Japan is a country on the move. Its economy is thriving, and it is reinventing its capital markets and corporate governance. What do these rapid changes mean for global investors?

Join us in New York for an exclusive program with some of Japan’s leading financial and economic experts to discuss how Japan is recharging its economy and financial markets.

Renowned Japan strategist and economist Jesper Koll will kick off the event with a macroeconomic overview, followed by a discussion with Katsumi Ao and Oki Matsumoto, insiders at the top of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The Financial Times’ award-winning journalist, Brooke Masters will then lead a panel discussion with the business leaders on the frontlines of Japan’s dynamic financial markets.

***This program is by invitation only. Registration and confirmation of registration is required for entry.***

Agenda

4:00 p.m. – Opening and Introductory Remarks by Asia Society

4:05 p.m. – Macro Overview by Jesper Koll, Monex Group and Board Member of Asia Society Japan

4:15 p.m. – Keynote Interview with the Tokyo Stock Exchange

• Katsumi Ao, Director and Senior Executive Officer of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (via Zoom)
• Oki Matsumoto, Executive Chairman of Monex Group, Chairman of Japan Catalyst, Member of the Tokyo Stock Exchange Council of Experts

4:50 p.m. – Panel Discussion with Practitioners

• Seth Fischer, Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Oasis Management (via Zoom)
• Kanya Hasegawa, Founder, CEO, and CIO of 3D Investment Partners
• Oki Matsumoto, Executive Chairman of Monex Group, Chairman of Japan Catalyst, Member of the Tokyo Stock Exchange Council of Experts
• Nabeel Bhanji, Senior Portfolio Manager and member of the Global Situational Investment Team at Elliott Investment Management
• Brooke Masters (Moderator), Finance Editor at the Financial Times

5:55 p.m. – Q&A Session with the audience

6:10 p.m. – Closing Remarks by Japan Society

6:15 p.m. – Networking Reception

7:00 p.m. – Event Concludes

Opening and Introductory Remarks

Philipp Ivanov is Chief Programming Officer at Asia Society leading global programs and collaborations among our 16 centers, Senior Fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute, and served as Chief Executive Officer of the Asia Society Australia Center from 2015 to 2023. In 2023, he was a Fulbright Scholar and visiting fellow at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. Previously, he worked on China policy for the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and as a Deputy Director of the Research Institute for Asia and the Pacific at the University of Sydney. He was awarded the Australian Government’s Endeavour Executive Fellowship to conduct research on China’s policies for leadership development at the National Academy of Education Administration in Beijing.

Speakers

Jesper Koll has been researching and investing in Japan since becoming a resident in 1986. In July 2015, he was the founding Chief Executive Officer of WisdomTree Japan and now serves as senior adviser to WisdomTree Asset Management. Over the past two decades, he has been consistently ranked as one of the top Japan strategists/economists, having worked as Chief Strategist and Head of Research for major U.S. investment banks J.P. Morgan and Merrill Lynch. He currently serves as Monex Group's Global Ambassador and on the Japan Catalyst Fund investment committee. His analysis and insights have earned him a position on several Japanese government and corporate advisory committees. In late 2016, Governor Yuriko Koike appointed him to her Tokyo Financial Center Advisory Board. He is also one of the few non-Japanese members of the Keizai Doyukai, the Japan Association of Corporate Executives. He is on the Board of Directors for Asia Society Japan.

Katsumi Ao (via Zoom) is Director and Senior Executive Officer of Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc. After joining the company in April 1988, he was engaged in the planning and operation of listing and disclosure rules from 2003 to 2011. Subsequently, he served as General Manager of the General Administration Department, the Human Resources Department, and the Equities Department; Executive Officer and General Manager of the Listing Department since April 2016; Senior Executive Officer since April 2022; and in his current position since April 2023.

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. He 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 the 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. He received his B.A. in Law from Tokyo University.

Seth Fischer (via Zoom) is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Oasis Management, an investment firm headquartered in Hong Kong that invests globally across capital structures. He founded Oasis in 2002 following a seven-year career at Highbridge Capital Management, where he managed the firm’s Asian investment portfolio. Prior to joining Highbridge, he served in the Israel Defense Forces. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Yeshiva University in 1993. He is a Board Member of the Karen Leung Foundation and the Carmel School in Hong Kong, Vice Chairman of the Ohel Leah Synagogue Management Committee in Hong Kong, and co-founder of the Aumann-Fischer Center for Law, Economics, and Public Policy at Hebrew University opened in 2022.

Kanya Hasegawa founded 3D Investment Partners in July 2015, and is the CEO and CIO of 3D. Prior to founding 3D, he was a partner and Managing Director at Broad Peak, a Singapore-based, pan-Asian, equity-focused, and multi-strategy hedge fund. Before that, he was at Tudor Investment Corp in Singapore. he started his career at Goldman Sachs’s Tokyo office in 2002, where he invested in distressed debt and real estate in the Merchant Banking Group and Special Situations Group. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematical Sciences from Johns Hopkins University, where he was elected into Tau Beta Pi and graduated with honors.

Nabeel Bhanji (via Zoom) is a senior portfolio manager and a member of the Global Situational investment team at Elliott Investment Management L.P. Prior to joining Elliott in 2012, Mr. Bhanji was a private equity investor at Apax Partners. Before that, he was an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. He has a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Oxford University and an MBA. from Harvard Business School. In addition to his role at Elliott, He currently sits on the Board of Toshiba.

Brooke Masters (Moderator) is U.S. Financial Editor and an associate editor at the Financial Times. She leads the news team covering the American financial sector and writes a column on global business for the opinion section. She joined the FT in 2006 from the Washington Post and has run both the opinion section and the companies section. She has covered politics, criminal justice, education, financial services, regulation and white-collar crime. The author of a book about Eliot Spitzer, she earned degrees from Harvard University and the London School of Economics and is the mother of two grown children.

Closing Remarks

Dr. Joshua W. Walker became President & CEO of Japan Society in December 2019. Previously, he worked at Eurasia Group, where he served as global head of strategic initiatives and Japan in the Office of the President. Prior to that, he was CEO and president of the USA Pavilion of the 2017 World Expo in Astana, Kazakhstan; founding dean of the APCO Institute; and senior vice president of global programs at APCO Worldwide based in Washington, D.C. Before joining the private sector, he worked in numerous roles at various U.S. government agencies, including the State Department and the Defense Department. He is Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress, and professor of Leadership and the American presidency at George Mason University and the Reagan Foundation. He was also Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, and co-founded the Yale Journal of International Affairs. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Richmond, a master’s degree from Yale University, and a doctorate from Princeton University. He grew up in Japan where his parents still serve as missionaries, came to the United States when he was 18, and is bicultural and bilingual.

 This program is made possible with the support of our sponsors and partners:

This program is part of the new Asia Executive Briefing, a series of public programs and private briefings with economists, policymakers, and business leaders, taking the pulse of Asia’s dynamic economies. It is also a part of Asia Society’s Global Year of Japan – a season of multidisciplinary programming dedicated to Japan, presented across Asia Society’s 16 centers in the United States, Asia and Europe.

For more information, please visit https://asiasociety.org/year-japan.