A Day in the Life of Keita Noda, the 19-Year-Old Leading Roblox Game Company WAKA

According to Noda, WAKA creates content inside the game platform Roblox, and it has two lines of business. The first is making games for corporate brands, aimed at promotion and marketing. One example Noda gave is a train game with Tokyo Metro, which drives promotion by getting young people to play it. The second is developing and producing anime games, with the goal of bringing Japanese anime IP, which is very popular overseas, to the world through Roblox.

Noda explains that Roblox is a platform played by 400 million people a month, and that its economy is made up almost entirely of young people aged 25 and under. In Noda's view, some insights can only be understood by young people, and the fact that a young person like Noda, who was actually a user, is taking on this huge market is what draws people's expectations.

Noda passed the entrance exams for a combined junior and senior high school in Kanagawa Prefecture, but found studying boring, and left in the second year of junior high because games were more appealing. Noda became interested in making money on the idea that becoming financially independent from their parents would mean no one could get angry at them for staying immersed in the world of games. After YouTube-related activities and a part-time job editing videos, Noda's interest shifted around age 15 to "something like starting a business" that would provide some kind of service. Noda notes that, legally, you can become the representative director of a corporation from the age of 15.

Noda effectively got the company off the ground by raising about 20 million yen. Using that money for living expenses and the cost of validating business ideas, Noda spent the first year researching what kind of business to build. Looking back with a laugh, Noda describes that period as "research, if you put it nicely, or, if you put it badly, just being a NEET and eating through investors' money."

Noda says finding a business that worked was a struggle throughout the first year. In the brand game business, WAKA handles everything from planning and production to delivery, operation, and promotion. But before the production setup was in place, the company landed a single project worth about 40 million yen.

The order came with expectations and a volume of work to match the price, and at the time, without anything that could be called a team, the company struggled to keep up. It worked out in the end, but the pressure was enormous, including weekly regular meetings with the client. Noda recalls dreaming every night about the worst-case scenario of failing in a client meeting, and waking up every morning thinking, "That wasn't real." The success or failure of that project would also determine the company's future.

Most of the employees are older than Noda. Noda admits that communicating with them is still something they struggle with. Noda was originally the type to "grill" people hard, with a mindset that allowed them to push back forcefully even against older people, which led to some clashes.

So Noda turned to more experienced executives. Even executives in their 30s and 40s manage senior executives in their 50s. Noda says they are learning little by little by consulting them about the failures and friction that came up, and getting their advice.

The reason for changing the company name was that the old name was simply too hard to read. The content production business in particular is a challenge to compete globally by acquiring and releasing games on Roblox, so Noda wanted a name that people around the world could understand and remember.

Among the candidates chosen with clarity as the main criterion, the one selected was "WAKA." Prefacing it by admitting it is a bit of a stretch, Noda explains that it stands for "wa" as in harmony (和) and "ka" as in change (化). The world of entertainment, including Roblox, changes rapidly, and Noda belongs to the native generation that grew up in the middle of that whirlwind, but being too edgy does not make a business. In the brand business, the company has to translate edgy areas skillfully for brands and explain them. The name means staying edgy in response to a changing market while engaging in harmony with stakeholders such as IP holders and brands. When Shirai asked whether it was also "waka" (若) as in young, Noda acknowledged that meaning overlaps as well.

The day's schedule included an English lesson, an internal morning meeting, a meeting with a shareholder, an interview with a hiring candidate, a client visit, and, at night, a meeting with one of the company's creators based in the UK.

Noda really should be able to speak English for the evening meeting with the British creator, but cannot speak it at all, and is taking lessons starting from around the level of Eiken Grade 3.

The morning meeting was a 30-minute session with three core members, and they were working on recruitment content. Noda says hiring is the most important challenge facing the company right now. Many people don't even know about Roblox as a market, and WAKA is still not well known, so even if the company is attractive, it is hard to get people to even want to join. That is why the company is promoting both the appeal of Roblox and the appeal of the company, Noda explained.

