4. Team

Soichiro Takaoka

A Japanese serial entrepreneur with 23 years of experience in the fintech field, he began his career at Mitsui & Co., one of the most massive global enterprises based in Japan. He then left to start his own fintech company which rose to the top under his leadership, gaining over $1B total in investment advisory contracts, the highest of any investment advisory firm in Japan for individual investors. He has also authored two publications about finance. In 2018, he founded Social Good Foundation Inc. based on multiple inventions related to cryptocurrency. He graduated from Tokyo University and completed the Stanford Executive Program.

Andrew Tantomo

As a lead engineer at Rakuten, he was involved in global app development. He is a highly-skilled, full stack developer, fluent in English, Chinese, and Japanese. He holds degrees from the Singapore Institute of Management and Keio University Graduate School.

Kenichi Hoshi

As a member of the Amazon Japan management team during their major growth period, he led the expansion of several key businesses.

Yoshitaka Matsumoto

As an engineer at IBM Japan, he was involved in large-scale global development and obtained six patents. As a data scientist at DeNA, he led the economical design and data analysis of well-known games. He graduated from the Graduate School of Science and Engineering at Ritsumeikan University.

Hisahito Kobayashi

Former internal auditor at a subsidiary of the Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group. His experience includes handling regulatory issues with global regulators as the lead representing counterparty officer. He holds a master's degree from Harvard University (KSG MPA).

Seiichiro Yonekura

Professor at the Hitotsubashi University Institute of Innovation Research. His research focuses on innovation. After a chance encounter with the founder of Grameen Bank, Muhammad Yunus, he became a Grameen special advisor in Japan. He provides advice about social entrepreneurship. He earned his PhD from GSAS at Harvard University.

Hideto Kohno

Director of Kohno & Kohno Patent Office and author of “Introduction to FinTech Patents: Arm Blockchain Technology with Patents.” His office has been an expert in IT intellectual property for over 40 years.

Tomohiro Takagi

Professor at the School of Science and Technology of Meiji University and is a Doctor of Engineering. As one of the world’s leading authorities on computational AI, he has been a visiting researcher at UC Berkeley in addition to conducting joint research with Sony and Panasonic. His research is at the forefront of high-precision recommendation engines and high-precision targeted marketing.