Wataru Takamine
Software Engineer/ Entrepreneur
I continue creating products as naturally as I breathe throughout my life.
1994, The year I was born, was actually a very important year for the internet and technology in general. It was the year when the information revolution truly started to go mainstream. Netscape launched its browser, Jeff Bezos quit his job to start Amazon, the White House in the United States created its very first website, and, Lionel Messi was just 7 years old at the time, beginning his journey in football.
I made the decision to fully immerse myself in internet and technology. Since then, I’ve been building software for large enterprises, startups, and my own company, occasionally seeking comfort while continuously pushing the boundaries of my potential.
I find great joy in creating valuable software while crossing boundaries between design, engineering, and business.
Outside of work, I enjoy swimming, reading, listening to radio and studying English.
2024 - Present
Co-Founder & CTO・Leapify, Inc.
Co-founded Leapify Inc. as the CTO, developing the automated trend report service using Python, ChatGPT API, Supabase, and Google Apps Script. Led the tech team in creating monthly AI product reports for sale preparation, showcasing expertise in automation and AI technologies. Sole member of the development team, handling all implementation independently.
2023 - Present
Blockchain Engineer・SARAH, Inc.
Developed Onigiri Chain and Omochi Chain on Avalanche, pioneering blockchain solutions in Japan. Led a web3 engineering team, focusing on app development, particularly in infrastructure and backend. Built a Blockchain Indexer using Subquery and AWS CDK to efficiently manage and index blockchain data.
2023 - 2024
FullStack Engineer・Forward, Inc.
Developed automation for scout emails sent by recruitment consultants to job seekers in recruitment industry using TypeScript, React, Next.js, and Prisma. Collaborated with the team to launch and optimize automation processes for efficiency. Developed a backend system for a Slack Integration tool that registers contracting companies using AWS CDK and Lambda.
2020 - 2023
Android Engineer・DMM.com, LLC
Developed the detailed view screen for DMM TV using Jetpack Compose, implementing the UI and retrieving data via Apollo GraphQL. Collaborated with cross-functional teams to ensure seamless integration and user-friendly experience. Reduced API query complexity and response times for DMM TV, optimizing user experience during video playback. Implemented ExoPlayer into a video streaming app, focusing on analytics event tracking and player settings UI. Led the introduction of new metrics and developed an automated system for quality monitoring using Redash, Slack, and Firebase. Developed in-app purchase functionalities using Google Play Billing Library, ensuring compliance with financial regulations.
2018 - 2020
Master of Engineering / Technology Management for Innovation・The University of Tokyo
Grade: 3.8 | Majored in technology management and data science, focusing on research in text mining, natural language processing, and machine learning. My master’s thesis was titled: "Query-Oriented Multi-Document Summarization with a Focus on Causality for Economic Reports. Produced the digital art piece "韻を踏む" (Rhyming), where I was responsible for collecting rhyming phrases and conducting linguistic processing. I received the Wacoal Study Hall Kyoto Encouragement Award at SICF20. Placed in the top 10% in the Signate J-League Attendance Forecasting Competition, using Ridge regression for time series tasks. Developed a career path visualization tool using Rails, MySQL, and Cytoscape.js. The project is available on CareerCompass.
2014 - 2018
Bachelor of Engineering / Mechanical and Aerpospace Engineering・Tohoku University
Grade: 3.5| Activities and societies: Research Lab: Yoshida Laboratory (One of Japan’s leading research labs in space exploration engineering) Club: Human-Powered Aircraft Club (Contributed to winning the national championship in my second year) Activities and societies: Research Lab: Yoshida Laboratory (One of Japan’s leading research labs in space exploration engineering) Club: Human-Powered Aircraft Club (Contributed to winning the national championship in my second year) Majored in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and was part of a research lab focused on space exploration engineering. Awarded the Global Hagi Overseas Study Encouragement Award, which is given to outstanding students for studying abroad at international universities. Thesis Topic: "Obstacle Recognition Based on Distance Imaging for Lunar and Planetary Exploration Robots"
2016 - 2017
Bachelor of Engineering / Mechanical and Aerpospace Engineering・University of California, Irvine
Participated in an exchange program where I spent a year studying aerospace and mechanical engineering. During this time, I also actively joined the university’s soccer club, balancing my academic pursuits with team sports and building strong collaborative and leadership skills
ONIGIRI Chain
Associated with SARAH, Inc.
A Blockchain Specialized in Food and Healthcare. ONIGIRI Chain is a blockchain dedicated to collecting and storing information on food and healthcare. By centralizing a wide range of consumer behavior data on the blockchain, it aims to become the protocol for food and healthcare data, serving as a foundation for creating new value.
AI Product Report
Associated with Leapify, Inc.
The AI Trend Report is a website that provides the latest trends and information about artificial intelligence in Japanese. This project comprehensively covers domestic and international AI news, trend analyses, and practical use cases, regularly updating content. It aims to offer opportunities for technicians, business professionals, researchers, and AI enthusiasts to deepen their understanding of AI technological advancements and their impacts.
AceJob
Associated with Forward, Inc.
AceJob is a platform that helps companies optimize their recruiting processes by automating and streamlining various tasks. It offers solutions for managing job posts, candidate screening, and application tracking, reducing manual work and improving efficiency in the hiring pipeline. The service integrates seamlessly with existing tools and aims to enhance the overall recruitment experience for both employers and candidates
DMM TV
Associated with DMM.com LLC
DMM TV is a video streaming service by DMM.com, offering a wide range of content including anime, movies, dramas, and variety shows. It's known for its strong anime selection, including exclusive titles. Users can stream or download content on various devices, and it operates on a subscription model with a monthly fee for unlimited access. I was responsible for developing the content details screen in the DMM TV Android app using Jetpack Compose. This screen was the most complex in the app, requiring me to lead the mapping of fields from the GraphQL schema to UI elements alongside other client-side engineers. On the web, I also handled the implementation to retrieve necessary data via Apollo. During development, I addressed performance issues, including slow API response times and high query complexity. I tackled this by splitting the queries into FirstView-required data and eliminating over-fetching, reducing query complexity from 1500 to 750 and halving response times. Since this was a video streaming app, my focus was on improving the user experience leading up to video playback, ensuring smooth performance for users.
Inwofumu | multi-lingua-body
Associated with Manabe Minori
Inwofumu | multi-lingua-body Inwofumu | multi-lingua-body Jan 2019 - Dec 2019Jan 2019 - Dec 2019 The experience is mainly for two persons, but the audience also goes through a new aural experience.’Inwofumu’ is a project conceptualized by my friend and talented artist, Minori Manabe. This project combines the two meanings of the Japanese word ’fumu’ (to step and to rhyme), offering a unique experience where participants physically engage with rhymes. By stepping on phrases projected onto the ground, participants can see words that rhyme with the chosen phrase, allowing them to enjoy the rhythmic pleasure of poetry and rap. Building upon this,’multi-lingua-body’ was born. Based on Minori's vision, this work expands the concept to break language barriers by introducing multilingual support. When participants select a word in their native language, a rhyming phrase in another language is read aloud, enabling cross-linguistic communication through rhyme. In this project, I was primarily responsible for extracting rhyming phrases from Aozora Bunko, establishing relationships between phrases, and handling the multilingual integration. ’Multi-lingua-body’ was also exhibited at SIGGRAPH ASIA 2022, where it received much recognition for its innovative approach.
Loosely coded in Visual Studio Code by yours trully with. Built with Next.js and Mantine UI, and TailWind CSS, deployed with and Vercel.
