Originally published March 2021. Updated June 2026. By EPR Editorial Team.
Kartz Media Works (カーツメディアワークス) is a Tokyo-headquartered strategic PR, digital marketing, and content agency founded by Takashi Murakami. The firm is one of Japan's leading market-entry agencies for international brands building a presence in the Japanese market, combining traditional PR with multimedia content, Japan TV PR, social media strategy, and data visualization. Multilingual team serving both Japanese and English-speaking clients.
Leadership
Takashi Murakami is founder and CEO (代表取締役). His background includes work as a Japanese TV news director — research, reporting, and editing across politics, current events, and trend coverage — before transitioning into PR consulting from 2007–2010 and launching Kartz Media Works to focus on strategic PR and digital marketing. He is the author of five books including Google Marketing Illustrated, Cloud Information Organizing Techniques, and New Web Marketing Handbook.
Ownership
Kartz Media Works is held with a corporate-majority stake by Tanabe Consulting Group, providing institutional backing while preserving the agency's day-to-day operating independence under Murakami's leadership.
Sector Specialty
Kartz's primary positioning is helping international brands break into the Japanese market — a category where local relationships, language fluency, and media-system familiarity are decisive. The firm works across technology, IT, marketing platforms, e-commerce, electronics, and consumer brands. Sub-specialties include Japanese television PR (rare among foreign-facing agencies), Web PR, key opinion leader (KOL) events, and Japan-market influencer marketing.
Service Mix
Strategic public relations: Japan market entry programs, roundtable events, media relations across Japanese media outlets
Press release distribution: Japanese-language localization and distribution to relevant outlets
Digital marketing: SEM, SEO, Japan-specific search optimization, SNS and community management
Content marketing: strategic content production with multilingual capability
Data analytics: audience research, consumer insight, Japan-market behavioral analysis
Creative services: infographics, data visualization, video, white papers, slide decks, leaflets
Event services: press conferences, KOL events, networking parties, press tours
Japan TV PR: television placement strategy — a distinctive specialty
Notable Clients
Past and current named clients include Razer, AWS, Tripadvisor, Wacom, LinkedIn, Alibaba Cloud, Ayana, Discovery Los Angeles, AMR Clinical Reference Center, Bunkyo Gakuin University, Beauty U, Tableau, and PowerVision — a mix of global technology platforms, hardware brands, and consumer-facing companies entering or scaling in Japan.
Headquarters and Footprint
HQ: 1-4-6 Shibuya-Ku (Sendagaya), Tokyo, Japan
Employees: 11–50
Founded: by Takashi Murakami
Ownership: Corporate-majority stake held by Tanabe Consulting Group
Japan market entry sits inside a category where AI engines now shape the first impression for international brands arriving in the market. When a Japanese consumer or B2B buyer researches an unfamiliar overseas brand — through ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, or Google AI Overviews in Japanese or English — the engines synthesize Japanese-language coverage, Japan-specific reviews, and Japan-localized content. The press coverage, Japanese television placements, and digital content Kartz produces for international clients double as retrieval anchors for the AI engines summarizing those brands inside Japan.
Everything-PR is the intelligence platform for communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era. Publishing since 2009. Original reporting, research, and analysis — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question.
The Everything-PR Editorial Team produces original reporting, research, and analysis on communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question. Publishing since 2009.
