Aspiring Partners research
Japan Head Appointments Register
Every publicly documented appointment of a new head of Japan at a non-Japanese enterprise technology company, by month, with the share held by women. Built for talent and HR leaders who have to explain the Japan leadership market to a global team.
Updated 5 October 2026. 2026 figures run to 21 September 2026.
Appointments by month
Each bar is the number of people who took the top Japan job that month. 2026 runs to 21 September. The chart covers 2024 to date, and each of those years has had a full source sweep. Earlier years will be added once each has been fully checked.
2026 to date, to 21 September 2026: 40 appointments recorded, 4 women (10%).
By year
Work in progress. Years that are not yet swept are still being researched, so their counts will rise. A share of women is shown only once a year has had a full sweep.
Counts rise with search effort, so an unswept year would read as a quiet market when it is simply unsearched. The 2026 figure is year to date and will change.
| Year | Appointments | Women | Share | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 YTD | 40 | 4 | 10% | year to date |
| 2025 | 45 | 5 | 11.1% | swept |
| 2024 | 31 | 4 | 12.9% | swept |
Using this with a global team
Two questions come up on nearly every Japan leadership search. One is from HQ, asking why the shortlist looks the way it does. The other is from the team in Japan, who need something better than an opinion when they answer it.
The numbers on this page are public, sourced and repeatable, so they can be quoted in an internal review without anyone having to take our word for it. Every record links to the announcement it came from.
- Use the monthly chart to show how few of these jobs change hands in any one month. In most months it is a handful.
- Use the year table to show the share of women across a full year rather than a single search.
- Use the register itself to name the companies that do appoint women, which is where a target list should start.
A paragraph you can paste into an email
Between 1 January 2025 and 21 September 2026 we recorded 85 public appointments of a new head of Japan at non-Japanese enterprise technology companies. 9 of them were women, which is 10.6%. The pool a Japan Country Manager is hired from is small, and the share of women in it is smaller again. Source: Aspiring Partners Japan Head Appointments Register, as of 5 October 2026.
What this does not say. It is a count of public announcements, not a census of every hire, and it does not measure how many women were approached or interviewed. It says how many reached the seat.
The register
Work in progress. This list is not complete. We are working back through earlier years, so more records will be added, and some records still need a start date or a gender check. If you know of an appointment we have missed, please email Murray.
Every record we hold. Rows shaded are women.
| Date | Company | Leader | Title | Gender |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-15 | Acronis | Hisao Toyama (遠山尚雄) | General Manager, Japan | Male |
| 2026-09-09 | Smartsheet | Takeshi Osawa (大澤毅) | President and GM, Japan | Male |
| 2026-09-01 | Splashtop | Kotaro Shinra (新良幸太郎) | Representative Director and GM | Male |
| 2026-09-01 | EPLAN | Yasuhiro Hoshino (星野泰宏) | Representative Director | Male |
| 2026-08-24 | Syncron | Yusuke Sasano (佐々野裕輔) | Head of Japan | Male |
| 2026-08-17 | Dell Technologies | Jon Robottom | President | Male |
| 2026-08-06 | Infor | Yuka Kanemitsu (金光諭佳) | President and Representative Director | Female |
| 2026-08-04 | Doppel | Hideki Ushigome (牛込秀樹) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2026-08-01 | Notion | Tomo Aoki (青木友) | General Manager, Japan | Male |
| 2026-08-01 | IBM | Masaki Murata (村田将輝) | President | Male |
| 2026-07-29 | OutSystems | Chikara Teshima (手島主税) | Chairman and CEO, Japan | Male |
| 2026-07-23 | Scaled Agile | Hiroaki Nakaya (中谷浩晃) | President | Male |
| 2026-07-15 | SonicWall | Tony Taniguchi (谷口忠彦) | President | Male |
| 2026-07-01 | DataRobot | Osamu Takizawa (滝沢理) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2026-06-24 | Glean | Masaharu Ozawa (小澤正治) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2026-06-16 | Qlik | Yoshihiro Konno (今野芳弘) | President | Male |
| 2026-06-15 | Strategy | Takeshi Koga (古賀剛) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2026-06-11 | Dropbox | Yoichi Tatsumura (龍村洋一) | President, Japan business | Male |
| 2026-06-05 | SentinelOne | Takuya Kutsuwada (轡田拓也) | Vice President, Japan | Male |
| 2026-06-01 | Docusign | Hiroki Yoshida (吉田浩生) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2026-06-01 | Fastly | Rumi Oku (奥るみ) | Area Vice President, Japan | Female |
