Namiko Kajiwara

Namiko is Partner, Corporate Innovation at World Innovation Lab. She is a food innovator, connecting Japan and the U.S. Her first outstanding achievement is to launch Kirin Free in 2009, the worlds' first 0.00% non-alcoholic beer, which created a new market of $620M. After acquiring an MBA at Stanford in 2015, she launched Stonemill Matcha, California style matcha cafe in San Francisco. Stonemill aimed to expand healthy and mindful Japanese lifestyle in a modern and Californian way. She also launched Air Restaurant with ANA, a Japanese airline company in 2018. Air Restaurant was bringing Japanese top chefs to San Francisco, creating special pop-up dinners with local top chefs with local ingredients. The cultural translation of food, dining experience, hospitality, and operations are her unique expertise. She is also a speaker, mentor, and lecturer at conferences and schools, including Stanford d.school, FoodInno, Nikkei Ag/Sum and more. She has been featured in various media such as Wall Street Journal, Nikkei, and national Japanese TVs.