Takadaya Kahei (高田屋 嘉兵衛) was a Japanese merchant credited with transforming the trading outpost of Hakodate in Japan's northern island of Hokkaidō into a thriving city.

He is reputed to have made a fortune through trade by importing sake, salt, rice and other staples to Ezochi (the Japanese area of Hokkaidō) and exporting herring, salmon and kelp to Honshū.

He later developed trading routes to the Kuril Islands and operated many fisheries around Nemuro, a town on Hokkaidō's east coast.

[2] Along with his four sailors who were also captured on board the Kanze-maru, Takadaya was confined to Kamchatka for several months, his release finally secured through diplomacy.

During his imprisonment he learned the Russian language and later worked with Vasily Golovnin to settle the Kuril Islands territorial border between the two countries.