Team

Leadership

Kai Sugihara

Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Leads Zero's vision, philosophy, strategy, external relations, and fundraising, as well as its vertical integration strategy built around proprietary IP and industry standards. Started his first business at age 12 with a 3D CG data service and has since been involved in founding and operating seven companies, spanning web and app development to AI orchestration agents. In 2025, he founded and incorporated Zero and became its Chief Executive Officer.

Yusei Fujii

Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer

Leads technical development across Beam, Cell, and Grid—laser physics, control systems, and core engineering—and serves as principal investigator for Zero's joint research program. Studied engineering at the University of Tokyo. Previously spent three years in geometry research, discovering and proving several new theorems. Ranked first in the country on Japan's national high-school academic examination and founded an AI-powered grading company while still in school.

Koya Tani

Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer

Leads finance, go-to-market, hiring, and operations at Zero, and built the company's joint research program and adviser network. Studied at Keio University. Previously founded and led an 80-member student organization and organized an event for 200 high-school students. He has also taught in Kenya and studied in Indonesia.

Team

Satoshi Ichiki

Chief of Staff

Decision support, progress tracking, closing documents, and hiring, and runs the Japan side while the executives are abroad. Dropped out of engineering college and wound down his own ventures to join full time.

Yamato Ono

Executive Assistant

Executive scheduling, the point of contact for the advisers, bookkeeping, and contract administration. Raised between Japan and the Philippines, and came to Zero through an interest in global energy.

Atsuto Watanabe

Engineer

Doctoral researcher at Institute of Science Tokyo in optical wireless power receivers, the field the Cell receiver rides on. Reviews the demonstration plans, leads the write-up of results, and independently verifies the work of the contracted labs.

Yasuto Narukiyo

Engineer

Doctoral researcher at Institute of Science Tokyo in satellite phased-array antennas and radiation-hard RF integrated circuits. Brings satellite thermal-vacuum and radiation test experience to the control, signal processing, and vacuum tests of the pointing demonstration.

Akito Hattori

Engineer

Builds the jigs and enclosures for the demonstration benches and designs how the product looks. Has freelanced in video and web production since junior high, across CG, code, and 3D CAD, and works with his own 3D printers, laser cutter, and CNC.

Issei Nishi

Engineer

Kansai University. Builds and runs the company-wide development platform, the organization that holds the code and the knowledge base, from development environments to repository operations.

Sota Todokoro

Engineer

Studies at Kaisei High School and works on engineering at Zero.

Advisers

Kenichi Anma

Technical Adviser

A founding member of the space solar power division at Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, where sixteen years went into Japan's national wireless power transmission research: the world's first long-distance laser experiment in 2006, and the microwave equivalent in 2016. Before that, six years of flight planning for the H-II rocket and the hypersonic vehicle HYFLEX. Now Head of the Business Strategy Office at Future Space Transportation Systems. Advises Zero on the technical design of Helios and its wireless power architecture.

Shoichiro Asada

Senior Adviser

Nearly half a century at the front of Japanese space development. At Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, responsible for the structure of every rocket in the national lineage from the N-1 to the H-IIA, then project manager for H-IIA launch services and the executive who opened its space solar power division. Later President of the Japanese Rocket Society and an executive at the SAR satellite operator Synspective. Now Executive Director of the Japan Space Forum.

Motoko Mizuno

Adviser

Twenty-eight years at JAXA, leading Japan's international negotiations on the International Space Station and helping draft the Space Activities Act that gave the country's space industry its legal footing. Then three years in the House of Councillors, working on space legislation. Holds a master's in international law from Leiden University.

Daisuke Katano

Adviser

Took a deep-tech manufacturer from a flying prototype to a public listing: the XTURISMO at A.L.I. Technologies, and in 2023 the first NASDAQ listing by a Japanese manufacturing startup. Before that, strategy at Dream Incubator and the Boston Consulting Group, then Representative Director of YCP Japan. Now a director at Data Section and an alliance partner at YCP Group.

Yoshi Kakiuchi

Adviser

Thirty-five years in satellite communications, from Japan's first commercial geostationary satellite to the first 110-degree broadcasting satellite and the operation of MBSAT. Ran satellite technology, satellite control, and infrastructure strategy at SKY Perfect JSAT, and shaped the company's work on the Space Activities Act. Now Senior Project Leader at Space Compass, the NTT joint venture, on an on-orbit optical communications demonstration.