HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM // It’s been more than ten years since Masako became the first female Creative Director at Dentsu, and now many women have become good Creative Directors or Producers in the Japanese advertising industry. Game changer? Maybe so, maybe not. In 2014 she took up the Executive Creative Director role at Dentsu Vietnam. First time ever a Japanese ECD was offered an overseas assignment in Dentsu Aegis Network. Her adventures are to be continued.

Masako’s work has been recognized at many awards, including Clio, Cannes Lions, New York Festivals, Spikes, London International Awards (LIA) and AdFest. She has judged for Clio, YoungGuns, AdFest, Cannes Lions, Spikes, One Show, LIA, ADC and many other regional awards. Her public service ads for the Ad Council in Japan and the U.S. are now included in a French schoolbook. She has worked on accounts for the Liberal Democratic Party (for former PM Junichiro Koizumi), Toyota, Shiseido, Suntory, Thai Airways International, Shizuoka Broadcasting and FUJIFILM. She was awarded the Asian Top 10 Creative Directors in 2007 by Media magazine (now Campaign Asia-Pacific).

Masako has also been an associate professor at a local university for the last thirteen years and published her first book, ‘How to Be a Copywriter’. Now she is a guest lecturer for many educational institutes in Vietnam.

Since the March 11 Japan earthquake, she has been consistently trying to cheer up the country through both creative and volunteer activities such as anti-suicide activities and she produced charity events for Sake breweries in the disaster-hit region as a Sake Sommelier. She loves football, and is a season ticket holder of Chelsea FC. 

She already tailored two “ao dai” that is a Vietnamese national costume.