As an international lawyer, he specializes a wide range of international legal and ‎public policy issues including, but not limited to Internet governance, data protection, ‎fintech/regtech, and international trade and taxation. He has been participating in many ‎relevant meetings with the government of Japan as well as other companies or as a ‎member of industry groups in Japan.‎

Kenta has a strong background in the fields of international law and diplomacy. He started ‎his professional career as an administrative attaché for Embassy of Japan in Poland. ‎After spending about 2 years in Warsaw (2010-2012), he continued his diplomatic career ‎as an advisor for WTO Dispute Settlement at Permanent Mission of Japan to the United ‎Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva (2012-2014). As an ‎international trade law expert, he got actively involved in 6 trade disputes to which Japan ‎is a party as well as more than 20 third-party trade disputes during his term in Geneva. In ‎addition, he participated in various meetings of DSU review negotiations with proponents ‎and produced a lot of reports for the government in order to analyze unsolved items ‎toward convergence. ‎

After spending more than 4 years in the diplomatic field, Kenta joined Yahoo Japan ‎Corporation and got actively involved in international public policy. Taking the recent ‎involvement for example, he attended the WSIS+10 Review High-Level Meeting in New York, in ‎December 2015. Since then, he has been serving not only as a moderator but as a panelist for many ‎sessions at WSIS Forum, APrIGF, and IGF. In IGF Geneva ‎‎2017, he took the lead of a main session titled “Digital Transformation: How Do ‎We Shape Its Socio-Economic and Labor Impacts for Good?” as a Japanese MAG ‎member. He was a member of the Multistakeholder Steering Group of the APrIGF as well ‎as a member of the Japanese delegation to the 2016-2018 UNCSTD Working Group on ‎Enhanced Cooperation. In addition to the international activities, he devoted himself to ‎contributing to various domestic discussions on Internet-related public policy issues. he ‎participated in IGF-Japan, Internet Governance Conference of Japan, and other relevant ‎meetings. Further, on behalf of Yahoo Japan ‎Corporation, he was one of the few members of Japan Business Federation (“Keidanren”) ‎to closely cooperate and collaborate with Personal Information Protection Commission of ‎Japan (PPC) in relation to the establishment of a framework for the smooth and mutual ‎transfer of personal data between Japan and the European Union.‎

Kenta has remained in the same field, i.e., international and domestic public policy, while ‎greatly assisting Mercari, Inc. in complying with international and domestic rules and ‎regulations. In October 2018, he served as a speaker for a side event titled “Privacy ‎Perspectives from the Asia-Pacific: Moving Toward Interoperability” in the 40th ‎International Conference of Data Protection and Privacy Commissioners in Brussels. ‎Besides, as an inhouse counsel, he has drafted, reviewed, and analyzed a wide variety of ‎contracts in a team effort with sales executives and upper management, and also ‎collaborated with an internal audit team to establish necessary and robust internal ‎arrangements and procedures to protect and utilize personal data and other information.‎ Further, he became a member of the Data and Jurisdiction Contact Group of Internet and Jurisdiction Policy Network in 2019.

Kenta earned his LL.B. degree from Kansai University. He also earned his LL.M. in ‎International Law degree from Kobe University Graduate School of International ‎Cooperation Studies, and LL.M. in International and Comparative Law degree from ‎George Washington University Law School. He has been admitted to practice law in the ‎courts of New York since September 2015.‎