Our Team
Naohito Yoshida：Founder & CEO
With a desire to bring happiness to game players around the world and a conviction in the transformative power of blockchain technology, he is striving to create social game platforms where players not only use money, but are able to transform that money into assets, as well. A serial entrepreneur, Yoshida established three listed companies before founding DEA in 2018.
Kozo Yamada：Founder & Co-CEO
Born in 1977, after graduating from the University of Tokyo, Faculty of Law, he joined TV Tokyo in 2002. In the production department, he was in charge of program production, focusing on music programs and variety shows. Specialized in planning projects in conjunction with digital media. In 2018, he became independent and engaged in producing all aspects of entertainment. Founded DEA in Singapore in the same year, operating NFT gaming platform business PlayMining. In January 2022, he led the first listing of Play to Earn token "DEAPcoin (DEP)" in Japan. Also widely recognized as an expert in NFT games and has been publishing in NOTE and other media.
Shinya Kiriu：COO
Shinya Kiriu oversees strategy development, capital procurement and back-office operations as the person in charge of the management planning and corporate divisions. He works tirelessly in the hope of making DEA’s games and services loved by users around the world. After obtaining an MS at Tokyo University’s Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, Kiriu worked at a domestic material manufacturer involved in technology development and production management and then at a management consultancy supporting the growth of start-ups and the transformation of large companies. A certified math geek, Kiriu was a Japan National Team representative finalist for the International Mathematical Olympiad in 2001.
Prior to joining DEA, he was a senior controller in the Finance department of Goldman Sachs Japan. During his 13 years at Goldman Sachs, he was responsible for risk management and accounting covering various businesses including Investment Banking, Asset Management, and Trading. Prior to joining Goldman Sachs he was an equity derivatives product controller at Dresdner Kleinwort. He began his career as a consultant at Nippon Steel Solutions, working on systems development projects for Asian financial institutions. He joined the DEA in August 2022 and was appointed as Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
Tatsuya (Tats) Kohrogi：Chief Strategy Officer / Head of Global Business
Tats is our Vice President and Head of Global Business, responsible for leading the company’s global operations.
He has an extensive background in sales, marketing, business development and start up management. Prior to joining the company, he was a senior partner manager at Meta managing business partnerships for the Japan market based in APAC HQ in Singapore.
Prior to Meta, Tats worked with Softbank in Tokyo. He held several leadership roles in sales, digital marketing, investment strategy, portfolio management, and new business development.
During his time at SoftBank, Tats also co-founded an internal ad-tech service that received funding from SoftBank’s internal venture program. Tats was also part of Son Masayoshi’s successor program SoftBank Academia. He took part in CEO projects and learned management philosophy directly from Masa for 3 years.
Tats comes from a performing arts background and is passionate about enabling creators and helping people achieve their dreams. He aims to empower many creators and people through the potential of web3 and entertainment.
Hideaki Kurihara：CMO
After working as a marketing planner at Hakuhodo, he joined the company after engaging in management consulting for large companies and management support for investers at Dream Incubator. He graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo.
Daichi Namikawa：CTO
Engaged in the development of new services using cutting-edge research technology and the development of new research themes at NTT Laboratories. He has also planned and developed many other services that fuse entertainment and IT, including the management of an idol and the development of a VR application that enables remote control of an underwater drone. He joined this project as CTO in 2022. He holds a B.S. in Astronomy from Kagoshima University and a Ph. D. without dissertation in the department of Advanced Interdisciplinary Studies, Graduate School of Engineering from the University of Tokyo.
Satoshi Araragi：Chief Game Officer
After working as an overseas liaison and game producer at Namco Bandai Entertainment, Satoshi moved to the package industry and was posted to Thailand as Sales & Marketing Manager. Then he worked for a major game company, where he was in charge of overseas business and marketing team management for overseas subsidiaries before joining our company. Graduated from Osaka University with a B.A. in Foreign Languages. Trilingual in Japanese, Thai and English.
