What 株式会社ヒューマンシップ does

株式会社ヒューマンシップ (HumanShip Co., Ltd.) is a Tokyo-based recruitment and career advisory firm founded in February 2013 by Yasumitsu Ikenoya and Yuko Yamane, both former HR executives at Recruit Co. The company operates a differentiated "Personal Agent®" service model — a registered trademark (登録第5717895号) — in which a single dedicated consultant manages the entire job-search lifecycle for each individual client, from initial career consultation and company matching through interview preparation, salary negotiation, and post-placement follow-up. This approach contrasts with the volume-based matching used by most Japanese staffing agencies and positions the firm in the boutique executive and mid-career search segment. The firm is licensed under Japan's Fee-Based Employment Placement Business (有料職業紹介事業許可 13-ユ-305916) and operates from a Shibuya headquarters plus a Nagoya office, with one consultant (Shoko Okabe) based in Germany supporting Japan-Europe cross-border placements.

The company's product portfolio spans three core offerings: the flagship Personal Agent® mid-career and executive placement service, a dedicated Executive Recruitment (エグゼクティブ採用) practice with its own brand site, and a wholly-owned subsidiary called HumanShip Medical Partners (株式会社ヒューマンシップ メディカルパートナーズ, established May 2022) that focuses on biomedical, pharmaceutical, and healthcare executive and advisory board placements. Revenue is generated primarily through transactional placement fees on successful candidate placements, supplemented by recruitment consulting services for corporate clients developing hiring strategies. Named corporate clients span multiple industries — BCG, Honda, Fast Retailing, CyberAgent, Eisai, Shionogi, SmartHR, Kakaku.com — indicating a broad demand-side distribution.

The business is founder-owned and bootstrapped with no disclosed external funding or institutional investors. The consultant bench is concentrated almost entirely among former Recruit HR professionals with 15-25+ years of industry experience, which constitutes the company's primary moat. The firm operates without proprietary technology, APIs, or AI-driven matching systems, positioning it as a pure professional services business where scalability is constrained by consultant headcount rather than technology leverage. Medical Partners operates with its own advisory board (Takayuki Ashijima, Naoya Takuma, Tomoya Nagata) bringing biotech investment and industry expertise into the firm's biomedical vertical.

Name

株式会社ヒューマンシップ

Legal name

株式会社ヒューマンシップ

Website

https://humanship.co.jp

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

株式会社ヒューマンシップ is a Tokyo-based boutique recruitment firm founded in 2013 that places mid-career and executive professionals through a trademarked dedicated Personal Agent® consultant model, and operates a 2022 biomedical subsidiary, HumanShip Medical Partners.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Executive Recruitment Services

NAICS

Employment Placement Agencies (561311), Employment Placement Agencies and Executive Search Services (56131), Human Resources Consulting Services (541612)

SIC

Services-Employment Agencies (7361)

akta.pro primary industry

General Permanent Placement (Multi-Industry) (BPACAFAA)

akta.pro secondary industries

Healthcare Clinical Direct Hire (Nursing/Allied/Physicians) (BPACAFAH), Local & Regional Generalist Staffing Agencies (BPACACAH)

Keywords

• Executive recruitment services
• Career consulting
• Mid-career placement
• Biomedical talent acquisition
• Personal agent placement

Headquarters

HQ city

Tokyo

HQ country

Japan

HQ region

Asia

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. 人材紹介 (Placed Personnel Fee): Fee-based placement service for mid-career and executive job seekers. Consultants provide end-to-end support including consultation, job matching, interview preparation, negotiations with employers, and follow-up after placement. Licensed under Japanese employment placement regulations (有料職業紹介事業許可証 13-ユ-305916).
2. 採用コンサルティング (Recruitment Consulting): Consulting services for corporate clients to optimize their hiring processes, define talent requirements, and develop recruitment strategies.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

HumanShip provides fee-based employment placement and career consulting under its trademarked Personal Agent® service model, in which one dedicated consultant guides an individual professional through the full job-search lifecycle — initial consultation, job matching, interview preparation, salary negotiation, and post-placement follow-up. Services are offered to mid-career professionals and executives seeking new roles, and to corporate clients (including startups, large enterprises, and consulting firms) seeking talent acquisition support. The firm also operates HumanShip Medical Partners, a wholly-owned subsidiary specializing in biomedical, pharmaceutical, and healthcare talent acquisition and organizational consulting.

