Tansa Editor-in-Chief Makoto Watanabe has been selected as an Ashoka Special Relationship Innovator.

Headquartered in the Washington D.C. area, Ashoka is the world’s largest network of social entrepreneurs. Following the rise of social entrepreneurship in the 1970s, Ashoka was founded in 1980 to identify and support leading changemakers around the world. Ashoka fellows are selected based on the capacity of their activities to address the root causes of social problems. Over 4,000 Ashoka fellows from more than 95 countries have been selected to date.

Ashoka fellows are selected via an in-person interview process. Watanabe was selected as a Special Relationship Innovator using an online process due to the Covid-19 pandemic; in-person interviews will still be necessary for him to be recognized as a fellow.

Watanabe is the seventh Ashoka innovator/fellow in Japan, among which he is the first to be working in the field of journalism. In addition to founding the investigative newsroom Tansa, Watanabe’s work equipping both journalists and ordinary citizens with the tools of investigative journalism was a major reason for his selection. He and the rest of the team at Tansa look forward to making connections with social entrepreneurs around the world through Ashoka’s global network.

Click here for more information on Ashoka and Watanabe’s work as a social entrepreneur.

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