My story
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Born and raised in Fukuoka, the fastest-growing startup hub in Japan, my cross-border experience began early. I participated in summer camps in the US run by my entrepreneurial parents.
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I pursued higher education in the US, earning a bachelor of economics from Scripps College. I enjoyed research, interviewing, and writing, and won a thesis award plus an international essay contest. I was invited to Paris to join an OECD conference 🙂
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I started my career with the Japanese government as an industry and market researcher. Our goal was to encourage global startups to enter the Japanese market. Later on, I had the good fortune to jump into the tech industry, driving growth through business partnership-building, customer success, sales, and marketing projects.
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After completing an MBA from UCLA, I joined a family startup in LA (Red Pelican). We grew the business and were bought out by a venture-backed company in 2021.
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Based in San Diego, I am a freelancer working with US startups to develop their business in Japan. I've worked on projects with Data.ai, Curvgroup, Lumina, Shaka's Hawaii, Rs2 Media, SFFM International, Gigazone, and many others. I enjoy working on new projects, and would love to learn about yours!