Founder & CEO, ewoman, Inc.
Founder & CEO, UNICUL International, Inc.
Founder and Executive Producer, International Conference for Women in Business
Outside Director, Kobayashi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.
Outside Director, Japan Post Co., Ltd.
Outside Director, AGP Co., Ltd.
Executive Board Member, Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Tokyo 2020)
Member, Labor Policy Council/Labor Policy Basic Subcommittee, Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare
Leadership Champion, World Bank Women Entrepreneurs Funding Initiative (We-Fi)
Ms. Kaori Sasaki is a well-known diversity expert, best-selling author, and sought-after commentator who appears regularly in the Japanese media.
Since 1996, Ms. Sasaki has produced and chaired the International Conference for Women in Business (www.women.co.jp/conf/), the largest diversity conference in Japan. Through her work as a diversity expert to companies throughout Japan, she saw the need for a system to measure and reward companies for their diversity efforts. In 2018, she inaugurated the “Diversity Index”, which measures the diversity of an organization against its corporate performance and provides training.
Long known as an internet pioneer, she opened the first portal for women in Japan in 1996 and founded ewoman, Inc., a diversity consultancy that provides marketing, branding, product development, and training to major corporations, in 2000. She established UNICUL International, Inc., a communications consultancy that offers executive media training and translation and interpretation in seventy languages, in 1987.
She was a news reporter, anchor, and commentator for various nation-wide news programs, News Station of TV Asahi, CBS Document of TBS, TokuDane of Fuji TV, etc. She had traveled over 25 countries reporting mainly human rights issues and got shot in South Africa during her coverage of Apartheid.
Conscious of her civic duty, Ms. Sasaki has served on numerous councils for the Ministries of Health, Labor and Welfare, of Education, of Economy, Trade and Industry, and of Information and Technology, including the Regulatory Reform Council of the Cabinet Office to which she was appointed by Prime Minister Abe.
She was a Member of the W20 Steering Committee and was nominated by the government as the Japan Champion of We-fi (Women Entrepreneurs Finance Initiative) Leadership Group led by the World Bank Group. She has served on the boards of directors of major listed corporations for many years including NEC Corporation, Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., Ltd., etc.
Awards: Honorary Doctorate from Elmira College, NY, USA in 2008, Entrepreneur Special Award from New Business Association 1988, Best Innovative Company of the Year, Stevie Award 2008, Best Mother Award 2009, BVLGARI’s Avrora Award 2021.