Pension Reform & Asset Management Opportunities in Japan

Conference
1 – 6:30 pm

Japan’s funds management marketplace, the world’s second largest, is expected to swell from an estimated ¥205 trillion in 1999 to ¥295 trillion by 2003. Four years into the financial “Big Bang,” non-Japanese and joint-venture investment firms are managing some 18 percent of Japan’s corporate pension funds. But that could be just the tip of an iceberg. Over the next two years, some ¥106 trillion in postal savings accounts earning 6 to 7 percent will mature. That is expected to trigger substantial capital flight into other types of instruments, creating huge opportunities for American and other non-Japanese fund managers.

This comprehensive half-day conference provides a critical overview of the changing competitive and legislative landscape in Japan’s institutional asset management industry. Questions such as what impact the recent general elections and bureaucratic restructuring in January are likely to have on further deregulation and policy issues, what type of business model to adopt, how to gauge investor attitudes and how to tailor optimal investment vehicles to the Japanese market will be discussed.

Hors d’oeuvre & cocktail reception follows.

Confirmed speakers include:

Keynote address
The Honorable Yasuhisa Shiozaki, Member, House of Representatives, Japan

Panelists
Kurt Cerulli, Founder and Principal, Cerulli Associates
Masafumi Hikima, Executive Director, Nikko Asset Management
Etsuro Honda, Chief Representative, Ministry of Finance, New York Office
William Hunt, CEO, State Street Companies Japan
William Jarvis, Principal, Greenwich Associates
Thomas W. Jones, Chairman and CEO, Global Investment Management and Private Banking Group, Citigroup
James P. Klein, Partner, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu
Richard Medley, Chairman, Medley Global Advisors
Atsuo Mihara, Economist & Financial Advisor, Impulse Corp.
Arthur Mitchell, Partner and Head of the Japanese Practice Group, Coudert Brothers
Clifford Shaw, Chairman, Merrill Lynch Mercury Asset Management Japan
Noboru Terada, Executive Director, Pension Fund Association (Japan)
Bill Wilder, CEO, Fidelity Japan

Agenda

1 pm	Registration
1:30	Welcoming Remarks: John Wheeler, Vice President,  Japan Society
1:35	Opening Address  “The Macro Policy Landscape and the Japan Debate”  Richard Medley, Chairman, Medley Global Advisors
1:45	Panel One “Sizing up the Current Competition: A Roundtable Discussion of the Japanese Asset Management Marketplace”
2:45	Coffee Break
3:00	Panel Two “Tailoring the Product: From Tax and Regulatory Hurdles to Investor Attitudes”
4:30	Coffee break
4:45	Panel Three  “Three Case studies”
5:45	Keynote Address  “The Politics of Reform and Japan’s Pension Industry”The Honorable Yasuhisa Shiozaki, Member, House of Representatives, Japan
6:25	Closing Remarks Thomas W. Jones, Chairman and CEO, Global Investment Management and Private Banking Group, Citigroup
6:30	Reception and cocktails

Tickets: $125, Japan Society members $75 (non-profit/academic rate is available).