The kind of people Noda is looking for are in their mid-to-late 20s. Since many clients are large organizations such as Docomo and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the company wants people with experience selling to large enterprises. On the production side, Noda said it would be reassuring to have people who can run production in a new field, such as manager-level people who ran production departments in emerging media like web3 or TikTok back in their early days.

Next came a meeting with a venture capital shareholder. That day's meeting was with F Ventures, which was the first to invest when Noda founded the company and has made follow-on investments three times in a row, including in the newly announced round. The meeting was a chance to give an update and seek advice in light of the recent fundraising.

In this round, the company raised an additional 250 million yen. The lead investor was Spiral Capital, a major player in the venture capital industry, and bank-affiliated Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and others also invested. When Shirai asked, "Since it's an investment, do you have to pay it back?" Noda answered that the investors are supporting the company over five to seven years to become a big company, so rather than intense pressure, it is the pressure of needing to grow the business properly.

As for why so much money has come in, Noda explained that VCs invest in companies that might go public or achieve a big sale, so the job is to build a business that makes people think it could get there, even if it hasn't reached that stage yet.

Noda says they are extremely fortunate to have experienced executives around them. Much of the funding comes from VCs, but there are also individuals who have come on board as shareholders while serving in an advisory role. Those named include Wada, the former president of game company Square Enix; the president of Coincheck, a crypto exchange listed on NASDAQ; and Sugiyama, the CFO of the RAKSUL Group. Noda receives mentoring every day from these professionals in startup management and finance, and gets to bounce ideas off them.

On how Noda came to know such people, Noda ties it back to the Roblox market discussed earlier. Noda's view is that they see promise in a young person who was actually a user taking on a market that is an economy of young people, and so they are willing to help. When Shirai said, "That's like a cheat code," Noda acknowledged that, whereas at a normal company you would learn from seniors two or three years ahead of you, being mentored from the very start by renowned executives and board members may make a big difference.

An art director at the company says it was surprising that Noda, who tends to get attention as an entrepreneur, genuinely loves Roblox as someone right in the middle of the younger generation. Watching Noda excitedly enjoying the games the company makes, the art director felt Noda runs the company while keeping a young person's sensibility. The art director had imagined someone more businesslike. On the other hand, there are clashes. People on the ground want to make good things, but as an executive tracking the numbers, there are times when Noda has to stop them because going further would just be self-indulgence. Since both sides share the same goal of making good things and growing the company, the art director says they clash "in a good way."

Haraguchi, of the Content Production Division, which handles Roblox projects using anime IP and more, recalls that their first impression was that Noda "seemed like someone it would be fun to be around." Haraguchi values not just the buzz around a 19-year-old CEO, but the fact that Noda has a solid set of moves and strategies for Roblox, adding that even among the upper management of game and anime companies, surprisingly few people can strategize and execute to that extent.

Sano, a salesperson for the branded entertainment business, introduced the Mitsuya Cider project. The company turned the process of learning about manufacturing into a game, so that while playing a factory-style game, players naturally come to understand the product's features and strengths. Sano describes the work as translating a brand's characteristics and philosophy into a game to communicate them to children. What surprised Sano was how quickly Noda grows: after Sano teaches Noda something about sales, by the time they meet one or two weeks later, Noda has already studied all of it. Sano also says Noda is very good at winning over prominent people. Asked about Noda's weaknesses, Sano pointed to stamina, such as getting tired quickly when making rounds on hot days, and added that Noda also skips lunch.

In the afternoon, it was off to Harajuku. According to Noda, Harajuku is the "mainstream" where the Gen Z players of Roblox gather, and a place Noda wants to check in on regularly. With BEAMS as a client, Noda has occasions to visit.

What Noda looks at are newly opened tenants aimed at children and young people, where current trends show up. Noda also pays attention to underground shops that seem to be making unlicensed merchandise. With memes being churned out en masse on TikTok and elsewhere, seeing them actually sold as merchandise lets you see with your own eyes that young people are really gathering around them.

