*This article was originally written in Japanese and has been translated by a machine translation tool for your convenience. Please forgive any errors in translation. You can find the original Japanese article [here].

After a life-altering motorcycle accident at age 20 that left him hospitalized, Kazuya Imaji found solace and inspiration in the radio, an experience that profoundly shaped his career. Later, while working at Rakuten, he was captivated by the passion and innovation of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and local companies. This passion stayed with him as he built his career, eventually leading him to SmartNews. Now, after six years, his dream has finally become a reality with the launch of the SmartNews Self-Serve Ad Platform. This article shares the story and deep conviction of Imaji, who brought to life a product that transforms "what you want to say" into "what gets through."

Profile
Kazuya Imaji - After graduating from university, Kazuya worked in sales, marketing, web direction, and business development at Rakuten Group and KDDI Group. He joined SmartNews in 2019 and has since managed teams in performance advertising, digital agency, and SMB domains. As a Director, he now oversees the digital agency and SMB areas and leads the performance advertising domain. He recently served as the project lead for the launch of the self-serve ad platform.

— Can you tell us about the origin of your career?

After high school, I was a freelancer for two years. Then, at age 20, I was in a motorcycle accident and was hospitalized for about six months. I was bedridden for the first two months, and I was so bored. But hospital TV fees are expensive, right? So my mom brought me a radio, and I happened to be listening to FM Yokohama.

They were doing a call for messages on the topic of "what you're working hard on right now," so I sent one in. I wrote something like, "I'm injured and can't move my legs. I can't walk even after physical therapy. What am I supposed to do now?"

It was a bit of a self-pitying message, but they read it on air. I didn't request a song, but the radio DJ said, "Here's a song I listen to when I feel that way," and played "Owari Naki Tabi" (Never Ending Journey) by Mr. Children. He quoted the lyrics, "So that the confusion you hold in your heart can turn into positive power." I was amazed. I realized the profound impact that words can have on people.

— So that's the origin of "communication" for you?

Yes. I was so inspired that I wanted to work in "communication," so I started working as a radio DJ. I did it for four years, starting in my first year of university. By chance, I won a radio DJ contest for university students in the Kanto region, which was a stroke of luck that allowed me to continue for four years. But there aren't many career paths for radio DJs after graduation. I thought maybe I could become a TV announcer.

I submitted applications to all the major broadcasting stations, as the exams happened early in the job-hunting season. I made it to the final stage at one company, right before the on-camera test, but ultimately it didn't work out. I also made it to the final interview at a local station. The interviewer told me, "Your live commentary and unscripted talk are great." But I hadn't gone to a special school and wasn't good at reading news scripts. Unfortunately, that door closed.

However, during my university years, e-commerce was starting to take off. I love neon yellow, so I bought a professional soccer jersey from a team called Villarreal CF in Spain. I also love sneakers and was amazed that I could find and buy anything online. I thought, "Maybe I can use this system to create new trends in the world," and that led me to join Rakuten right out of college.

— What was your first job at Rakuten?

I wasn't in sales; my first assignment was as a web director. I created projects and worked on creating trends in the world. After that, I was transferred to a sales position in Osaka, where my experience on the front lines of e-commerce became a huge part of my later career.

Rakuten had a reward program for "e-commerce superstars"—the top-selling merchants. After the annual awards ceremony, we would go on an overseas training trip. I vividly remember the shock I felt when we all went to Shanghai. I realized that without my knowing it, people at small and medium-sized businesses in the countryside were facing their work with incredible passion.

— What kind of passion did you feel?

I was amazed by the incredible passion they had for the things they were selling and the markets they were creating. They weren't just selling products; they were deeply committed to figuring out "how we can make our customers happy when they receive our products." It wasn't just about selling things—it was about management and thinking about people's happiness. I was so inspired by the emotional drive of these people, especially the local SMBs.

Most of these passionate individuals were company presidents. I spent seven or eight years learning from these small and medium-sized business presidents about what management and business really are. I feel incredibly lucky to have had the firsthand experience of seeing how these people truly drive the economy. Looking back, those years in my 20s and early 30s, working closely with them, were an incredibly valuable time.

— What was your career path from there to SmartNews?

Having always worked under the brand of a large company, I wanted to see if I could replicate my success in a new environment, regardless of the brand name. So, after working at DeNA, I was given the opportunity to build an e-commerce platform from the ground up at KDDI Group.