Kyuzaburo Suzuki：Senior Advisor
A veteran in accounting, taxation and finance, Suzuki brings to his position almost 40 years of experience working for such companies as JFE Steel Corporation, KPMG Consulting and most recently, as Group CFO of PwC Japan until 2019. With an impressive resume that includes serving as chief financial officer for subsidiary companies in Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United States, Suzuki is a recognized accounting, taxation and financial expert in the engineering and IT industries.
Teruko Hiraga：Creative Director
She joined our company after being in charge of a wide range of production operations such as program production and event management for preschoolers at CS Broadcasting Kids Station. She graduated from the Music Expression Course in the Faculty of Letters and Education, Department of Art Expression Behavior, at Ochanomizu University.
Motoko Terada：Localization&International Marketing Director
She joined our company after being involved in teaching Japanese to people who do not speak Japanese as their mother tongue. In addition to various localization operations that make use of her fluent language skills in Japanese, English, and Spanish, she leads overseas marketing. She graduated from the International Management Course at Yokohama City University.
May T. Liu：Strategy & Research Associate
In addition to being responsible to support the corporate affairs in our Singapore office, May is a member of the global business team, helping to build the global presence.
Before joining DEA, she was a margin analyst in Corporate & Investment Bank (CIB) at JPMorgan, led the communication and client services for the Japan portfolio.
Yukino Ito：Community Director
She joined our company after engaging in cost reduction planning and capital investment planning at domestic and overseas factories at a semiconductor manufacturer. She is currently in charge of back office operations, mainly labor related. She graduated from Hokkaido University.
Seiichi started his career in corporate sales at Mizuho Bank, he was engaged in strategic planning for small and medium-sized companies, where he was involved from planning to implementation in the construction of remote sales offices, which was an essential strategy in the mid-term management plan, before joining our company.
Takafumi Kiyota：Game Producer & Art Director
After working as a designer at major Japanese game companies such as Koei Tecmo Games and Nintendo, he has been involved in the planning and development of numerous hit titles as an art director and producer of content for mobile phones. After becoming independent as a producer in 2017, he established a development studio based in Kyoto in 2018. He graduated from Tama Art University.
After working at GREE, Inc. as a game director, Takumi was involved in the establishment of the publisher division, and the acquisition/release of copyrighted products. He then moved to Fields Corporation, where he served as producer of the game division and director of FutureScope, a subsidiary of Fields Corporation. Thereafter he founded Alva Co. Ltd., established a game consulting business as well as launched a new web/application business (planning/development/operation) based on the resources/value of each company's existing business in collaboration with major companies.
Shu Taketomi：Game Producer
He was involved in the development and operation of many hit titles as a game director and producer at GMO Internet and GREE. He then worked as a freelancer in planning and development consulting for several projects before joining our company. He holds BA from Waseda University.
Masataka Higashi：Game Producer
While working as a director of a console game company, he fell in love with the interactivity of online games and entered online game development. He launched many online games at nhn Japan (now nhn PlayArt) as a director and planner. Subsequently, he continued to produce numerous online and mobile games, but he jumped into the Web3 industry because of the strong potential of blockchain games, which he learned about through crypto currency.
Kunihiko Ozaki：Game Producer
At Fujitsu Program Giken (FPL) Ltd., while developing 3D graphics accelerators and demos for exhibition, experimental communication systems such as wireless LAN, and font rasterizers, he participated in the testing of the FM TOWNS Software Collection Overseas Edition series. Then, he moved on to localization of foreign games. At Electronic Arts Victor Corporation (Electronic Arts Inc.), he was in charge of producing many overseas games as a localization producer. He then worked on the localization of many foreign games such as Activision, and worked for several Japanese game companies as a producer/director of consumer games and social games. He has also worked as a voice talent manager and for the Ministry of Defense and Defense Equipment Agency.
After overseeing system development for startup media and serving as head of technology for the video production service business at Recruit Co., Yamato moved into contents business. At Pokémon Inc., as the head of the promotion planning department, he oversaw the promotion strategy for Pokémon, mainly on the Web. He then moved to Bushiroad Inc. where he worked as a game producer, setting up characters for famous IPs, managing music games, and producing programs. He joined DEA through the JobTribes cosplay contest at the "World Cosplay Summit 2019 in TOKYO," an international pop culture event for which he was the general producer. Currently, he works primarily as a content producer, producing games and other content.