On the street, Noda says what matters most is color. Stores think thoroughly about what catches children's eyes, and the same is true for games. Things like deliberately information-dense store designs are a useful reference for creating content that attracts Generation Alpha, not just for brands. Pointing to the distinctive, Famicom-like design of what appeared to be a micro pig pet café, Noda said they observe every day what kinds of designs and visuals Generation Alpha are used to. Noda is close to Generation Alpha and is drawn to some of these things too, but now that they are running a business, they take a step back, and they make a point of keeping that perspective while not forgetting how users feel.

After walking around, what Noda "wanted to buy" was Bonbon Drop Stickers. Sticker albums, once a fad, are now making a comeback among small children, to the point that women in their 20s collect them too. The idea is to collect three-dimensional stickers and trade them with friends.

Noda says this matters because Roblox games themed around Bonbon Drop Stickers are popular. In those games, you can buy stickers and also trade them. One of the stickers Noda picked up featured a character from "Italian Brainrot," an AI meme that went viral. Noda said it is symbolic that not an anime or game character but some baffling AI character is hugely popular with children and has become a sticker, and bought it, saying they would put it on their computer.

On the thinking behind hit games, Noda explains that young people today play Roblox as if it were a park. Rather than enjoying games as story-driven works like picture books, they use them as "playground equipment" for playing with friends. So what matters is gameplay that serves as a trigger for lively communication, the kind that makes you want to show off to your friends or goof around with them.

For brand content, the company builds the brand's identity and characteristics into that. Noda believes that while advertising can carry a negative image that people instinctively avoid, it is fundamentally a means of communicating a brand's appeal. The companies that come to WAKA, BEAMS included, already have an appeal that draws young people, and the company's job is to figure out how to turn that into gameplay.

BEAMS is celebrating its 50th anniversary. According to Noda, BEAMS, a brick-and-mortar retail business, lost awareness among young people in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, so as a way to let the younger generation know it is a "cool brand," it is creating content that can be played within the games teenagers are obsessed with.

In the game, set in a world lined with select shops like Takeshita Street, players "snatch" the clothes they like from mannequins and display them in their own shop to build the ultimate select shop. Usually, the team members on the ground handle production, but Noda, as part of the native generation, gets involved in planning, especially in the early stages. That is because what matters is whether the sensibility is natively understood. After that, professional project members take over, but Noda gives candid feedback at playtest sessions.

At that day's regular meeting, with production in its final stretch, the discussion focused mainly on design. The person in charge on the BEAMS side said they are very particular about design, and that while there are times they feel they are asking for the impossible, WAKA has responded in good faith. Noda said that Matsui of BEAMS has been understanding about the parts aimed at making the game enjoyable, and that by aligning with each other as they go, there is a sense that something good is being made precisely because the two companies are doing it together. The team members in charge usually handle the relationship, and Noda attends at milestones and critical moments.

Around 10 p.m., after finishing the regular meeting with the British team member, Noda says this is nothing compared with entrepreneurs who really work hard. Noda gets a solid eight to nine hours of sleep after getting home, and takes weekends off as well.

Finally, asked about goals, Noda answered that they position WAKA as an "obsession content studio." Japanese adults, including brands and anime IP holders, have yet to notice the many different "obsessions" young people have on Roblox. In the role of bridging that gap, the company provides content production and marketing support, and Noda wants it to become the studio that best captures insights into obsession anywhere in the world.

At the end of the day, what stood out most to Shirai was walking through Harajuku together. Noda seemed to instantly see through what young people like, such as colors and how products are arranged, and said that "everything has a meaning." Shirai described Noda as a kind of bridge who puts into words the feelings that children who play games can't quite articulate, connecting them with "That's what it is, right? Then let's do this." Shirai added that they want to try looking at things they had previously seen as mere scenery with the idea that they, too, carry some kind of meaning.