Ranking · checked 2026-10-17
Top 100 Japanese Startup Founders
Founders and CEOs of private, Japan-founded startups, ranked by X followers (checked 2026-10-17). Founders without a verified X account come after, ordered by their company's total funding. We show every raw number so you can re-rank yourself. How we rank ↓
16founders researched
15with a verified X account
20public appearances summarised in English
| # | Founder | Company · role | X followers | Company raised | Podcasts | Appearances | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | David Ha デイビッド・ハ | Sakana AI Co-founder & CEO | 442,424 | ¥66B | 1 | 5 | 96 |
| 2 | Kensuke Furukawa 古川健介 | Al Founder & CEO | 306,249 | — | 0 | 0 | 68 |
| 3 | Katsuaki Sato 佐藤航陽 | Space Data Founder & CEO | 236,102 | — | 0 | 0 | 66.6 |
| 4 | Noritaka Okabe 岡部典孝 | JPYC Founder & CEO | 85,869 | ¥6B | 0 | 2 | 83.8 |
| 5 | Sota Watanabe 渡辺創太 | Startale Founder & CEO | 80,304 | ¥10.5B | 2 | 3 | 86 |
| 6 | Yoshinori Fukushima 福島良典 | LayerX Co-founder & CEO | 78,313 | ¥28.2B | 3 | 3 | 87.8 |
| 7 | Issei Yamamoto 山本一成 | Turing Co-founder & CEO | 49,171 | ¥23.5B | 1 | 4 | 83.1 |
| 8 | Daisuke Okanohara 岡野原大輔 | Preferred Networks Co-founder & CEO | 40,868 | ¥38.4Bincl. debt | 0 | 3 | 81.6 |
| 9 | Tomohisa Yamano 山野智久 | Asoview Founder & CEO | 12,984 | ¥8.8Bincl. debt | 0 | 0 | 74 |
| 10 | Toru Tokushige 徳重徹 | Terra Charge / Terra Motors Founder | 10,798 | ¥36.14Bincl. debt | 0 | 0 | 74.4 |
| 11 | Llion Jones ライオン・ジョーンズ | Sakana AI Co-founder & CTO | 8,738 | ¥66B | 0 | 0 | 73.9 |
| 12 | Kaname Hayashi 林要 | GROOVE X Founder & CEO | 6,342 | ¥13.31B | 0 | 0 | 70.5 |
| 13 | Yusuke Ohira 大平裕介 | Leaner Technologies Founder & CEO | 4,657 | — | 0 | 0 | 45.5 |
| 14 | Kaisei Hamamoto 浜本階生 | SmartNews Co-founder & CEO | 1,430 | ¥44.3B | 0 | 0 | 63.7 |
| 15 | Yuki Ejiri 江尻祐樹 | Bitkey Co-founder & CEO | 379 | ¥39Bincl. debt | 0 | 0 | 56.5 |
| 16 | Ren Ito 伊藤錬 | Sakana AI Co-founder & COO | — | ¥66B | 0 | 0 | 25 |
How we rank
- Who is in. Founders and current CEOs of private (unlisted), Japan-founded startups: the founders of our Top 100 startups plus other well-known founders.
- Rank. By X followers, read from X's public API on 2026-10-17. We only count an account when its name and bio match the founder. Founders with no verified account are ranked after, by company funding.
- Score (shown, not used for rank yet). 100 × (0.70 × log X followers + 0.25 × log company funding + 0.05 × podcasts, capped at 5), each log scaled to the highest value in the list. Missing data counts as 0, so the score understates founders we have not fully researched.
- Company raised is the company's total from our Top 100 dataset and is shared by co-founders. YouTube and note follower counts have not been collected yet.
- Summaries of interviews, podcasts and videos are written by us in English from transcripts, descriptions or article excerpts. Each one says how it was produced. We link to the original and never reproduce full text.