Wada was born in Minato-ku, Tokyo. He moved to the United States at the age of 18 and obtained a degree in international marketing from Baruch College in New York City.
Career
After graduating, Wada worked in a marketing role at Donna Karan New York's headquarters. While he was a student, Wada worked as a researcher and house model for leather designer Anton, whose celebrity clients include Aerosmith, Lenny Kravitz, Sting and Alicia Keys. New York-based modeling agency Q Models saw Wada and signed him on as its first Asian model. Wada was initially not interested in modeling and continued to work at Donna Karan, but his strong Asian features and cool persona shot him to modeling fame, and Wada resigned from his marketing job. Wada became the first Japanese male model to be featured in Vogue Paris. He was cast with top modelDaria Werbowy in a widely talked about photograph of the two kissing. Wada solidified his reputation as a leading Asian fashion artist and collaborated with world-famous photographers including Michael Thompson, Terry Richardson, Markus Klinko and Greg Lotus. Wada also acted in numerous TV shows and movies in the U.S. and a film he had a leading role in screened at the 2012 New York City Independent Film Festival. In 2012, Wada formally shifted his career focus to Asia. After shooting a film in Japan, he spent 3 months in Taiwan as a main cast member of the television series Chocolat. Wada has appeared in multiple advertisement campaigns for global brands including SONY, Hewlett Packard, Motorola, SK-II, L'Oreal, Subaru, Evian, Bacardi, KOOL Cigarettes, Uniqlo, and GAP. He was booked by Uniqlo at the onset of the brand's expansion into the U.S. and European markets and appeared in its campaigns for four years. He has appeared in ads for brands in Asia and modeled for the Diane Shampoo series from 2013-2015 co-starring with Yuriko Yoshitaka. He also appeared in ad campaigns for Laundrin with Ai Tominaga and Fine Visual with Harisembon in 2018-19.
Personal life
He is fluent in Japanese, English and Spanish and learned Chinese in Taipei after being cast in Chocolat.
He is often mistaken for Japanese-American due to living overseas for a long time and because of his toned physique, but he is 100% Japanese. He values living in different countries and learning about their culture and meeting their people.
He is big on correspondence and always sends a hand-written note to close friends and family members on their birthdays. He also updates his blogs frequently.
He was always interested in English and motorcycles since he was little, and watched English TV programs in earnest. According to his blog, he decided to move to the United States when he was in elementary school after watching the American movie Smokey and the Bandit II.
During elementary school, he mastered riding a miniature Yamaha Motocross. He still rides his vintage U.S.-manufactured Honda that he rode in New York that he arranged to send back to Japan. He has said, "A motorcycle is a man's life partner in pursuing his dreams."
He is friends with New York-based exotic skin and leather artist Anton, and studied fashion by going to his studio every day. It was Anton who convinced Wada to model for the first time.
He worships Bruce Lee's way of life. He has pursued multiple martial art forms including Aikido. He has followed a workout regimen for over 20 years. After reaching a point of doing over 1800 push-ups a day, in 2018, he switched his workout to doing pull-ups.
Wada was the first Japanese male model to be featured in French Vogue. Madonna was on the cover of the issue. He was photographed kissing Canadian supermodel Daria Werbowy.
GQ
i-D
TRACE
SURFACE
ROLLING STONE
GLAMOUR
FLAIR
COMPLOT
AUGUST MEN
by Leslie Kee etc.
Runway
Imitation of Christ
Matrix L'Oreal
Y R B
Romain Kapadia
Anton
Dr. Martens
Pierrot
Yoko Devereaux
Elisa Jimenez etc.
Management
Wada moved back to Asia in 2012 and lived in Taiwan for over 2 years and has resided in Tokyo since 2014. He was represented by Q Models from 2001-2011 and by CAJ, and is now represented by Office Nine Tokyo.
