WIA’s Board Members & Team

I was invited around a year ago to be WIA co-founder by my friend Tetsuo Kato, a consultant turns social entrepreneur. I accepted without any hesitation. Since then, I hear good news from time to time of the progress of their work in using social innovation and social enterprise models in the recovery effort of Tohoku region which was heavily affected by the lastest Japanese Tsunami.

Now almost a year later, I was invited again to join their one year anniversary. There were perhaps a hundred people gathering in the Nippon Foundation listening to the WIA stories, how they supported five social entrepreneurs in the area successfully ranging from mother care to education. Most of these social entrepreneurs are quite young, in their 30s. WIA is planning to launch Japan’s first venture philanthropy fund, they are pioneering something they called ‘network-based social venture capital funding’. Now they plan to scale radically with the help of the Japanese Americans as well as their global connections. Learn more about WIA at http://wia.stonesoup.jp/

I’ve met so many people, and I believe that these people will transform Japan as well as Asia.