Yuya Kawai：Game Planner
After graduating from high school and working for a theater company, he was in charge of editing and writing game magazines at the weekly Famitsu editorial department of Enterbrain (currently KADOKAWA). Next he worked as a game planner at Now Production, and after that he became independent. He was involved in the development and operation of apps at companies such as Bandai Namco Entertainment and Square Enix.
Yuma Yamamoto：Game Director
After working as a planner and director of consumer games mainly for PSP and 3DS at a game development company, he moved to Polygon Magic Inc. to become a film director. Later he joined TOMY Company Ltd., where he worked as an art director for application game titles and was in charge of starting up new businesses. In 2021, he became independent as a freelancer, before joining DEA as a member in 2022.
Cheolhoan Lim：Game Director
Born in Korea. He has been engaged in alliance business with overseas companies, management of overseas offices, management of Japanese subsidiaries, and IP development for about 26 years at Namco Bandai Entertainment, Konami Digital Entertainment, Pokopang, and Taito, etc. In April 2022, he became independent and established a consulting company, NKT3, where he is engaged in global IP game development, IP-based collaboration, M&A, investment brokerage and Webtoon business.
Reiji Kimura：Assistant Producer
He developed an interest in blockchain games in 2020 and experienced a number of titles at first hand. Later he went on to manage a gaming guild before joining our company.
Tomoyuki joined Inoue Public Relations in 2002, seconded to JPRI (Japan Public Relations Institute, Inc.), a PR think tank, and worked for Sunny Side Up, Inc., before going independent in January 2009. He has worked as a freelance PR consultant and publicist, lobbyist, press secretary for a member of the House of Representatives (Liberal Democratic Party), producer, radio personality and MC. Joined DEA in April 2022 and is in charge of CEO's special assignments, public relations and lobbying. Tomoyuki graduated from Tokyo Denki University with a Bachelor of Science in Construction Engineering (2000).
Yuichi Mizunuma：Art Director
After working at an architectural office as a residential building designer, he moved into the advertising industry, being involved in various advertising design projects. He then worked as an art director for an international art event management company before joining our company in 2022.
After graduating from an information technology university, Goh worked in system operations for a major transportation company. Since the age of 28, worked as an independent contractor and participated in system development for venture companies, banks, and government ministries. Since 2022, he has been in charge of infrastructure operation management as a member of DEA.
Masayuki Nagashio：Engineer
After working as a lead engineer at Accenture, COLOPL, and USEN, where he was involved in the development of numerous large-scale projects, he went independent in 2021 and founded AccelerDigital, a software development company. Since 2021, he is serving as CTO of PortFolder, Inc. He is primarily responsible for the development of the PlayMining platform.
Takamasa Mouri：Community Manager
Entered the gaming industry as a planner, and later, using his experience in Esports, built a career as a community management specialist in various game operations. He then acquired knowledge in data analysis, community management, and corporate strategy at a streaming platform, and is currently in charge of the CS department and community manager.
Maki joined a trading company after her graduation from university. She honed her special skills in sales and maintenance. After studying abroad, she worked for a trading company again as a sales manager before joining our company.
After working as an editor for a fashion magazine and then for a trading company in charge of a wide range of overseas business operations, Abby joined our company to focus on promotional work in the new entertainment industry. She is trilingual and taking a full advantage of her language skills of Japanese, English and Tagalog.
Misaki worked as an e-commerce supervisor at a venture company on a wide range of tasks such as numbers, system management, and training before joining the company.
Kazutaka Okubo：Auditor
Okubo is the CEO of Okubo Associates Co., Ltd. (CPA/CFE). He graduated from Keio University Faculty of Law. He is the former Senior Managing Director of EY Japan’s ERM division. He is a specially appointed professor for Keio University’s Graduate School of Media and Governance, and is also appointed as an outside corporate auditor of SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS and at many other corporations. He is also responsible for promoting compliance policies in Nagano, Kamakura, and Hamamatsu. He also consults a number of government offices in compliance policies, such as at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.
Last modified 2mo ago