Chikara Funabashi

• Adviser, New Educational Business
  Kawaijuku

Chikara Funabashi is founder and Chief Executive Officer of Willseed, a company which offers consulting and training services to more than 350 major companies and 600 schools in Japan. He is Co-Chairperson of Beyond Tomorrow, an organization which was established by several Japanese YGLs after the tsunami, 3/11. It offers scholarships and provides leadership training to young people to enable them to pursue their dreams and become leaders of tomorrow. Previously, Funabashi worked on a subway development project in Jakarta; for Itochu Corporation on an airport construction in the Philippines; and at a major trading firm in Japan. Since he launched Willseed in 2000, he has continued to play a significant role in business, in addition to serving as Adjunct Professor for the MBA programme at Waseda Business School. Other honours include being selected as a member of the Structural Reform Committee responsible for the promotion of special economic zones and as a member of the Asia Society.