Doppel names Hideki Ushigome as Japan Country Manager

Doppel has appointed Hideki Ushigome as Country Manager for Japan, adding a long-serving cybersecurity executive to its leadership team in the market.

He will oversee growth, operations, partnerships and customer strategy as Doppel expands its local presence after entering Japan earlier this year.

Ushigome brings more than 25 years of experience across technology and cybersecurity. Most recently, he was Country Manager at Swimlane, where he led the relaunch of the company's Japan operations and worked with government and financial services customers.

Before that, he spent more than five years as Japan Country Manager at Recorded Future, where he established the company's Japanese operations and helped grow the country into its second-largest market worldwide. He has also held Country Manager roles at Rapid7 and Websense, as well as senior leadership positions at Check Point and Sophos.

The appointment comes as Doppel expands its leadership team and adds staff in Japan across sales, customer success, field marketing and channel partnerships. Those hires will work with customers and partners from evaluation and deployment through ongoing operations.

Japan has become a focus for Doppel as it seeks to address social engineering threats targeting local organisations and users. Recent intelligence from a honeypot project in Japan showed phishing activity began immediately after launch, with sensors receiving thousands of unsolicited messages in the first five weeks.

Threat patterns

Financial services and payments accounted for 67.8% of impersonated brands identified through that research, followed by eCommerce and fintech at 23.3%, according to the company. It also found that 67% of malicious lures arrived on Mondays or Fridays, while 47% arrived at either 9 a.m. or noon Japan time.

The findings point to a threat environment shaped by local brands, language and daily routines. Doppel argues this localisation can make attacks harder to detect using approaches developed for other markets.

"Doppel has built a differentiated approach to one of the most urgent challenges facing organizations across the globe," said Hideki Ushigome, Country Manager for Japan at Doppel. "I am thrilled to join the company at such an important stage of growth and to help build Doppel's presence in Japan. I look forward to working closely with our customers, partners, and growing local team to bring our industry leading social engineering defense platform to more organizations across the market."

His arrival follows Doppel's broader push into Japan and comes amid growing concern in the cybersecurity sector over the use of artificial intelligence to create more convincing phishing and impersonation attempts in local languages.

"Japan represents a critical frontier in the fight against global social engineering," said Kevin Tian, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Doppel. "Historically, the complexity of the Japanese language created a 'language firewall' for many global threat actors. AI is rapidly eroding that advantage, making it easier to produce convincing Japanese-language impersonations and launch targeted campaigns at scale. Hideki's experience building trusted cybersecurity businesses in Japan will be essential as we deepen our investment in the market and help organizations adapt to this evolving threat landscape."

Doppel's Japanese honeypot project was designed to capture phishing activity targeting local users directly. The data gives the company a closer view of how attackers build campaigns around familiar consumer and business touchpoints.

That intelligence is also informing Doppel's local strategy as it builds out its team and customer base. Elsewhere in the business, Ofir Ronen recently joined as Senior Vice President of Customer Success.

Josh Bartolomie, who leads threat intelligence at Doppel, linked the research to the company's expansion in Japan.

"Japan's phishing ecosystem is highly localized, creating important gaps in how threats are traditionally detected," said Josh Bartolomie. "By observing attacks directly within the target environment, we can help organizations identify and disrupt campaigns earlier. I'm excited to partner with Hideki to bring these vital insights to customers across Japan and help them strengthen their defenses against an evolving threat landscape."