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Leadership

A team built on medicine
and global trade.

EMIT JAPAN is led by a founder with over two decades inside the pharmaceutical and clinical industry — and a parallel record of building cross-border healthcare and export ventures across Asia. This is a company built by people who understand both the science and the market.

01

Katsuji Sato — Founder & CEO

Pharma 20+ yrsClinical researchHealthcare startup execCross-border tradeMarket-entry consulting

Over more than two decades in the pharmaceutical and clinical fields, he has led numerous first-line launches of new drugs — across allergy, cardiovascular, and diabetes / lifestyle-disease areas, including DPP-4 inhibitors and combination drugs — at both Japanese and global pharmaceutical companies, and planned and published multi-institutional collaborative clinical studies with university hospitals. He began in diagnostics and clinical testing, where, in a management role, he ran a branch laboratory, managed key accounts, and supported clinical research at many university hospitals in Tokyo.

In parallel, he founded and ran ventures bringing Japanese products and healthcare abroad — building export channels across China and ASEAN, operating large-scale Japanese food festivals at major department stores in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, and advancing a Japan-style hospital construction project in Cambodia at government level. He also advises companies on overseas market entry and regulatory navigation.

Since 2026, he has been taking on new challenges at a healthcare startup — building a next-generation oncology treatment platform and establishing a clinical research & development division that runs company-partnered clinical trials, spanning system development through clinical operations. This frontline work in digital health and clinical research directly informs how EMIT JAPAN approaches regulation, evidence, and market access.

02

Career

Figure — Three decades
1990sDiagnostics 1996–2001Clinical testing · management 2001–2025Global pharma · new-drug launches 2016–Cross-border healthcare & export 2026–Oncology platform · clinical R&D

Company names of former employers and partners are withheld and described by category. Selected highlights from a career record are available on request.