About

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NIOAA bridges Berlin and Tokyo through two twin creative spaces in Mitte and Harajuku. It is a platform where creators collide to ignite new cultures, products, and value.

Co-founded by entrepreneur Ryotaro Bordini Chikushi and creative director Hideaki Oki, NIOAA welcomes your curiosity and collaboration in shaping this cross-cultural exchange

Founders

Ryotaro Chikushi

Ryotaro Bordini Chikushi is a serial entrepreneur and cultural bridge-builder who has spent more than two decades moving between the worlds of art, design, and urban culture.

Fascinated by how places, people, and ideas shape one another, his work explores the meeting point of Japanese precision and Berlin’s sense of freedom.

With NIOAA, he creates spaces that are more than exhibitions: places of dialogue and reflection where creativity becomes an attitude: curious, open, and respectful.

Before founding NIOAA, Ryotaro established NION in Berlin, a cross-cultural platform connecting Japan and Europe through art, design, and social innovation.

For him, Berlin is a laboratory for change and Tokyo a mirror of depth, and between the two, NIOAA stands as a living platform for artistic and social resonance.

Hideaki Oki​

After graduating from the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies at Keio University in 2005, he joined Hakuhodo Kettle. In 2020, he founded the creative alliance OOAA.

With a background in integrated communication planning and advertising creativity, he engages in both vision design and creative development for brands, companies, urban development, and creative communities.

He was involved in the overall concept development of Tokyu Plaza Harajuku “Harakado,” a new landmark in Tokyo, and designed a creator platform on the 3rd floor.

On the same floor, he co-manages the creative commune THE COFFEE BREW CLUB, and operates STUDIO SUPER
CHEESE, a new-concept studio that fuses a standing bar with a photography studio.

Curators

Che Andre Bergendahl

Che Andre Bergendahl, aka Chebacka is a creative mastermind from Berlin. He studied filmdirecting/writing in NYC at Tisch School of Art. In the 1990s he directed over 250 music videos for German Hip Hop artists and became a visual voice for the German Hip Hop scene. MTV was his canvas and his YouTube channel. His work is full of creative input and playful nonsense, always talking from the perspective of an underdog. He helped careers through creative accidents which became viral on MTV, empowering artists with visual riots and ideas.

Team

Mineaki Kamada

Project Manager

Mineaki is a producer / business designer bridging culture and business between Japan and Europe.
He spent nearly two decades at Dentsu Inc., engaging in business development and marketing, and was also involved in management through joint-venture creation and advisory roles for clients.
Since relocating to Berlin, he has been collaborating with the creative collective yellowsyellows and an innovation research firm, with a particular focus on the fields of food, travel, craft, and intellectual property.
A passionate listener of podcasts, he continues to explore where creativity connects cultures and everyday life.

Maike Hank

Communication Manager

For more than two decades, Maike has been living and working in the digital world — and just as long in Berlin. A strategist, editor, and graphic designer, she moves fluidly between disciplines, connecting ideas, people, and aesthetics with ease. She believes deeply in the power of empathy and action and her work is guided by a strong curiosity for personal, social, and digital transformation. As an independent communication expert, she collaborates with agencies, companies, and NGOs to shape meaningful narratives.

Chihiro Matsuda

Coordinator

Born in Osaka, raised in Tokyo/Yokohama, and based in Berlin since April 2025. Chihiro is an illustrator who loves people, neuroscience, culture, music, and beer. In Japan, she worked in business development — first at an HR company, then at a startup. At some point, she started to question the meaning of life and work and also wanted to see Japan from the outside and rediscover its beauty from a new perspective. That’s why she came to Berlin,  to explore herself and find new ways of living and creating.

Satoru Teshima

Coordinator

Originally from a small town in Gifu, Teshi has built a diverse career across music, media, and communications. He has worked at Kyoto’s Jet Set Records, contributed writing to The Fader and The Japan Times, and served as a copywriter at a Tokyo advertising agency for clients such as Red Bull, Apple, and Heineken. Currently, as Communications Manager for NION Playground, he helps produce Japan-related events that foster cultural exchange and strengthen ties between Japan and Berlin.

Naho Iguchi

Coordinator

Naho is an Ecological Artist and Give Space Urban Design Founder. She explores the role of “Human Animal” in serving the ecosystem, leading to Give Space—an urban design approach that returns space to other-than-human beings and reimagines human life in regenerative ways.