Yoji Yamashita – CEO, MATCHA MON (Matcha Frontier Inc.)

After joining Doutor Coffee Co., Ltd., Yamashita gained extensive experience in business development and store launches. He played a leading role in launching Excelsior Caffé and, as Executive Officer and Head of the Excelsior Division, oversaw the brand’s growth to over 100 locations. As CEO of Matcha Frontier Inc., he continues to lead the creation and expansion of new business concepts.

Ryo Iwamoto – Director, MATCHA MON (Matcha Frontier Inc.)

Born in 1997, Ryo Iwamoto graduated from the School of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University. He began practicing the Urasenke school of tea ceremony in early childhood and currently holds the tea name Soryo Iwamoto as a licensed associate instructor. At age 21, he founded TeaRoom Inc. to address sustainability and structural issues in the Japanese tea industry. He took over a tea factory in Motoyama, Shizuoka, and established THE CRAFTFARM Inc., a certified agricultural corporation.

With a vertically integrated model that covers everything from cultivation to sales, Iwamoto and his team are reinventing the declining tea industry through sustainable production, development and marketing of tea-based lifestyle products, and global tea culture initiatives.

He has been selected for Forbes JAPAN 30 UNDER 30 2022 and Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2023, and appeared on the cover of Forbes Japan’s November 2023 “Culturepreneur” issue. He is also a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Shapers, a cultural policy advisor for Shizuoka Prefecture, an outside director at Nakagawa Masashichi Shoten, and the founder and representative director of the Institute of Cultural Capital.

Seiji Kawamura – Director, MATCHA MON (Matcha Frontier Inc.)

Born in 1977 in Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Seiji Kawamura moved to France in 1999, where he trained as a chef in fine-dining gastronomic restaurants. Upon returning to Japan, he worked as a product development consultant for a major trading company before becoming Vice President of Global Dining Inc. He led the launch of its subsidiaries in the U.S. and Macau, China, before establishing his own ventures.

Kawamura has founded multiple successful brands, including “YAUMAY” in Marunouchi, Tokyo; Japan’s first lemonade specialty store “Lemonade by LEMONICA”; frozen pizza delivery brand “Moriyama Napoli”; and the rapidly growing rural bakery chain “Komugino Dorei.” Now based in London, he focuses on expanding his businesses across Europe, the Middle East, the United States, and Asia.