TBJ (The Borderless Journey) | A 4-month cross-border learning program — Connect with the realities of the world,
and gain a meta-perspective and the wisdom of knowing what you don’t know

Founder & CEO

Wako Kudeken

Founder & CEO, Smoooth Inc. / Host, TBJ · 🌏

Wako was born in Okinawa and spent her early childhood in Hawaii. A formative experience after returning to Japan set her on a lifelong exploration of happiness and abundance. While still at university, she worked at the restaurant app TERIYAKI, FiNC Technologies, and DeNA. After graduating from Aoyama Gakuin University, she joined Accenture in 2017, and in 2021 she founded Smoooth Inc. She leads The Borderless Journey (TBJ), an online cross-border program that nurtures changemakers through encounters with global leaders. Alongside the flagship TBJ, where selected next-generation student leaders learn together with executives, she runs programs such as TBJ for Woman, which promotes gender diversity and women's advancement. Drawing on field research in more than 36 countries, from the Nordics to South America, she brings the realities of the world, and connections with the people shaping it, to Japan.

Social Media / Evangelist

Kokona Takagi

Satonoba University 🇯🇵

Through hula, which she has danced since age 4, Kokona fell in love with Hawaiian culture, history and values, and developed a sense of connection with nature and an awareness of the unseen. Studying abroad in the US in high school taught her to step back from others' expectations and "right answers" and to value her own senses and inner voice. Now a first-year student at Satonoba University, she uses local communities as her field to deepen her relationship with herself and others while exploring what co-creation can look like.

Youth Ambassador

Kaikai Wu

American School in Japan · Tokyo 🇺🇸🇨🇳🇭🇰

Kaikai was born in America, spent most of his childhood in Hong Kong, and then moved to Tokyo 3 years ago. He currently serves as the Student Body President at the American School in Japan, where he is also the captain of the volleyball and debate teams. Additionally, he is a member of the Hong Kong National Debate Team, where he has won numerous tournaments, including being invited to the Oxford Union, and represents Hong Kong internationally. After moving to Japan, he built an initiative called Connecting Voices, developing civics curriculum for Japanese students to raise political awareness. So far, he's collaborated to develop a civics curriculum with over 6+ local schools in Japan. Kaikai is working to help young people reclaim control over their lives.

Voice Bridge Builder

Tomoka Ehara

TBJ Season 3 Team 🇯🇵

Tomoka has planned and run programs built around self-governance and coexistence, with the aim of helping children form their own will and develop the ability to live together. Her interest in peace led her to create programs for young people through UNESCO-related activities. Questioning the social issues in front of her from many angles, she was drawn to the liberal arts as a way of learning, and now supports the running and operations of educational programs. At TBJ she mainly handles PR, carrying to society the voices of a next generation inspired by cross-border experiences to take a step forward.

Contemplative Spaceholder

Kento Suzuki

Brown University · Providence 🇺🇸

A Contemplative Spaceholder, Kento studies Contemplative Studies at Brown University. Through Zen, Shugendo, Christian mysticism, integral theory, psychedelics, jazz and more, he explores what a "path of the heart" can look like today. He also creates spaces through meditation gatherings and ceremonies, valuing practice that deepens spirituality within a community rather than as purely personal training.

Diagonal Mentor

Shinya Yamauchi

TBJ Season 3 Team 🇯🇵

Born in the US, Shinya spent his elementary school years in Osaka and his junior high years in India. He took up baseball in high school and kept playing in university. While on his university team, an offer from the US led him to play in the US, Poland, Miyazaki and Argentina. Since then he has worked across Japan as an interpreter and coach, and organizes a number of events where he plays himself.

Advisor

Tamotsu Fukushima

Former President, Benesse Corporation

Born in Okayama Prefecture. In 1971 he joined Fukutake Publishing (renamed Benesse Corporation in 1995) while enrolling in the evening program of Okayama University's Faculty of Law and Letters. He became President of Benesse Corporation in 2007 and, after the group's reorganization into a holding company in 2009, served as President of Benesse Holdings until 2014. Since retiring, he has served as a board member of NPOs tackling social issues, supported entrepreneurs, and acts as Chief Happiness Advisor to eumo, Inc., among other roles.

Advisor

Nobuyuki Nitta

Visiting Professor, Kaichi International University / Representative Director, Chiikin-kai

Nobuyuki began his career at Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank. From 2013 he led Daiichi Kangyo Credit Cooperative as its president and later served as its chairman, becoming known as a practitioner of community-based finance. He is Representative Director of Chiikin-kai, a general incorporated association that connects credit cooperatives with local communities across Japan, and a Visiting Professor at Kaichi International University. He has written several books (in Japanese) on the future of finance.

Advisor

Naoki Iwanami

Representative Director, eumo, Inc. (a not-for-profit company)

After graduating from university, Naoki joined Fuji Bank (now Mizuho). In 2002 he co-founded Work Happiness. In 2017 he was one of the founders of the Eudaimonia Institute, a general incorporated association, and became a director. From November 2018 to June 2019 he served on the Value Co-Creation Task Force of the Cabinet Office's Intellectual Property Strategy Headquarters. In 2019 he helped launch eumo, Inc., becoming Representative Director in 2021, and founded eumo Academy to foster human development and expanded awareness. His work focuses on building social relational capital based on empathy capital, community building, empathy-based management, self-organizing organizational development, and talent development grounded in developmental theory.

Advisor

Kozo Takei

Social Activist & Social Systems Designer

After high school, Kozo moved to the US to pursue music. Back in Japan he started a business based on his experiences in America, and went through bankruptcy and the sale of a business. In 2007 he founded a real-estate IT company, whose unique "management without control" approach, built on full transparency, drew wide attention. As Japan's leading figure in self-organizing, decentralized management (Teal organizations and DAOs), he has worked tirelessly to spread new forms of management, winning the White Company Award in 2017 and launching the Natural Management Study Group in 2018. With the goal of creating a sustainable, circular society, he serves on the boards of many for-profit and non-profit organizations, including the digital currency platform eumo, and others working on the SDGs, fair trade, regional revitalization, community development, childcare and education.