Japan Macro Salon with Jesper and Bill #6

Join us for the latest in our regular quarterly webinar on business and current affairs, Japan Macro Salon with Jesper and Bill in which The Japan Society’s chairman Bill Emmott teams up with Jesper Koll, longtime Tokyo resident and one of the most keenly watched economists and investment strategists in that town, to discuss what's new in the Japanese economy, business, financial markets and more.

Each quarter, Jesper and Bill open with a conversation about the latest trends that have caught their attention, and then welcome a special guest to focus on a topic of the moment. All the while, they will be interacting with questions from the audience. These webinars are run in association with The Japan Society.

In this Salon, they will be joined by Founder & Chairman of Monex, Oki Matsumoto. From 2008-2013, Oki was on the board of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, and he currently is a member of the TSE special committee that introduced more pressure on corporate executives to manage capital efficiency and price-to-book greater than 1. Discussion will focus on the TSE motivation, corporate reactions, and what added steps to improve governance and stewardship can be expected.

This event will be conducted online and is open to the public. Registration is required.

Speaker Bios

Oki Matsumoto
Oki Matsumoto is the Executive Chairman of Monex Group, Inc., and the Chairman of Japan Catalyst, Inc. where he serves as the CIO of the Japan Catalyst Fund. Oki started his career at Salomon Brothers in 1987. He joined The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. in 1990 and became a general partner in 1994. He was a co-head of fixed income and foreign exchange at the Tokyo office, responsible for trading, risk management and overall products. In 1997, he launched the Special Situations Group, which later grew into one of the most profitable units in The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. He retired in 1998.

In 1999, he established Monex, Inc. with Sony Corporation and established Monex Group, Inc. in 2004. He was an outside director of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) from 2008 for five years, and has participated in various government councils on corporate governance reform, actively involved in improving and reforming the Japanese capital market. Currently, he is a member of the “Council of Experts Concerning the Follow-up of Market Restructuring” at the TSE and an outside director of Mastercard Incorporated in the United States. Oki received his B.A. in Law from Tokyo University.

Jesper Koll
Jesper Koll has been researching and investing in Japan since becoming a resident in 1986. Over the past two decades, Jesper has been consistently recognized as one of the top Japan strategists/economists, having worked as Chief Strategist and Head of Research for U.S. investment banks J.P. Morgan and Merrill Lynch. He currently serves as Expert Director for the Monex Group and the Japan Catalyst Fund (Japan’s 1st retail investor based corporate engagement/activist fund). His analysis and insights have earned him a position on several Japanese government and corporate advisory committees, including Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike’s Advisory Board. Jesper serves as Board Director of OIST, the Okinawa Institute for Science and Technology and is a Founder and Board Director of the Asia Society Japan and heads their Policy Committee. He is one of the few non-Japanese members of the Keizai Doyukai, the Japan Association of Corporate Executives; and serves on the board of several Japan-based start-ups. He has written three books in Japanese and, in 2021, created the acclaimed video/pod-cast series Japan - Capitalism that works. Jesper is an economist, angel-investor, patron; and yes, a Japan Optimist.

Bill Emmott
Bill Emmott is an independent writer, lecturer and consultant on international affairs. He is a Fellow of Tokyo College, University of Tokyo’s new interdisciplinary research institute, and was a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford in 2017-18. He also chairs the boards of Trinity College Dublin’s Long Room Hub Research Institute for the Arts & Humanities, and of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

He was previously the Editor-in-Chief of The Economist (1993-2006) and has written eight books on Japan, the first of which was The Sun Also Sets: Why Japan Will Not Be Number One (1989). His latest was Japan's Far More Female Future, which was published in Japanese by Nikkei in 2019 and in English by Oxford University ress in 2020. He has also published books about Italy, the future of the West and the lessons of the 20th Century, has narrated and co-written a documentary film about Italy, Girlfriend in a Coma (2013) and was executive producer of a film about Europe, The Great European Disaster Movie (2015).

In 2016 the Japanese government awarded him the “Order of the Rising Sun: Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon” for services to UK-Japan relations.

Bill Emmott was chairman of the trustees of the London Library from 2009-15; was group economic adviser for Stonehage Fleming in 2011-15; and served on All Nippon Airways’ UK Advisory Panel until 2016 and Swiss Re’s panel of advisers from 2006-19. He is a member of the Global Advisory Board of the University of Tokyo; and a member of the senior advisory panel of Critical Resource, a consultancy.

Born in 1956, Bill is married to Carol. They live in Oxford and Dublin with their three dogs. Bill has been a member of the Japan Society since 2005 and an individual benefactor since 2013, as well as having frequently addressed society events as a speaker since the early 1990s.