Tokyo-based entrepreneur and Japan services sector expert Carl Kay founded and ran for 15 years a pioneering firm which helped American software companies localize products for the Japanese market. The company prospered amidst the rapid growth of demand for software in Japan in the 1990’s. In 1998 Kay sold the company to a larger firm where he worked in senior management through the company’s NASDAQ IPO the following year. Since then Kay has been consulting, researching, writing and lecturing. while managing a portfolio of angel investments in companies in Japan and North America, including several firms where he serves as a director.
As a consultant, Carl helps services companies develop cross-border marketing, sales and partnerships. Kay co-authored Saying Yes to Japan, a book about Japan’s services sector that was published in English in 2005 and in Japanese by Nikkei in 2006.
Carl is a Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) candidate at the Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, where he is studying innovation in Japan’s services sector.
Kay is active on boards of non-profit organizations including the Harvard Club of Japan, where he serves as Vice President and helps produce a series of monthly speaker dinners. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard’s Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations in 1978.

Carl Kay
Tokyo, Japan
TEL +81 80 5447 5144
FAX +81 3 5727 1397