Born in 1975, Kenji Kasahara grew up in Osaka Prefecture. He graduated from the Department of Economics at the University of Tokyo.Inspired by the case studies of IT business he studied in a university seminar on management strategy and by the rapid rise of Internet business in Silicon Valley in the USA, he started up “Find Job !”, an online job information site, in 1997. In 1999 Kasahara established eMercury, Inc. (mixi, Inc.) and assumed the post of representative director.