About KSI - Kioicho Strategy Institute -

Kioicho Strategy Institute

Our Mission

- Connecting people and designing the right rules -

KSI aims to "connect people and design the right rules."

Rules design the society we live in.

'Laws,' 'regulations,' and 'ordinances' usually come to mind when we think about 'rules.' However, the 'rules' that design society encompasses social practices, customs, and community conventions. Each rule results from the demands of the times and the community's needs.

At the same time, society is continuously changing. Technological progress, urbanization, depopulation, declining birthrates, aging of the population and many other factors transform society and affect our values. The rules must also be reviewed in response to these changes.

However, rules will not be revised unless we do something. Somebody has to make an effort to make a difference.

The Diet has the authority to make laws, administrative agencies have the authority to change governmental ordinances, and they are making continuous efforts to create or amend them as needed. However, we must also participate in their rule-making processes by discovering the defects of existing rules and claiming the necessity to make new regulations.

Our mission at KSI is to connect policy-makers to individuals who are facing un-ignorable issues within the community, to make a professional team, and to design the right rules for the creation of a better society.

Our Vision

- Being an excellent coach -

We aim to be excellent coaches in order to achieve our mission of "connecting people and designing the right rules."

Changing rules is not easy. You may know the process of policy-making, but it is not enough. You must understand where and at what point in the process is it appropriate to approach the issue. You must also choose the appropriate people to contact and build a good team to pursue the same goal.

And most importantly, you need to be patient because it takes time to design new rules. It is difficult to make an effort for the long haul, but if you give up, the rules will never change. Our responsibility is to stand beside you, assisting you in choosing the right approach at the right time.

We want to be professionals whom clients can always feel comfortable consulting with. We want to be excellent coaches, who stay close to the clients, providing the support they need regardless of time or place, so they can keep moving on with confidence.

We hope to work with you soon in order to design the right rules for your business together.

About Our President

Naoya Bessho

BESSHO Naoya graduated from the Faculty of Law at Keio University in March 1981 and joined Mochida Pharmaceutical in April 1981 (in charge of labor, legal, intellectual property, and business development). He joined Yahoo Japan Corporation in July 1999. After serving as General Manager of the Legal Department and General Manager of the Legal Division, he was Corporate Officer until 2018 (in charge of Legal & Intellectual Property, Public Relations, Policy Planning, Public Service, and Risk Management). He has been serving as Professor at the Kyoto Institute of Information Technology since October 2019 and President and CEO of Kioicho Strategy Institute, Inc. since April 2020.

He has been involved in numerous legislative amendments from a corporate perspective, including amendments to the Copyright Act for search engines, amendments to the Public Office Election Law for Internet use, amendments to the Consumption Tax Act to tax foreign content, and amendments to the Creditors Act. He also serves as a director of the Law and Computer Association of Japan, the Japan Federation of IT Organizations, and the Computer Software Association of Japan, as well as President of the Genetic Information Association of Japan.

Our Team of Professionals

Our Team of Professionals - Kioicho Strategy Institute

From top left:
TAKADA Masayuki, Senior Consultant
NISHI Takanori, Senior Consultant
OSAMURA Tatsuya, Senior Consultant
SATAKE Masanori, Senior Consultant (Seconded to DMO, Fukui Prefecture)
KAWABATA Noriyuki, Responsible for Kankocho Auctions
NAKAYAMA Kazuo, Senior Consultant
NAGAOKA Mie, Senior Consultant
KOGA Yuka, Senior Consultant
BESSHO Naoya, President and CEO

Three Main Business Areas

  • Consulting

    We provide consulting services to companies seeking to create new industries and societies and to the venture capital firms that support them. We also provide consulting services for enterprises to build a policy department and/or crisis management team to cope with a crisis.

  • Digital transformation support

    We support local governments and small-medium size enterprises to review the existing systems and practices and to develop digital reforms in order to improve efficiency and transparency of their administration and services.

  • Think tank activities

    We improve social design by carrying out our own research activities through various surveys and workshops.

History of the Company

KSI is a private sector think tank and lobbying consulting firm that was founded in 2017 as a subsidiary of Yahoo Japan Corporation (Z Holdings, Inc.). It became independent in April 2020.

After joining Yahoo Japan Corporation in 1999, BESSHO Naoya, our President and CEO, played a very important role during the dawn of the Internet, developing rules for Yahoo Japan Corporation to launch new services and in crisis management, as General Counsel and Corporate Officer of the company. Based on the extensive network earned from his career and on the knowledge gained through policy advocacy activities, KSI provides comprehensive consulting services in the area of public affairs, including policy activities, risk management support, and digitalization support to companies venturing into new industries and local governments undertaking digital transformation. Our major clients are currently venture capital firms making seed investments and the venture companies they invest in. The areas we cover are not only IT, but a wide range of fields such as mobility, healthcare, the sharing economy and advanced technologies.

We also provide a wide range of services, including support for local governments and regional development projects, based on our policy of contributing to society.

About Us

Company name Kioicho Strategy Institute, Inc.
Capital 10 million yen
Representative BESSHO Naoya, President and CEO
Business Lobbying consulting, DX support, Think tank, Kankocho (government and public) Auctions
Number of employees 9
Location Akasaka Office
Akasaka Building 2F, 4-1-32 Akasaka,Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-0052 Japan