My previous job was at a telecommunications company. At the sales planning and management planning departments, I was involved in projects such as building alliances with overseas telecommunications companies, investing in overseas startups, raising finances, and drawing up mid-term management plans. My work was very interesting, since it was on the global stage and had a large sense of scale. Those days were incredibly satisfying for me. However one day, after having worked there for around 12 years, I had a strong desire to do something else. And I thought to myself “Telecommunications services are important infrastructure that are essential for society. While I feel a corresponding sense of duty towards work that provides these services, my dilemma was that this kind of work was difficult to distinguish from other companies,” and “I want to try work that delivers value to the world that only I, or in other words, we, can provide.” The content industry came to mind. The content that goes all around the world through the telecommunications services that I worked for has a very wide amount of variety and diversity and is a lot of fun. I thought that if I took the plunge into that industry, I’d be able to do work that provides highly original value. Yet, I still wasn’t entirely sure about my decision. Of course, I knew that Japanese content was well known throughout the world, but my image of KADOKAWA wasn’t one of a global company. I wasn’t sure how much of the experience from my previous job I’d be able to take advantage of at KADOKAWA. But soon after joining, I realized that my worries were just baseless fears.

Early on, KADOKAWA set up its own offices in each country and region of the world. It has already formed various alliances with powerful companies throughout the world. I was honestly surprised that KADOKAWA’s overseas expansion had already proceed this much strategically. Imagining the global possibilities for KADOKAWA in the future makes me quite excited. There is still a lot of room for growth in the areas that have existing offices. The company is also setting its sight on new office expansion in regions that are expecting explosive economic growth, such as Southeast Asia as well as Europe. Soon after joining KADOKAWA I was convinced that we could do dynamic work beyond our imaginations in this company. Actually, I’m currently engaged in building partnerships with overseas companies as the person in charge of M&A and Alliance. I’ve plunged myself into one matter after another seeking out collaborations with various companies worldwide, and I am feeling the outstanding growth in the “Content x Global” area as well as the increased worldwide attention that KADOKAWA is receiving. With projects that I specifically worked on, I feel nothing but confidence from the capital alliances we have made with companies that are in the world’s top ten in terms of aggregate market value, as well as the raising of finances on the scale of tens of billions of yen. Recently, we were able to secure around 36.4 billion yen in funding from Sony and Tencent (China) for speeding up the global expansion of FROM SOFTWARE, a KADOKAWA Group company that has created such global hit games as ELDEN RING and DARK SOULS.

KADOKAWA is preparing an environment for quickly advancing its global business. My current percentage of remote work is around 90%, and my working hours are flexible. There are times when meetings and negotiations with overseas partners are early in the morning or in the evening Japan time. But since it’s a flexible environment, we can work quickly and without overexerting ourselves. I’m a parent myself, and many of my coworkers also have small children. Any employee, regardless of nationality, is happy with an environment where you can work with a high degree of freedom. And the most appealing part is the people who work here. In KADOKAWA, there are many people of various nationalities and working backgrounds. Many experts in various fields are gathered here, and you can learn a lot from your colleagues. Various industries, companies, knowledge and know-how from around the world are concentrated here in KADOKAWA. Working here is very exciting, and you can greatly speed up your own growth.
I think that content will be an important industry that has a big impact on the Japanese economy in the future. The power of Japanese content, even as many Japanese companies are forced to struggle in global competition, is truly amazing. The content industry is also actively absorbing new technologies and fields, including the Metaverse. It’s an industry we won’t get tired of, due to the changes and progress that will continue to happen in the future. The content industry is now overflowing with even more possibilities for doing global business. And I think that the one company where you can do the most dynamic work in this environment is none other than KADOKAWA.

*The contents of this article are from the time of the interview (September 2022).