I leveraged all my knowledge as a marketing head to create user traffic, as a web direction head to improve the UI/UX, and then as a sales head to drive revenue. After three years, I felt I had done all I could with the e-commerce platform.

I realized I needed to nurture our own domain, independent of any platform, and create a marketing channel that could contribute to it. I was contemplating an ad platform when I happened to run into a former Rakuten colleague—a SmartNews employee who had launched our coupon business. He told me, "We're looking for a middle manager for our ad business," which was a major turning point.

— That sounds like a fateful coincidence. Did you know about SmartNews beforehand?

Yes, I'd been a heavy user of the SmartNews app since about two weeks after its launch in 2012. It had occupied the prime spot on my iPhone's home screen ever since. I used to take the subway, so I was amazed that I could read news even without a signal. It was the best.

But I thought SmartNews was a tech company. So I was surprised to hear there were business-side opportunities. As I learned more, I heard that the company was about to accelerate its growth in the US. There are many examples of Japanese hardware, like cars, succeeding abroad, but fewer in software. I wanted to be part of this new dream, to build revenue in Japan and be the engine of that growth! It was an exhilarating thought.

The final interview was with Ken-san *1 and Kaisei-san *2, each for an hour. Ken-san asked me, "Between LCS *3 and SMB *4, which would you start with, and why?" I immediately answered, "SMB!"

As I've said, I've always focused on small businesses. In Japan and in Western countries, about 99% of all businesses are SMBs. If we can properly support this huge number of businesses that form the backbone of society, not just the large corporations, we can create a significant market presence. I was convinced of this when I joined SmartNews in June 2019.

*1: Ken Suzuki - SmartNews, Inc. Chairman of the Board of Directors
*2: Kaisei Hamamoto - SmartNews, Inc. Representative Director, President, and CEO
*3: Large Customer Sales (sales for large customers)
*4: Small and Medium Business

— Were you able to start with SMBs right away after joining?

At the time, the sales organization was still small. For about a year after I joined, I was just trying to catch up and get used to the chaotic situation. Then the pandemic hit.

Because people stopped going out, local businesses were severely affected. I felt it was my time to help the people who had helped me in the past. However, at the time, SmartNews's advertising wasn't set up for companies to place ads freely on their own.

I asked the SVP in charge of the ad business at the time, "Is there any way we can make it so companies can create their own accounts and post ads instantly?" He replied, "We've had that concept, but we haven't been able to make it a reality yet. It's a great idea, why don't you try to make it happen?" That's when I started working with the product manager to develop the concept for the self-serve ad platform.

I did everything I needed to make the concept a reality, from market research to business impact projections. But then, in 2023, the business environment changed significantly, and the project was temporarily halted.

— What was the catalyst for its revival?

In the late summer of 2024, there was a renewed push within the company to "give the self-serve ad platform another try." The project officially restarted. In the fall of 2024, it became a formal project, and the hands of the clock began to move again. Finally, on July 10, 2025, we were able to launch the self-serve ad platform to the world.

When I was leaving the e-commerce industry, many e-commerce business owners would ask me, "Why are you leaving e-commerce?" I told them, "I want to create an option outside of e-commerce platforms to support your businesses, so please wait for me!" It took me six years to keep that promise.

— How do you plan to grow the self-serve ad platform in the future?

I've been working on this self-serve ad platform by aligning it with SmartNews's mission "delivering the world’s quality information to the people who need it." I want this product to be a tool that helps local businesses grow by using SmartNews ads to turn their "what they want to say" into "what gets through." I'm convinced that by combining it with the "geographical radius targeting" feature we launched in June, we can achieve that goal.

Of course, our own company's revenue is important. That's a given for any business. But beyond that, I'm always thinking about how we can increase the number of success stories for local businesses and support their growth, all while growing our own revenue. I think this aligns perfectly with our Core Values of "For the Common Good." (Core Values: The values that each employee at SmartNews emphasizes and cherishes daily, serving as the foundation for our decisions and actions.)

— On your social media, you described the launch as the "first step" in making your vision a reality.

I see the self-serve ad platform as just a gateway, a door we've opened, to our vision of "The Power to Communicate, for Every Business." But we've only just opened that door. We know that ads in the SmartNews news feed, which are seen by our app's users, have a high-dedicated viewability compared to other ad platforms. I believe this is a truly unique strength of ours. Because of this, we need to support our users as they create success stories and help those stories spread.

