8:15-9 a.m.
Check-in

9-9:05 a.m.
Welcome remarks
Kiyoteru Tsutsui
Director, Shorenstein APARC Japan Program, Stanford University
 

Panel 1- The Creators: Inside Japan’s Content Powerhouse

9:05-9:55 a.m. 
Presentation by Junichi Masuda
Chief Creative Fellow and Corporate Officer, The Pokémon Company　

9:55-10:55 a.m. 
Presentation by Hiroyuki Nakano
Senior Manager, SHUEISHA Third Editorial Department and Editor-in-Chief, WEEKLY SHONEN JUMP (ONE PIECE Media）

10:55-11:10 a.m. 
Coffee break

11:10 a.m.-12 p.m. 
Presentation by Tai Yasue
Director/Game Designer, Creative Studio 1, SQUARE ENIX

12-12:50 p.m. 
Panel discussion with Junichi Masuda, Hiroyuki Nakano, Tai Yasue, and Susan Napier, Goldthwaite Professor of Rhetoric and Japanese, Tufts University
Moderator: Yasushi Maruyama, Visiting Scholar, Shorenstein APARC, Stanford University 

12:50-2 p.m. 
Lunch break
 

Panel 2- The Innovators: The Global Reach of Japanese Content

2-3 p.m. 
Presentation by Hide Nagata
Director of the Board, Chief Financial Officer, & Chief Strategy Officer, Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc.

3-3:50 p.m. 
Presentation by Shoko Ugaki
CEO, Orange Inc.

3:50-4:05 p.m. 
Coffee break

4:05-4:55 p.m. 
Presentation by Motoaki Tanigo
President & CEO, COVER Corporation 

4:55-5:45 p.m. 
Panel discussion with Hide Nagata, Shoko Ugaki, Motoaki Tanigo, and Mizuko Ito, Director, Connected Learning Lab, University of California, Irvine, and Co-Founder, Connected Camps
Moderator: Kiyoteru Tsutsui, Director, Shorenstein APARC Japan Program, Stanford University

5:45-5:50 p.m.
Closing remarks
Kiyoteru Tsutsui
Director, Shorenstein APARC Japan Program, Stanford University

Junichi Masuda is a producer, game creator, and game music composer. Born in Yokohama City in 1968.

As one of the founding members of Game Freak inc., one of the original authors of the Pokémon video game series, he has been involved as a director and producer for the Pokémon video game series since 1989. He was in charge of theming, game design, and music for Pokémon GO. Appointed as the Chief Creative Fellow of The Pokémon Company in 2022, he has been using his creativity and deep knowledge of Pokémon to develop new services and products for the Pokémon brand.
 

Hiroyuki Nakano was born in Fukui Prefecture in 1977 and graduated from Waseda University, School of Humanities and Sciences. He joined Shueisha in 2000 and was assigned to the editorial department of Weekly Shonen Jump.

After serving as deputy editor of “Saikyou Jump,” he became the 11th editor of Weekly Shonen Jump from July 2017 to June 2024. He served as the 11th editor-in-chief of Weekly Shonen Jump from July 2017 to June 2024. Currently, he is the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the 3rd Editorial Department and the Editor-in-Chief of “ONE PIECE” Media. His major manga works include “BLEACH,” “Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro,” “Toriko,” “Beelzebub,” “Ichigo 100%,” “NARUTO (media editor),” etc.
 

Tai Yasue is a distinguished game director and designer best known for his contribution to the Kingdom Hearts series. 

Born in Vancouver BC, he moved to Japan when he was 16, where he eventually joined Square Enix as a game designer. His experience straddling two different cultural domains (Japan/Canada), has helped him to navigate the creative challenges of creating Kingdom Hearts, which is based on the collaboration of Square Enix and Disney. 

With a career spanning over two decades at Square Enix, he has played a pivotal role in directing large-scale development teams and designing game mechanics, battles, levels and minigames for several beloved action RPG’s. 
 

Susan Napier was born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and went to Japan for the first time at the age of 17. She has lived in Japan for eight years in all and tries to visit at least once a year. Currently, she is the Goldthwaite Professor of Rhetoric and Japanese at Tufts University. Previously, she held the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Chair at the University of Texas. She has also taught at the University of London and been a visiting professor at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Sydney, and a visiting scholar at Keio University in Tokyo. She is the author of five books, the most recent of which is Miyazakiworld: A Life in Art, published in 2018 by Yale University Press, which has been translated into fourteen languages. She is currently finishing up a book comparing Walt Disney Studios with the Japanese animation studio, Studio Ghibli.
 

