Meet the zukan.com team

Junichiro Yamaide, Representative Director

Junichiro launched local magazines in several regions and served as their editor-in-chief. After working as a SYSOP on the NIFTY-Serve online service, he planned and ran WEB Sakana Zukan, Japan’s first online fish encyclopedia built from user contributions. After meeting Kenichi Naoe and Ryosuke Nakashiro, he founded zukan.com, Inc. to build an encyclopedia platform for any subject. He also served as a commentator for NHK Miyazaki.

Kenichi Naoe, Director and CTO

Originally from Kumamoto Prefecture, Kenichi earned a master’s degree in engineering at Kyushu University. In 2014, he developed Mikke, Japan’s first app to identify fish through image recognition. In 2015, he developed Ping, an app for communicating in four characters or fewer. IPA recognized him as a fiscal 2012 Super Creator (“genius programmer”).

He began programming by building interactive websites with rich animation. His work now spans design, front-end development, server-side development, and infrastructure.

He enjoys creating internet services. Rather than pursuing ideas someone else would eventually come up with, he continues to work on unique ideas that might never exist without him.