| 2026-06-01 | o9 Solutions | Hideki Shiozuka (塩塚英己) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2026-05-01 | Nutanix | Hiroshi Imai (今井浩) | President | Male |
| 2026-04-29 | ByteBridge | Seiji Sugiura (杉浦誠司) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2026-04-27 | Recorded Future | Mitsuro Kakizawa (柿澤光郎) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2026-04-09 | Filigran | Maya Toda (戸田麻弥) | Country Manager, Japan | Female |
| 2026-04-09 | Cognition AI | Takumi Masai (正井拓己) | President and GM | Male |
| 2026-04-01 | Dragos | Kaori Nieda (仁枝かおり) | Country Manager | Female |
| 2026-04-01 | HubSpot | Hiroya Isa (伊佐裕也) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2026-04-01 | New Relic | Masakiyo Furudate (古舘正清) | GVP, Head of Japan | Male |
| 2026-04-01 | Kyndryl | Yoshinori Irisawa (入澤由典) | President | Male |
| 2026-04-01 | SAP | Yoshiro Horikawa (堀川嘉朗) | President | Male |
| 2026-03-30 | Forescout | Tsuyoshi Kitagawa (北川剛) | Regional Director and Country Manager | Male |
| 2026-03-23 | Content Guru | Masakatsu Yoneda (米田匡克) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2026-03-11 | Mattermost | Shigeru Harasawa (原沢滋) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2026-03-03 | Amplitude | Kazuki Hirose (広瀬一輝) | President | Male |
| 2026-02-01 | ClickHouse | Takeshi Kaneko (金古毅) | President | Male |
| 2026-01-14 | Cohesity | Yoshiyuki Tanaka (田中良幸) | President | Male |
| 2026-01-13 | Persefoni | Takehiro Endo (遠藤丈寛) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2026-01-01 | Splunk | Junichiro Uchiyama (内山純一郎) | President | Male |
| 2025-12-15 | Zuora | Shigeki Iwakami (岩上茂樹) | President | Male |
| 2025-12-10 | IQGeo | Kinji Ohno (大野欽司) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2025-12-01 | NAVEX | Nick Mitsuya (三ツ谷直晃) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2025-12-01 | Proofpoint | Ken Nomura (野村健) | VP Japan and Representative Director | Male |
| 2025-12-01 | Accenture | Dai Hamaoka (濱岡大) | President | Male |
| 2025-11-20 | Nerdio | Tatsuro Sugiyama (杉山達朗) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2025-11-11 | Infoblox | Kazunori Dobashi (土橋一範) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2025-11-03 | Absolute Software | Yasuki Aragaki (新垣康紀) | President | Male |
| 2025-11-01 | WalkMe | Ryo Noda (野田亮) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2025-10-24 | Cloudflare | Sayoko Matsumoto (松本紗代子) | Regional VP and Japan Representative | Female |
| 2025-10-10 | KELA | Yuji Hirokawa (廣川裕司) | President and COO | Male |
| 2025-10-06 | Rapid7 | Toshiyuki Matsuda (松田敏幸) | President | Male |
| 2025-10-02 | Western Digital | Hisashi Takano (高野公史) | Japan Country Officer | Male |
| 2025-10-01 | proteanTecs | Noritaka Kojima (小嶋範孝) | GM and Country Manager | Male |
| 2025-10-01 | Google Cloud | Tomoko Mikami (三上智子) | Head of Google Cloud Japan | Female |
| 2025-09-11 | Mapbox | Yoshikazu Hata (畑義和) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2025-09-09 | Deel | Ryo Nishiura (西浦亮) | President and Country Manager | Male |
| 2025-09-05 | SailPoint | Toru Fukushima (福島徹) | Head of Japan | Male |
| 2025-08-07 | Anthropic | Hidetoshi Tojo (東條英俊) | President | Male |
| 2025-08-07 | Solace | Yo Ohara (小原洋) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2025-08-04 | Penguin Solutions | Sanshiro Masada (正田三四郎) | President | Male |
| 2025-08-01 | Snowflake | Ryuji Ukita (浮田竜路) | President | Male |
| 2025-07-24 | Elastic | Ken Otani (大谷健) | President | Male |
| 2025-07-24 | Shopify | Michio Baba (馬場道生) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2025-07-01 | Zendesk | Taro Mori (森太郎) | President | Male |
| 2025-06-18 | Staffbase | Yuri Akahira (赤平百合) | Country Manager | Female |
| 2025-06-16 | Kaspersky | Mitsuru Sagano (嵯峨野充) | Representative Director and President | Male |
| 2025-06 | Kyriba | Yoko Ohtsu (大津陽子) | Managing Director, Kyriba Japan | Female |
| 2025-05-28 | DigiCert | Kaname Ninomiya (二宮要) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2025-05-09 | Coupa | Koichiro Sorimachi (反町浩一郎) | Representative Director and President | Male |
| 2025-05-01 | Cybereason | Hitotaka Sakurada (桜田仁隆) | President | Male |
| 2025-05 | SUSE | Gen Watanabe (渡辺元) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2025-04-07 | Varonis | Toshi Namiki | Country Manager | Male |
| 2025-04-03 | Cloudera | Yuji Yamaga (山賀裕二) | RVP and Country Manager | Male |
| 2025-04-01 | Meltwater | Masayuki Akada (赤田将之) | Executive Officer and President | Male |
| 2025-04-01 | Kingsoft Japan | Feng Da | President | Male |
| 2025-03-24 | Illumio | Hiromasa Ebi (江尾浩昌) | VP and Country Manager | Male |
| 2025-03-01 | Lenovo Enterprise Solutions | Lei Zhang | President | Male |
| 2025-02-26 | o9 Solutions | Brad Palm | Representative Director and Country Manager | Male |
