Japan Leadership Intelligence, Case Study
HubSpot has changed who runs Japan seven times in ten years, if you count the interim and co-head periods. Braze, which arrived four years later, has had three heads in six years, and for a time its Japan president was the company's global president, based in the US. Both businesses have grown. How they set up Japan in the first place explains a lot about how they handled the turnover.
Martech is a crowded market in Japan, and both companies sell to marketing teams. HubSpot sells an all-in-one marketing, sales and CRM platform, mostly to small and mid-sized businesses. Braze sells customer engagement software to large consumer brands with apps. They entered Japan in very different ways, and the public record on their Japan leaders is a good illustration of what each approach does when a leader leaves.
HubSpot: went direct, then cycled through leaders
Resellers had sold HubSpot in Japan since 2012. In 2016 HubSpot set up its own company and appointed Yuri Akahira, who had founded Meltwater's Japan business, as General Manager. The office opened with 12 people and an event for nearly 400 guests. It was HubSpot's first office outside an English-speaking market.
About six months later Akahira resigned, and Campaign Asia called the start shaky. A US sales manager covered on an interim basis. From then until 2021 the business was led by co-heads rather than a named Country Manager. Here is the sequence the public record shows:
| From | Who led HubSpot Japan | Background |
|---|---|---|
| Apr 2026 | Hiroya Isa (伊佐裕也), Country Manager | Promoted from acting head. 25+ years in marketing at Dell, Google and Sony; joined HubSpot Japan in 2018 |
| Apr 2024 | Takao Suda (須田孝雄), Country Manager | Net One, Citrix, Splunk, the Elastic Japan launch, then CRO at Creationline |
| 2023 | Hiroya Isa, acting Country Manager | Also ran sales |
| Sep 2021 | Tatsuki Hirota (廣田達樹), Country Manager | Google, VMware, HP, Dell |
| 2017 to 2021 | Co-heads of business, including Sosuke Ida (伊田聡輔) and Hiroya Isa | Ida came from Google Cloud and Dell |
| Jan 2017 | Ryan Meadows, interim GM | US sales manager at HubSpot |
| 2016 | Yuri Akahira, General Manager | Founder of Meltwater Japan |
Sources: Hirota, Suda, Isa, Isa appointment.
The business still grew. HubSpot said paid customers in Japan rose about fifteen times in its first five years and partners about thirteen times, and named customers now include Panasonic and the Yomiuri Shimbun. A big partner network did a lot of the work. 100 Inc. became the first Elite partner in Japan in 2023 and runs the Japan user group. But it took five years to name a Country Manager after the first one left, and the profile of the leader has swung between sales, alliances and marketing.
Braze: a joint venture with a partner that hires
Braze came to Japan in October 2020 through a joint venture with Japan Cloud, the firm that sets up and staffs Japan businesses for foreign software companies. Mercari was the launch customer. Six years on, Braze's latest annual report still says it sells in Japan through the joint venture.
The leadership has changed too:
- Masayuki Kikuchi (菊地真之), previously an executive officer at Workday, was appointed president in November 2020 as Braze's first Japan employee. He was still in the role in February 2023.
- Myles Kleeger, Braze's global President and Chief Commercial Officer, was listed as president of the Japan company by December 2023. He was US-based and left Braze in 2025.
- Shigetaka Mizutani (水谷篤尚), who had been a vice president at SAP Japan and ran automotive at Dassault Systèmes, was appointed in April 2024.
Through those changes the numbers kept climbing. By March 2025 Braze reported more than 100 customer companies in Japan reaching over 270 million monthly active users, and annual sales growth averaging 212% since launch. Analyst firm ITR put it at 14.9% of the Japanese B2C marketing automation market. It also did the local product work: a native LINE integration in 2024, and Tokyo data hosting in 2026 for banks, the public sector and healthcare.
Why the turnover hurt one less than the other
Both companies changed leaders. The difference is what sat underneath the leader.
HubSpot went direct and built its own company. When its first General Manager left after six months, there was no structure behind her except a small team and the resellers. It took years and several arrangements to settle on a long-term leader. The resellers kept selling, which is probably why growth held up.
Braze's joint venture partner was in it from day one, with a shareholding and a stake in hiring. When the Japan president changed, the partner and the joint venture board were still there. Braze could even put its global president in the seat for a period. Without a local partner, that would usually tell Japanese customers that Japan was being run from the US.
The joint venture route has costs too. The partner shares the economics, and buying out a joint venture later is its own negotiation. And Braze's Japan heads have come from enterprise software at Workday and SAP rather than martech, which says the partner hired for enterprise selling experience over category knowledge. It has worked, but it was a choice.
What I'd take from it
- Plan for the first Japan head not lasting. Both companies lost or replaced their first leader. What matters is whether the business keeps running when it happens: partners, a strong number two, or a structure like a joint venture board.
- Long gaps without a named leader are expensive. HubSpot ran on interim and co-head arrangements for about four years. Japanese customers and candidates both notice who is in charge, and it makes the next hire harder.
- Promoting from inside can be the right answer. HubSpot's current Country Manager joined in 2018 and acted in the role before getting it. Someone who already knows the customers and the team is a lower-risk choice than a third external hire.
Sources
- HubSpot appoints Yuri Akahira as Japan General Manager, 2016: hubspot.com
- HubSpot opens its Japan office, 2016: hubspot.com
- Campaign Asia on the Japan GM's resignation, January 2017: campaignasia.com
- HubSpot Japan five-year anniversary release, July 2021 (Japanese): hubspot.jp
- Tatsuki Hirota appointed Country Manager, September 2021 (Japanese): advertimes.com
- Takao Suda appointed Country Manager, April 2024 (Japanese): hubspot.com
- Hiroya Isa appointed Country Manager, April 2026 (Japanese): markezine.jp and webtan.impress.co.jp
- 100 Inc. becomes HubSpot Elite partner, August 2023: 100inc.co.jp
- Braze joint venture with Japan Cloud, October 2020: braze.com
- Braze annual report for fiscal 2026: sec.gov
- Masayuki Kikuchi appointed Braze Japan president, November 2020 (Japanese): braze.com
- Braze Torchie Awards Japan, December 2023 (Japanese): braze.com
- Shigetaka Mizutani appointed Braze Japan country manager, April 2024 (Japanese): braze.com
- MarkeZine on Braze Japan growth, March 2025 (Japanese): markezine.jp
- Braze share of Japan B2C marketing automation, ITR (Japanese): braze.com
- Braze LINE integration, October 2024 (Japanese): braze.com
Research note: AI assisted with research and drafting. Murray Clarke reviewed the analysis and remains responsible for its conclusions. Leadership changes and figures come from company releases, SEC filings and the Japanese and English press listed, read in October 2026. Views on hiring are his own. Source links may later become unavailable if publishers move or remove their pages.