Product overview

株式会社ヒューマンシップ operates as a recruitment services firm with two primary brands: the core Personal Agent® service (personalized one-on-one career consultation and placement for mid-career professionals and executives) and the Medical Partners subsidiary (biomedical industry-focused talent acquisition consulting). The company does not operate a software platform but rather delivers human-delivered consulting services. Its core product, パーソナルエージェント®, is a trademarked model in which a single dedicated consultant handles the entire job-search journey—initial consultation, job discovery, interview preparation, employer negotiation, and post-hire follow-up—for each individual client. The Executive Recruitment service applies this same model to senior leadership roles. The Medical Partners subsidiary extends the firm's expertise into the biomedical and healthcare verticals with specialized recruitment and organizational consulting.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• HumanShip Medical Partners: Bio-medical and healthcare industry specialized recruitment and consulting subsidiary
• パーソナルエージェント®

Products and services

• パーソナルエージェント® (Personal Agent®) Career Consultation & Placement Service Trademarked (Registration No. 5717895) fee-based placement service in which a single dedicated consultant handles a job seeker's full journey — initial consultation, job matching, interview preparation, salary and benefit negotiations with employers, and post-placement follow-up. Targeted at mid-career and executive professionals seeking career change or advancement.
• エグゼクティブ採用 (Executive Recruitment) Executive-level recruitment service applying the Personal Agent® model to senior management and leadership roles. Supports high-level career transitions for executives and senior leaders, with consultants providing end-to-end guidance from consultation through post-placement follow-up.
• 採用コンサルティング (Recruitment Consulting) Advisory and consulting services for corporate hiring needs, including defining talent requirements, developing mid-to-long-term recruitment plans, and supporting organizational design aligned with capital and growth strategy. Targeted at companies ranging from startups to large enterprises and consulting firms.
• ヒューマンシップ メディカルパートナーズ (HumanShip Medical Partners) Wholly-owned subsidiary specializing in talent acquisition consulting for the biomedical, pharmaceutical, and healthcare industries. Provides CXO, management, and full-time staff placement, plus contract, advisory, and board-level placement services for bio-ventures and large healthcare companies. Led by Representative Director Yoshie Mouri.

Quantifiable outcome

• Long-term post-placement support ensuring candidate success and satisfaction
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers12 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• 株式会社ヒューマンシップ メディ澜ルパートNERS (HumanShip Medical Partners)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 May 2022Subsidiary company focused on biomedical and life sciences executive recruitment. Established in May 2022, led by Representative Director Yoshie Mouri. Provides specialized recruitment consulting for biotech ventures, pharmaceutical companies, and healthcare organizations facing talent acquisition challenges in research, clinical development, and business roles.
• 安島孝知 (Takayuki Ashijima)minorOthersAdvisory board member for HumanShip Medical Partners. Serves as Representative Director of Liberty Co., CDI Group Board Member, and CDI Group Owner Association Member. Provides strategic guidance on medical industry consulting with 35+ years of experience.
• 詫摩直也 (Naoya Takuma)minorOthersAdvisory board member for HumanShip Medical Partners. CEO of Open Health Initiative. Brings expertise in healthcare business development and medical industry consulting.
• 永田智也 (Tomoya Nagata)minorOthersAdvisory board member for HumanShip Medical Partners. Managing Partner of D3 LLC and D3 Bio Healthcare Fund. Provides expertise in biotech business cultivation and investment.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Michael Page Japan: Global specialist recruitment firm operating in Japan with focus on professional, managerial, and executive placements. Comparable in dedicated-consultant approach and multi-sector client base.
• Hays Japan: Global professional recruitment firm with Japan operations focused on permanent and contract placements across multiple sectors. Comparable in the professional/permanent placement service model.
• en world Japan: Specialized recruitment firm in Japan focusing on mid-career and bilingual professional placements, with both Japanese and multinational corporate clients. Comparable in boutique service orientation and direct-hire focus.
• Robert Walters Japan: International executive recruitment firm with strong Japan presence, focused on mid-career to senior placements across industries. Closely comparable in target customer segments and fee-based placement model.
• JAC Recruitment: Japan-headquartered executive and professional recruitment firm specializing in mid-career and senior placements across multiple industries. Direct peer to HumanShip in the placed-personnel fee model with similar middle-to-senior talent focus.

Broad incumbents

• RGF Professional Recruitment Japan: Recruit Global Family's international recruitment brand operating in Japan, focused on mid-career and executive multilingual placements. Comparable in target customer and placement model.
• Recruit Holdings: Japan's largest recruitment and HR services conglomerate (Indeed, LinkedIn parent at subsidiary level). Most HumanShip consultants are ex-Recruit, making it the closest industry incumbent and primary talent/training pipeline.
• Pasona Group: Major Japanese staffing and HR services firm with broad placement and BPO capabilities. Comparable in serving Japanese corporate clients but with a much larger generalist staffing footprint.
• Heidrick & Struggles: Global executive search and leadership advisory firm with an active Japan practice. Comparable in executive-level placement focus though at much larger scale and global footprint.
• Korn Ferry: Global organizational consulting firm with a major executive search and recruitment practice. Comparable in the executive search segment but operates at vastly larger scale and broader service portfolio.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/%E6%A0%AA%E5%BC%8F%E4%BC%9A%E7%A4%BE%E3%83%92%E3%83%A5%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9E%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B7%E3%83%83%E3%83%97

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about 株式会社ヒューマンシップ