MOVERS & MAKERS 2018

After a few nascent entrepreneurial starts, and stints at major corporations like Facebook and Goldman Sachs (which she quit to become a Manga artist), Akiko Naka founded Wantedly.

Wantedly is a Tokyo-based startup that aims to help jobseekers ‘Find jobs that will set your heart on fire.' While igniting your passion and chasing your dreams might be familiar talk from speakers in Silicon Valley, it's far from the norm in Japan.

“Most people see work as simply work,” according to Naka. “That’s not what we see work as. We want to change work into a concept where it’s more exciting; we want it to be something you can focus on, one that would allow you to make a social impact.” On her mission to connect people with purposeful work, Naka recently became the youngest woman to take a company public in Japan.