New Relic appoints Masakiyo Furudate to head Japan
New Relic has appointed Masakiyo Furudate as Group Vice President and Head of New Relic Japan, where he will lead operations in the company's largest Asia-Pacific market.
Reporting to regional sales leadership, Furudate will oversee strategic growth, customer success and day-to-day operations in Japan. New Relic says it has held the leading market share there for seven consecutive years.
The appointment comes as the software company expands its presence in Japan. Its local user base now exceeds 38,000, and domestic headcount has risen 20% over the past year.
That growth has been matched by further investment, including the announcement of a Japan-based data centre and the rollout of new AI-related products for local customers.
Japan focus
Japan is New Relic's most established market in Asia-Pacific, making the leadership change significant for its regional plans. The move also reflects broader demand for tools that monitor digital systems and applications as AI adoption spreads across enterprise technology operations.
Furudate joins with experience across several major technology companies in Japan. Most recently, he was President and Representative Director of Veeam Software Japan, where he helped build the company's position in the data protection market.
Earlier in his career, he held senior roles at IBM Japan, Microsoft Japan, Red Hat and F5 Networks, giving him experience across infrastructure, software and enterprise sales in the Japanese market.
Chief Executive Officer Ashan Willy linked the appointment to New Relic's broader expansion plans. "Japan is a critical growth market for New Relic. As we continue to scale our global operations, having a leader of Masakiyo's caliber is essential to our growth strategy," he said. "With his extensive experience in leading global technology organizations and his deep understanding of the enterprise data landscape in Japan, I couldn't be more thrilled to have Masakiyo join our global leadership team as Group Vice President to lead Japan through our next phase of growth."
Regional expansion
New Relic has been strengthening its leadership bench across Asia-Pacific and Japan as competition intensifies among software companies selling observability and monitoring tools. These products help companies track the performance of applications, infrastructure and digital services, and are drawing renewed attention as organisations manage more complex AI workloads.
According to Rob Newell, Senior Vice President of Asia Pacific and Japan, the country sits at the centre of the company's regional investment plans.
"Japan is key to our global investment strategy. Our local team has built a phenomenal foundation, and now we are doubling down with Masakiyo's appointment," said Newell. "Masakiyo has a proven track record of activating partner ecosystems and translating global technology into measurable business outcomes, making him the perfect leader as we deepen our commitment to Japanese enterprises, and cement our leadership in the local market," added Newell.
For New Relic, Japan offers both scale and an early test bed for regional expansion. The company's comments suggest it sees the country as a base for sustaining growth in Asia-Pacific as customers increase spending on software that provides greater visibility into digital systems.
Furudate pointed to the growing role of observability tools in corporate technology estates, particularly as businesses process more real-time data.
"As business becomes increasingly real-time in the age of AI, observability platforms have evolved into critical IT infrastructure that directly dictates the pace of business growth," said Furudate. "By delivering cutting-edge solutions, we are committed to establishing 'AI-Strengthened Business Observability' as the new infrastructure standard-one that is directly linked to executive management-and contributing to the enhanced competitiveness of Japanese enterprises," added Furudate.