About
Naoki Nagai, our founder and CEO, took his first trip outside of his native Japan, when he moved to U.K. to attend an international high school called UWC. In between semesters, he enjoyed backpacking through Europe. The best times he had were when he visited his classmates. As they took him to their favorite restaurants in Budapest, a local concert in Saltsburg and a small chocolate shop in Brussels, he thought that exploring a foreign city like a local was a great way to travel.
When he returned to Tokyo, he tried to offer the same experiences to his friends and colleagues. In between his work, he enjoyed showing his friends around Tokyo, and taking them to his favorite restaurants and bars. It was then when he also noticed that not many signs have English descriptions and that Tokyo must be a difficult city to navigate through if one does not speak the language.
After working in Tokyo for a couple of years, the desire to travel again grew in him. It was making him restless, but he did not know where to go. One day, he realised that he does not have to go outside of Japan to travel, and that exploring Japan could be an interesting trip, and helping international travelers along the way would be even more exciting.
TRADINA Dining Dictionary was his first project to make this happen. If someone in Japan could show travelers around, that would be ideal. There would be times when they are not available, and he would hope to offer a similar experience through information provided through the website.
Before working for TRADINA Corporation, he was a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, Tokyo. Naoki has a bachelor's degree in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University. He also holds an English-speaking tour guide license and a travel agent license from the Japanese government.
