Naho Kono is a Managing Executive Officer of Rakuten and President of the E-Commerce Company, the first executive in Rakuten’s 20-year history to take the reins of this business from Rakuten’s founder.
Kono has also created multiple milestones as a Rakuten executive, being the youngest woman to be appointed executive officer, in May 2013, and the first woman to achieve this level of line responsibility. The E-Commerce Company is central to Rakuten’s business and includes Rakuten Ichiba, Japan’s leading online shopping mall, as well as C2C platforms, logistics operations and the international e-commerce marketplace businesses.
Since 2005, Kono has been at the forefront of the development of mobile e-commerce, which currently accounts for approximately 60% of total transactions on Rakuten Ichiba.
Kono joined Rakuten in 2003 from a marketing role at SBI Securities and has since held leadership roles within Rakuten Ichiba in sales, marketing, media planning, UI/UX, mobile strategy and compliance.
Kono was awarded a bachelor’s degree in economics from Aoyama Gakuin University in 1999, where she first began to develop a passion for mobile e-commerce and data analysis.