About Me

I’m Emiko, a UX Designer based in San Francisco, designing brand and fan experiences for international markets. I am particularly interested in how thoughtful experience design opens the door to serving wider audiences.

My Background

My hunger for creating connections between people has driven my career to date. Growing up in a Japanese immigrant family, I felt close to yet insecure about my heritage and how different I was from my peers. That is until a pivotal moment when my then hero, Sailor Moon, started broadcasting on US television. At that moment, my two lives converged, and I realized that great ideas and products could be appreciated regardless of origin. From that fateful moment, I knew I wanted to pursue a career that facilitated the exchange of ideas and culture.

Fast forward to my professional life. I've worked with the brands I cherished as a little girl, classics like Sailor Moon, as well as the next generation of Japanese content. Although my role has been managing brands and partnerships in the entertainment space, the core focus of my role has been defining and crafting brand experiences for new audiences.

So What’s Next?

With the integration of tech products in our daily lives, nothing excites me more than how quickly products move into new markets. I want to take my experience localizing content experiences to the tech world, particularly to a product team looking to design products for international audiences.