Kawaguchi brings over a decade of app marketing leadership to WAKEI as VP of Sales, leading its sales organization as it scales across Japan and Taiwan.
Appier and Rakuten Veteran Tomoya Kawaguchi Joins WAKEIÂ to Lead Sales Organization
Kawaguchi brings over a decade of app marketing leadership — including a formative role at Appier through its 2021 Tokyo Stock Exchange listing — to WAKEI as VP of Sales, where he will lead the company’s sales organization as it scales its Independent Trading Desk business across Japan and Taiwan.
WAKEI Inc., a Japan-Taiwan cross-border digital marketing company operating an Independent Trading Desk (ITD) business built on app-focused demand-side platforms, today announced that Tomoya Kawaguchi has joined the company as VP of Sales, effective July 16, 2026. In this role, Kawaguchi will lead WAKEI’s sales organization as the company’s most senior sales executive, overseeing the full go-to-market strategy for its ITD business.
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Kawaguchi’s appointment strengthens WAKEI’s sales organization for its ITD business, deepens the company’s advisory capability for Japanese app advertisers, and accelerates WAKEI’s Japan-Taiwan cross-border marketing efforts, which draw on consumer purchase data from Taiwan.
A Career Built at the Intersection of Data and App Advertising
Kawaguchi has spent more than a decade in Japan’s digital advertising industry, with deep experience spanning both app marketing and data-driven advertising. He joined Appier’s Japan entity in 2015 as an early team member, going on to lead the country’s advertising sales organization and drive the business growth that carried through to Appier Group’s 2021 listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
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Before Appier, Kawaguchi spent three years at Rakuten, where he sold advertising products built on purchase data from Rakuten Ichiba — Japan’s largest e-commerce platform — and other group media, working closely with Japan’s leading digital agencies, including CyberAgent and Dentsu. That grounding in purchase-data-driven advertising — distinct from his later app-advertising career — gives Kawaguchi a rare vantage point that connects directly to WAKEI’s cross-border marketing business, which is built on consumer purchase data from Taiwan’s Invos Data.
Over his career, Kawaguchi has worked directly with or overseen sales relationships with more than 500 companies, establishing him as one of the most recognized sales leaders in Japan’s app DSP advertising industry.
