Naohiko Matsuura: Bringing Creativity to the World

April 21, 2025

After spending 17 years in the world of investment banking and investment funds, I jumped into the fashion industry three years ago.

In the financial industry, I had the opportunity to work with many companies through M&A and fundraising. It was a great learning experience to see firsthand how each business leader grew their business and sometimes overcame difficulties. On the other hand, during that process, I never consciously thought about becoming someone on the "industry-creating side" myself.

However, at one point, I met Yusuke Takahashi of CFCL, who will surely leave his name in fashion history as a designer. Starting to talk about building a global brand together with him became a major turning point in my life. Until then, I had only been involved in the fashion industry as a client or an investment target, but through meeting him, I gained a perspective on creating things and expanding them globally as a business.

In the fashion industry, Paris Fashion Week, commonly known as "Paris Colle," is always considered the pinnacle of creativity, where brands from around the world present their new collections. Japan is one of the countries that produces the most brands for Paris Fashion Week. However, compared to Western brands, the business scale of each brand is small, and the reality is that few companies have the management foundation to develop over the long term.

Furthermore, many of the Japanese companies that currently have global influence were founded decades ago, and it is difficult to say that a new generation of companies is sufficiently growing. I hope to build businesses that can compete globally in the field of fashion—and more broadly, in industries centered on creativity—and to pave the way for creative ideas born in the future to take flight into the world.

My career has certainly not gone according to plan. Nevertheless, the reason I am able to do such fulfilling work every day is because of the accumulation of unexpected encounters. From now on, nothing would make me happier than to plant as many seeds of wonderful coincidence as possible in the world and to contribute to the blossoming of as many creative talents as possible, both inside and outside of Japan.

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.