Japan

Risa Hamada

Risa joined Plug and Play in 2018 after a career in a major Japanese trading firm, Sumitomo Corporation. She is supporting the Insurtech start-ups through consultation and connecting them to major insurance firms in Japan. Graduated from Waseda University.

Kazuya Hata

After working at Milliman, an actuarial consulting firm, he worked at JP Morgan Securities, Nomura Securities, and Munich Re providing product development, risk management, ALM and other services to insurance companies. Programming: VBA/Swift/Python/Ruby. Associate member of the American Society of Actuaries. Wine expert. Board member of the Fintech Association. Graduated from Kyoto University in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in science.

Takaya Taguchi

Joined Mizuho Banks as a new graduate in 2011. He was responsible for the loans in corporate sales and investment and loans for the developing countries during the secondment at Japan Bank for International Cooperation. He was then responsible for sales strategy at the headquarter’s international corporation sales department. He left in 2018. In February, 2018, he joined PwC Advisory LLC. Under M&A sector, he takes part in M&A of both domestic and international in the areas of corporate valuations and FA. He has also done strategy consulting for other M&A related projects. In April, 2019, he joined Daiichi Life Insurance. He partakes in the M&A and the development of innovation in the department of corporate planning and the department of sales strategy. He eventually leads the M&A project of Japanese insurance agency. In April, 2020, Taguchi became a COO of Frich, an insurtech start-up company. He is currently in charge of finance and general operations.

Masashige Obana

He is a graduate of University of Tokyo Economics major. While working at BayCurrent Consulting, he engages in marketing strategies, IT strategies, investment management, and PMOs of insurance industries. In August 2017, he established Hokan. With his strengths in consulting experience and IT strategies, he provides consulting support in the areas of launching and building new product and Saas service for the insurance agencies.

Kenta Ito

After working as a system engineer in insurance industry, he founded IB in October 2018. During the time of 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, he was a university student and visited Miyagi and Iwate as a volunteer. There, he witnessed the scenes of twins washed away by the tsunami, and he became aware of the problems of how difficult it is to make insurance claims in an emergency situation and how many potential insurance claims are dismissed. This led to the concept of a centralized management tool for insurance subscriber data. IB Co., Ltd. is a business centered on the Insurance Registry, an application that allows users to manage all their insurance information in one place. The company is not in the business of selling insurance, but rather is dedicated to creating a system that enables users to find insurance policies they can claim. The company is currently working with insurance carriers on a follow-up support SaaS called “Insurance Registry for Business,” which helps prevent missed claims.

Naohiro Hasebe

In 2001, Hasebe joined JP Morgan. He worked under Japanese equity sales department in the equity derivatives department, where he was in charge of structuring equity derivative products and sales to institutional investors, and gained a network of contacts with the founders of listed companies. In 2006, he joined Morgan Stanley Japan Securities Co. where he developed financial strategies for non-financial companies (listed companies, unlisted companies, schools, religions organizations, foundations, etc.) in the areas of fund management and financial strategies. He developed corporate clients, including companies listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, from scratch. In 2009, he joined Prudential Life Insurance Co. Not only did he took care of the common individual coverage, he also handled inheritance and business process transfer plans and continued to achieve MDRT. In 2017, he founded the company that solve the problems he had developed through his 15+ years in financial sales. He has been a member of the Securities Analyst Association of Japan (SAAJ) since 2006. He has a Level 1 Financial Planning Technician certification (CFP) in 2010, and he is a registered non-life insurance brokerage in 2001.

Yusuke Ishikawa

Born and raised in Aichi Prefecture. In order to solve social issues on fertility treatment, he founded Famione in 2015. At his previous job at M3, one of the largest information providers for physicians in Japan, he was in charge of the new business “AskDoctors, Evaluation and Development Support Service” where he implemented everything from planning, sales, and operations. He is a father of two children, a gentle eldest son and an energetic eldest daughter. At home, he is in charge of cooking, throwing out the trash, and in charge of cooking, throwing out the trash, and doing the laundry on weekends.

Shiho Azuma

After majoring in physics at university, she earned a masters degree in aerospace in the U.S. She entered the doctoral program at JAXA’s Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), but she dropped out of the program due to financial reasons after her father passed away. She then joined JEOL Resonance, Inc. and engaged in the development of nuclear magnetic resonance instruments. Recommended by her husband, who is medical ultrasound researcher, she participated in the University of Tokyo’s ultrasound CT project in 2015. She founded Lily MedTech in 2016, and it was selected as a J-Startup in 2019. She is currently conducting clinical research at several university hospitals and other institutions.

Kiyotaka Matsui

B.A. in Economics, UCLA. Principal Investment Group and Technology Media Telecom Group of IBD at Lehman Brothers. After its collapse, transferred to Financial Institutions Group of Nomura Securities. Participated in the IPO of Dai-ichi Life Insurance. Later, joined Wellington Management Japan. Participated in Marketing and Sales Promotion of mutual funds. Start-up Sasuke Financial Lab Inc. in 2016.

Masaru Kusutani (Max)

Masaru joined Tokio Marine in 1994. After working as part of the risk management of the energy sector and the financial services sector, he engages in the development of digital innovation of the entire corporate group. Since 2016, he has launched a first digital innovation office in Silicon Valley, in the U.S., and has been working on the developments of insurance services that utilizes digital technology and the establishment of strategic alliances with the start-ups and the platform businesses. In April, 2019, Kusutani returned to Japan for the launching of the new department that manages the strategic alliances and the digital innovation.

Kazuya Masujima

Partner lawyer in Mori and Hamada Law Office. Graduated University of Tokyo and Columbia University Law School. Practiced in WIlson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati Palo Alto Office (2006-2007) Assistant director of the Insurance Division and the First Banking Division (2010-2012) With focus on M&A, he works with large corporate’s start-ups for the development of FinTech and InsurTech. He was chosen as Leading Individual by Chambers Asia in the area of Insurance six years in a row and was ranked as second place for corporate lawyer by Nikkei Shimbun in 2017. He has earned a reputation as an advisor of change and innovations in finance.

Chang Li

Chang joined Plug and Play in 2018 after a career in a major Japanese life insurer through work experience in investment investigation, cross-border M&A and profit management. Chang is supporting both Insurtech startups growth and insurers innovation currently. Graduated from HKU MBA.

Yasuhiro Yoshizawa

Yoshizawa majored in electrical engineering and graduated from the University of Tokyo. After gaining experiences in P&G and consulting firms, he joins the launching of LifeNet Life Insurance and leads the marketing and new product strategy. After the company gets listed, Yoshizawa establishes Inclusion Japan and engages in all levels, from marketing to strategies, of launching a venture firm. He also does connecting venture firms to corporates.