Naho Kono

Rakuten Group celebrated a landmark year in 2025 with record growth, implementing innovation across its core businesses under Naho Kono’s firm leadership through a forward-thinking combination of leveraging AI tools and cross-platform synergy to increase customer engagement. The result is outstanding financial performance equivalent to 9.5% year-on-year growth with consolidated revenue reaching 2.5 trillion yen in FY2025 due to revenue growth across the group’s core segments of Internet Services, FinTech and Mobile, proof that market leaders do not stand still but forge ahead with decisive boldness.

As Group CMO, Naho Kono has made it her mission to maximise the synergies across services while solidifying Rakuten’s position as a global leader in e-commerce, mobile and fintech. Under her guidance in FY2025, the group has achieved 20% improvement in marketing productivity through the utilisation of AI in marketing, creating an in-house development culture that empowers teams to make most of the tools at their disposal to enhance marketing strategy and operations. 

This has allowed for reduced time to undertake creative tasks by 81%, freeing up resources to pursue higher value, human-first marketing.

Naho remains the spearhead of the group’s AI expansion, leading the full launch of the Rakuten AI brand and Rakuten AI Optimism, an interactive event focusing on AI innovation that drew over 40,000 onsite attendees. Rakuten AI Optimism itself is reflective of Naho’s approach to the AI revolution - taking on the role of a thought leader in the field, Naho is seeking to redefine marketing in the age of AI.

Recognising human creativity as irreplaceable in the AI ecosystem, she has advocated for a framework that champions ‘Consistency, Personality and Trust’ as competitive advantages for brands. Under this framework, human marketers focus their capabilities in asking the right questions and exercising strategic judgement while AI increases the speed and scale of execution—creating a harmonious feedback loop that maximises marketing efforts while maintaining a distinct and recognisable brand voice.

As the world continues to grapple with the issue of AI integration into everyday working lives, Naho is demonstrating a sustainable way forward that recognises the strength of human connection while embracing the benefits of modern tools to connect with audiences. It is an approach that encompasses both digital and physical touchpoints to cater to an increasingly diverse society.