Yasushi Maruyama is a Visiting Scholar at Stanford University’s Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) and a Partner at Egon Zehnder, a leading global leadership advisory firm. With over two decades advising global corporations on CEO succession, executive development, and governance — including previous roles at McKinsey in Japan and Germany — Yasushi combines deep insights from academia and practice. As former head of Egon Zehnder Japan and a member of its Global Executive Committee, he has coached over 100 senior executives through transformative leadership journeys. His research focuses on corporate governance and cross-cultural leadership, particularly within Japan’s evolving economic landscape. A lifelong enthusiast of games, manga, and anime, Yasushi is passionate about bridging Japan’s vibrant creative culture with Silicon Valley innovation. He is honored to serve as Co-organizer and Moderator of this conference.

Hide Nagata is the CFO & CSO of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. (SMEJ), a leading Japanese comprehensive entertainment company. His current responsibilities include Corporate Planning & Strategy, Global Business Strategy, Strategic Marketing, Finance, Information Technology ＆ Security etc. and is a board member of SMEJ as well as most of SMEJ’s subsidiaries.  Prior to joining SMEJ in 2020, Hide worked for Sony Pictures Entertainment for 6 years and was the SVP of Data & Planning Integration, mainly leading a studio-wide corporate data initiative.  He has been working in Sony Group’s entertainment business since 2008. 　
 

Shoko Ugaki is the founder and CEO of Orange, an AI-powered manga translation platform that is revolutionizing global access to Japanese comics. Founded in 2021, Orange leverages cutting-edge AI technology to break down language barriers in the manga industry. Before launching Orange, Sho was a rising star at Colopl, one of Japan's leading mobile gaming companies. As the youngest division manager in the company's history, he led the development and operations of hit titles like "Quiz RPG: The World of Mystic Wiz" and "Shironeko Project," which collectively garnered over 100 million downloads and numerous industry accolades. At Orange, Shoko and his team are at the forefront of a growing revolution in tech, using AI to tackle the complex challenges of manga localization. The company’s goal is to make Japan's vast manga library accessible to billions of readers worldwide, potentially transforming the global comics market.

Motoaki Tanigo, also known as "YAGOO", is co-founder and the current CEO of COVER Corporation, the parent company of Hololive Production. He previously worked at Imagineer Co., Ltd., producing games in partnership with Sanrio Company, Ltd., and then oversaw a business operating official mobile sites in partnership with TV stations and publishing companies. After launching an e-commerce business at istyle Inc., operator of the cosmetics review site @cosme, and participating in the founding of the mobile advertising company Interspire Inc. (now UNITED, Inc.), he founded 30min. Inc. and developed an O2O business centered on 30min., Japan's first GPS-enabled smartphone application, which was sold to IID, Inc.

Mizuko (Mimi) Ito is a cultural anthropologist, learning scientist, and an advocate for connected learning — learning that is joyful, interest-driven, and connected to culture and community. For over thirty years, she has studied how young people engage with technology, new media, and otaku culture in Japan and the U.S. She directs the Connected Learning Lab at the University of California, Irvine and is co-founder of Connected Camps, a non-profit offering social, project-based learning experiences in platforms such as Minecraft and Roblox. She is a leading expert in advising parents, educators, and technology developers on how emerging technology, games, and popular culture can support learning and wellbeing, and has been featured in a wide range of media outlets including The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, and National Public Radio. Recent publications include: Algorithmic Rights and Protections for Children (2023) and Social Media and Youth Wellbeing (2020).

Kiyoteru Tsutsui is the Henri H. and Tomoye Takahashi Professor, Professor of Sociology, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and Deputy Director of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, where he is also Director of the Japan Program. Tsutsui’s research interests lie in political/comparative sociology, social movements, globalization, human rights, and Japanese society. His most recent publication, Human Rights and the State: The Power of Ideas and the Realities of International Politics (Iwanami Shinsho, 2022), was awarded the 2022 Ishibashi Tanzan Award and the 44th Suntory Prize for Arts and Sciences.