Walnut LLC.
Contact | JA EN

Personal Profile

Shunsuke Fujinuma

Shunsuke Fujinuma

Representative Partner, Walnut LLC.

"Building markets for things that matter." — the single weapon I bring to this mission is what I call editorial capacity, refined across nine years in public service, independent media, regional DMO leadership, and now overseas distribution.

By editorial capacity, I don't mean polishing prose. I mean: relentlessly imagining what the counterpart truly needs; re-organizing the raw material on hand; finding the form in which the message will actually land; and following through to a real result — revenue, agreement, or a structural change in the market.

Public administration, private finance, digital media, regional DMOs, and overseas products — the domains differ, but the work is the same. Cross the walls, edit dormant value into a sellable structure, and implement it on the ground.

Career Overview

Phase 1

Tochigi Prefectural Government

Public administration and stakeholder coordination — the origin of editorial capacity, learning to identify essence and drive it to consensus.

Phase 2

Blogger × Web Consulting

Built a public-service blog from zero to ~6M PV/year and #1 nationally in its category — establishing editorial capacity in the digital space.

Phase 3

Mashiko DMO

Integrated public-sector and digital experience as COO of the regional DMO — implementing editorial capacity at the regional scale.

Phase 4

Walnut LLC. (Current)

Extended the work to overseas products, regional producers, and public-private partnerships — editing value into structures that sell.

Detailed Career Timeline

2008 — 2016

Tochigi Prefectural Government — Public administration & coordination

Coordinated opinions from all 47 prefectures at the National Governors' Association, and managed inter-departmental budget consolidation in the Health & Welfare Bureau. The discipline of identifying the essential issue and driving it to landing formed the foundation of every later phase.

2014 — 2015

Ashikaga Bank — Two-year secondment (private-sector exchange)

Seconded for two years to Ashikaga Bank as part of a public-private exchange program. After a decade in a culture that emphasized process and fairness, the abrupt shift to a commercial culture that worked backward from results and pursued profit was formative — yielding fluency in both the administrative and commercial languages and the ability to integrate them.

2017 — 2021

Independent Web Media & Consulting

After leaving the public sector, built a public-service-focused blog from scratch. Within about a year, achieved #1 nationally in its category and roughly 6 million PV/year. Won the KK Bestsellers Book-Review Prize. Refined editorial capacity in the digital space — finding what readers truly want and arranging material to land.

2021 — 2023

Mashiko-Lab (Mashiko Town DMO) — COO

Joined Mashiko-Lab, Tochigi's registered regional DMO, as COO. Re-edited tourism assets, local businesses, public-sector initiatives, and outreach into outcomes — including a ¥147M Japan Tourism Agency grant (renovating 13 businesses) and growing the official Instagram to 68,000 followers, ranked #4 nationally among Japanese municipalities.

October 2023

Founded Walnut LLC.

Founded Walnut LLC to extend editorial capacity beyond individual cases into a service business — implementing value into the structures through which it sells.

2024 — Present

Overseas Distribution / Domestic Regional Sales Growth Support

Secured Japan distribution rights from multiple overseas manufacturers, with crowdfunding launches reaching approx. ¥8.7M (two weeks) and ¥6.88M (40 days) on Makuake. In parallel, supports regional Japanese producers across branding, e-commerce, advertising, and sales — extending editorial capacity from content into the sales architecture of a business.

Philosophy & Approach

At the core of everything I do is editorial capacity.

The world is full of genuinely valuable things that go unseen. Most of the time, that isn't because the value is missing — it's because the structure and editing required to deliver it are missing.

Imagine relentlessly what the counterpart truly wants. Decide which slice of the raw material will move them, and how to present it. Tell the story; connect a product to people, or a region to people; produce a measurable result in the market.

Consolidating opinions and budgets at the prefectural government. Touching the commercial frontline at Ashikaga Bank. Designing reader-centered content for a top blog. Owning numbers for regional appeal at a DMO. Opening Japanese markets for overseas products at Walnut.

Different surfaces — one axis. With this integrated implementation capacity, I will keep building, with discipline, the structures through which valuable things are recognized for what they are.

Personal

Born 1985 in Tochigi City, Tochigi Prefecture. Lives in Utsunomiya with my wife and two daughters. Spends spare time running and reading.

I draw heavily from classical principles for business judgment — in particular:

In literature, particularly fond of Dostoevsky, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Osamu Dazai, and J.D. Salinger.

← Back to About Contact →