus: Education, E-Learning, Language Learning Mr. Huang founded SYNNEX in 1980 and serves as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Prior to this, Mr. Huang was the International Sales Manager at Advanced Micro Devices. Mr. Huang holds a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Kyushyu University, Japan, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Rochester and an M.S. inManagement Science from the Sloan School of Management at MIT. ## 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. ## Narita Shuzo - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Angel, Pre-Seed - Focus: Task Management, Media and Entertainment, Content Narita Shuzo is a Executive Vice President/COO, CrowdWorks Inc. ## Kiyoshi Ayabe - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 2 - Focus: Content, Education, E-Learning Kiyoshi Ayabe is the President and Founder of KIYO Learning. ## Tatsuo Sakamoto - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 2 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Education, Task Management, Recruiting Tatsuo Sakamoto ## Hidetoshi Takano - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 2 - 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. ## 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. ## 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. ## Keisuke Honda - Type: Angel - Location: Chuo, Hokkaido, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Education, Blockchain, E-Learning Keisuke Honda is the Founder & CEO of Now Do. ## Dai Tamesue - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Angel, Seed, Pre-Seed - Focus: Apps, Sports, Health Care Dai Tamesue is the Chief Marketing Officer of Miekuru. ## Ryuji Terada - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Angel, Seed - Focus: Education, Consulting, Human Resources Ryuji Terada ## Shuuichi Wada - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Angel, Series A - Focus: Reservations, Content, Social Media Shuuichi Wada - CTO @ alu Japan ## Noguchi Keito - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Media and Entertainment, Marketing, Financial Services Noguchi Keito - Founder @ Vapes ## Gaku Nakamura - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Pre-Seed - Focus: Sports, Education, Information Technology Gaku Nakamura - Co-Founder and CEO @ RareJob ## Yuichi Tanaka - Type: Angel - Location: Akasaka, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed - Focus: E-Learning, Communities, Graphic Design Yuichi Tanaka - CDO @ Visional ## Etsuji Otsuka - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed - Focus: Apps, Software, Training Etsuji Otsuka - Co-founder and CIO @ TRUIM Partners ## Fumiaki Koizumi - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Internet, E-Commerce, Content Fumiaki Koizumi - Executive Director @ Mercari ## 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. ## Ayataro Nakagawa - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - 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. ## Hideto Fujino - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Reservations, Travel, Real Estate Hideto Fujino - President, Cheif Investment Officer @ Rheos ## Yusuke Sato - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Internet, Content, Food and Beverage Yusuke Sato is the Co-Representative and Co-Founder at Pulit. ## 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". ## 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. ## Yoshitsune Ido - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed, Series A - Focus: Information Technology, Robotics, Software Yoshitsune Ido ## Joshua Schachter - Type: Angel - Location: San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A, Angel - Focus: Software, Mobile, Internet Joshua Schachter is an organizer at Self Racing Cars. He was the CEO of Tasty Labs and the founder of Joshua has also worked for directory, and was a co-creator of Memepool. ## Suzuki Yuto - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Series A - Focus: SaaS, Content, Internet Suzuki Yuto - Representative Director and CEO @ JapanWork ## Hikaru Kashida - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed - Focus: Consulting, E-Learning, Communities Hikaru Kashida is a data scientist and is currently working at Mercari Inc., Japan. ## Naruhisa Nakagawa - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A - Focus: Manufacturing, Beauty, Environmental Consulting Naruhisa Nakagawa is a Founder & Chief Investment Officer at Caygan Capital. ## Jun Ogawa - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Software, Education, Information Technology Jun Ogawa is the Managing Director at Pixie Dust Technologies. He was a former Country Manager at Kaizen Platform. ## Taki Toshio - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: Legal, Finance, Education Taki Toshio is the Founder at Money Forward . ## Naoki Yamada - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Pre-Seed - Focus: Information Technology, Software, Sports Naoki Yamada ## Kato Yorihiko - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed - Focus: Internet, Education, Agriculture Kato Yorihiko is a Founder and Director at Bitbank. ## Kitamura Yota - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed - Focus: Education, E-Learning Kitamura Yota ## Yusuke Ando - Type: Angel - Location: Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Series A - Focus: Content, Education, Social Media YUSUKE ANDO is a Outside Director at hachidori. ## Yamamoto Kento - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed - Focus: E-Learning, Communities, Graphic Design Yamamoto Kento - Directors CDO @ COUNTERWORKS ## Sagehashi Yuki - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Angel, Seed - Focus: Content, FinTech, Finance Sagehashi Yuki ## Sumiya Einosuke - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Series A - Focus: Media and Entertainment, Education, Logistics Sumiya Einosuke ## Junshin Kawasaki - Type: Angel - Location: Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Angel - Focus: Education, EdTech, Infrastructure Junshin Kawasaki - Director @ LEVIAS ## Nishiki Takashi - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Angel - Focus: Content, Education, Social Media Nishiki Takashi - Outside Director @ aucfan Co.,Ltd. ## Seiya Koide - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed - Focus: E-Learning, Communities, Graphic Design After experiencing CG designer, freelance, image director etc, joined KLab Corporation as an art director in May 2012. Business promotion and management skills are appreciated, and he joined the creative department manager in 1 year of joining the company and as the youngest executive officer in April 2014. In March 2015 he served concurrently asmarketing director and organized management of several divisions, he was active in a wide range of scenes. We are also focusing on developing creative events for new graduates and planning creative events for regular graduates and giving lectures for students. FiNC led the overall branding and service design while operating the organization as CCO Creative Director. ## Toru Shimada - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - 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. ## Daisuke Takanashi - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Angel - Focus: SNS, Content, Finance Daisuke Takanashi is an angel investor. ## Makoto Takano - Type: Angel - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A, Series B - Focus: Content, Sports, Apps Makoto Takano is CEO of atomixmedia, inc., publisher and editor-in-chief of Forbes Japan and Rolling Stone Japan since June, 2014. Prior to joining Atomixmedia, Inc., he was Managing Director and President of PIMCO Japan Ltd. Before joining PIMCO in 2001, he was head of marketing at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Makoto's prior experiencealso includes work at Daiwa Securities where he was head of the strategists team at Daiwa Institute of Research. He has published extensively on the capital markets. In 1992, he was awarded Securities Analysts Journal Prize by the Securities Analyst Association of Japan. He has also given lectures on asset management at Waseda University and Kyoto University. He holds master’s and undergraduate degrees in engineering from Waseda University. Makoto serves as Director of Nippon Finance Association and Rebuild Japan Initiative Foundation. ## Mark Goines - Type: Angel - Location: San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States - Relevant deals: 1 - Stages: Seed, Series A, Angel - Focus: Financial Services, Software, FinTech Based in Menlo Park, Mark is a Partner focused on the areas of financial technology, mobile, consumer and small business Internet services. He has an extensive track record of working with high growth companies as an entrepreneur, executive and angel investor. Exits from his angel investments include Mint, Baby Center, PayCycle and Nolo.com.Prior to joining Morgenthaler, Mark was a successful angel investor. His investments included two Morgenthaler portfolio companies, Pageonce and Practice Fusion. He currently represents Morgenthaler on the Practice Fusion board.Previously, Mark helped build and ran Intuit’s Consumer Tax business (TurboTax). He also served as Senior Vice President of Intuit’s International Division, managing businesses on every continent, creating new products, acquiring companies and building partnerships. He then served as General Manager of Intuit’s Consumer Division and helped generate over $200 million in annual revenues, serving 15 million customers across a broad range of software and e-commerce services by 2000.Prior to Intuit, Mark held executive positions at Wells Fargo and Charles Schwab, where he developed and marketed early-stage banking, software and electronic services that formed the foundation of today’s online trading industry.Mark became an active investor and entrepreneur in 2000. He was an investor and board member at Mint, a consumer online financial management company that was sold to Intuit in 2009. He was also an investor and board member in Nolo.com, a self-help law service that was sold to Internet Brands in 2011. Goines co-founded and became chief marketing officer at PassMark Security, which was sold to RSA in 2006. He also invested in WePay (payments), BillFloat (lending) and Cozi (family organization).Mark holds an M.B.A. and a B.S. from the University of California at Berkeley. He served as president of the Los Altos Educational Foundation and has been elected as a trustee of the Los Altos School Board. # 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