For the third Macro Salon of 2024, Jesper and Bill are joined by Mitsunobu Koshiba, Chairman of the Committee on Economic Security, Science & Technology, Keizai Doyukai. They discusses challenges and opportunities arising from Japan’s new economic security focus.

Mitsunobu Koshiba graduated from the Faculty of Engineering (Printing and Imaging Engineering) at Chiba University in 1978 and completed his graduate studies at the same university in 1980. After receiving a Rotary Foundation Scholarship to study at the Materials Science Program, University of Wisconsin, Madison, in the United States, he joined Japan Synthetic Rubber Co., Ltd. (now JSR Corporation) in 1981, where he was engaged in the development of semiconductor materials at the Tokyo Research Laboratory.

In 1990, he was transferred to Silicon Valley, U.S.A, where he worked to establish the semiconductor materials (photoresists) business in the U.S. market at JSR Micro Inc. After returning to Tokyo in 2002, he served as General Manager of the Electronic Materials Division and Director of Fine Chemicals Division before being appointed President and Representative Director in 2009. He served as Chairman Emeritus of JSR Corp. between June 2021 and June 2023.

While concurrently serving as an outside director of MOL and Rapidus, and Non-Executive Chairperson of Fortaegis (Holland), he co-founded C-dos LLC (a thinktank) and is serving as a member of several government councils on advanced technology such as semiconductors and quantum technology, national economic security, and innovation strategy by providing policy recommendations and publicizing his opinions. Moreover, he is supporting deep-tech startups in Japan and overseas such as Spiber, TBM, Quantinuum and Factorial.

Since 2019, he has run the Committee in Economic Security and Advanced Technology at the Keizai Doyukai (Japan Association of Corporate Executives) as a chairperson.