| 2025-02-20 | Cohesity | Yuka Kanemitsu (金光諭佳) | President | Female |
| 2025-02-01 | Box | Noriyuki Sato (佐藤範之) | President | Male |
| 2025-02-01 | tldx Solutions | Sotaro Mizoguchi (溝口宗太郎) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2025-02 | Brightcove | Takayuki Tadokoro (田所隆幸) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2025-01-21 | Kinaxis | Masaki Kogure (小暮正樹) | President and Head of Japan | Male |
| 2025-01-20 | Netskope | Yuichi Gonda (権田裕一) | VP and Country Manager | Male |
| 2024-11-01 | Amazon Web Services | Akihiko Shirahata (白幡晶彦) | President and Representative Executive Officer | Male |
| 2024-11-01 | Tealium | Tomoo Abe (安部知雄) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2024-10-31 | Keeper Security | Takanori Nishiyama (西山高徳) | SVP APAC Sales and Country Manager, Japan | Male |
| 2024-10-21 | Teradata | Takeshi Osawa (大澤毅) | Representative Director and President | Male |
| 2024-09-02 | Scandit | Tetsuya Akiya (秋谷哲也) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2024-08-29 | KnowBe4 | Kazuhiro Chikara (力一浩) | Country Manager and President | Male |
| 2024-08-01 | Nok Nok Labs | Kenji Hirai (平井健二) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2024-07-17 | Vantiq | Tomonari Sato (佐藤知成) | Representative Director and President | Male |
| 2024-07-01 | F5 | Masanori Kimura (木村正範) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2024-07-01 | Kong | Daiki Ariizumi (有泉大樹) | Representative Director and President | Male |
| 2024-07 | Thomson Reuters | Kento Miura (三浦健人) | Representative Director and President | Male |
| 2024-05-28 | XM Cyber | Masaki Hiraoka | Country Manager, Japan | Male |
| 2024-05-15 | Synchronoss Technologies | Junji Nishihara | Country Manager, Japan Operations | Male |
| 2024-05-14 | CyberArk | Mitsuro Kakizawa (柿澤光郎) | Executive President | Male |
| 2024-05-12 | Sophos | Tatsuya Adachi (足立達矢) | Representative Director | Male |
| 2024-05-08 | Amplitude | Kaori Nieda (仁枝かおり) | Country Manager, Japan | Female |
| 2024-04-22 | Adobe | Yoko Nakai (中井陽子) | Representative Director and President | Female |
| 2024-04-15 | OpenAI | Tadao Nagasaki (長崎忠雄) | President | Male |
| 2024-04-02 | Braze | Shigetaka Mizutani (水谷篤尚) | Representative Director and President | Male |
| 2024-04-01 | HubSpot | Takao Suda (須田孝雄) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2024-04-01 | Confluent | Koichi Ishii (石井晃一) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2024-04-01 | Kyndryl | Jonathan Ingram | President | Male |
| 2024-02-19 | Workday | Chikara Furuichi (古市力) | President | Male |
| 2024-02-14 | Sitecore | Kensaburo Tamura | Area Vice President, Japan | Male |
| 2024-02-01 | Tanium | Hidenori Harada (原田英典) | Representative Director and President | Male |
| 2024-02-01 | UiPath | Tetsuo Minami (南哲夫) | Country Manager | Male |
| 2024-02-01 | Datadog | Takumi Masai (正井拓己) | President and General Manager | Male |
| 2024-01-08 | OpenText | Denise Miura (三浦デニース) | SVP and President, OpenText Japan | Female |
| 2024-01-01 | Cisco Systems | Yoshiyuki Hamada (濱田義之) | Representative Executive Officer and President | Male |
| 2024-01-01 | SAP Concur | Sachio Hashimoto (橋本祥生) | Representative Director and President | Male |
| 2024 | Statista | Naoko Miyamoto (宮本奈央子) | Country Manager | Female |
| date pending | Oracle NetSuite | Yuki Shibuya | Head of NetSuite Japan | Female |
How this is counted
A record is one person taking the top Japan role at a non-Japanese enterprise technology company: President, 代表取締役社長 (daihyō torishimariyaku shachō), Country Manager, General Manager Japan, Head of Japan, or an Area VP whose remit is all of Japan. Functional heads and deputies are not counted.
The month comes from the date the person started, not the date of the announcement, because announcements can run months either side of the start. Where no start date has been published yet, the record sits on its announcement month.
Consumer hardware, video surveillance, telecom equipment, automotive, payments and fintech, and life sciences are out of scope. Japanese-owned companies are out.
Every record needs a public source. An announcement is best, and where there is none, public evidence of the person holding the title stands in. A person known only from a LinkedIn profile is not counted.
This page is updated quarterly, with a full year published each January. Corrections are welcome and are logged with the date.
The research and drafting were done with AI tools under Murray Clarke's direction. Every figure links back to the source it came from, and he is accountable for what is here. If we have missed an appointment, tell us and we will add it. The narrative behind these numbers is in Women in Leadership in Japan 2026.