Throughout my e-commerce career, I witnessed how merchants created success stories that were then shared, allowing the entire community to grow. Instead of just creating something and saying, "Here, use this," I want to build a relationship where we work alongside our users to nurture and grow the product together. I believe that's the right approach.

— Can you explain the self-serve ad platform in your own words?

I've been talking about "The Power to Communicate, for Every Business" for a long time. When I visited various local and small businesses, I often felt frustrated because even though they had great products or services, they weren't getting the word out. The SmartNews self-serve ad platform is an ad product that can easily solve this "can't get the word out" problem. It's designed to make it simple for anyone to "communicate" their company's appeal. That's the essence of this product.

— Who would benefit most from this?

There's a traditional Japanese confectionery shop in Fukushima Prefecture called "Kashiwaya" that has been in business for about 170 years since the Edo period. Their signature product is "Kashiwaya Usukawa Manju." They told me that while they have many longtime fans, the younger generation doesn't know about the product. While they have other products like Western-style sweets and seasonal items, and a long history as a brand, many people only know their signature product.

*Read more: CTR Exceeding 5.1% & 25% Reduction in CPC! How a Traditional Confectionery Shop Found New Customers with SmartNews Ads.

— How did you meet Kashiwaya?

When we started the self-serve ad platform project, we interviewed over 30 companies that had used SmartNews Ads to test our hypotheses about which markets and businesses would find it most useful.

When I heard Kashiwaya's story, I knew, "This is it!" Even though they're a long-standing traditional confectionery shop, they don't have a dedicated marketing team. But because SmartNews ads appear seamlessly alongside news content in the app, they can effectively convey their brand story. This makes it a great solution for companies without marketing specialists. The regional targeting feature also allows them to reach local people effectively. As a result, they were very satisfied, and the ad performance was surprisingly good.

Before hearing this positive success story, the potential of the self-serve ad platform was just a hypothesis, lacking a clear direction. But when we heard about Kashiwaya's case and a few others, the path forward became clear. We knew what market to target and why we needed to build this platform.

— Now that your six-year dream has come true, have you changed?

I think I'm the most authentic version of myself right now. Before I joined SmartNews, I was the type of person who would lead a business or an organization with my emotions. But when I came to this company, I found there were so many smart, brilliant people. I thought, "My style is a bit different," so I wore a shell for a while (laughs).

— What was the trigger that made you break out of that shell?

As the project lead for the self-serve ad platform, I think I was about 70% my true self. But during a recent Global All-Hands meeting, I heard a passionate message from our CFO, Jin-san*5. Suddenly, the fog cleared, and I thought, "Oh, it's okay to be 100% myself." I probably spent about four years at SmartNews trying to act cool (laughs). That might have been a bit too long.

Since then, people have told me, "You've changed, Imaji-san." But the truth is, I haven't changed. The 100% open version is who I truly am, so I feel like I've just returned to my true self.

*5: Jin Akiyama - Chief Financial Officer

— How do you plan to help make SmartNews even more successful?

When you have a great group of colleagues, you want to make your company even more vibrant and energetic, right? I've only started to feel this way—that I should be more myself—in the last few months. I'm not afraid to say it: work is easier for me now. I'm not putting on a facade. Leading the self-serve ad platform has allowed me to make a huge leap forward in my own personal growth.

— Thank you very much. Lastly, please request a song for us!

"Owari Naki Tabi" (Never Ending Journey)" by Mr. Children.

From the very beginning of the interview, Imaji-san, with a deep, pleasant voice honed by his time as a radio DJ, spoke fluidly and passionately. He understood our questions' intentions and wove a story that was as compelling as watching a movie. We were deeply moved by his consistent narrative and his six-year-long journey to bring his vision, "The Power to Communicate, for Every Business," to life.

In his personal life, Imaji-san enjoys fishing and is a father of two. He has a wild and competitive side, once declaring, "A fisherman must catch the red snapper for his child's first solid food ceremony himself," and then went out and caught a 3.7kg red snapper in a stormy Tokyo Bay. We can't wait to see what's next for Imaji-san now that he has broken out of his shell and is being his 100% authentic self.

Interview/Text: Inside SmartNews Editorial Department (Hanai)
Photography: Inside SmartNews Editorial Department (Yamautsuri)