OFF-SITE EVENT Corporate Japan: The Beginning of a New Era?

Held at Columbia University, International Affairs Building
Kellogg Conference Center, 15th Floor, 420 West 118th Street, NYC

Japanese corporations are under tremendous pressure to change, driven by an intertwined set of factors including poor corporate performance, concerns about inadequate corporate governance, an increase in foreign mergers and acquisitions, and stunning advancements in information technology–notably in wireless communications. These phenomena will reconfigure Japan’s corporate landscape. How fast and to what extent is change taking place? How are corporate governance practices and mechanisms evolving? What role does M&A play? Why is the wireless communications industry growing so rapidly? What impact will it have on reviving Japan’s economic and corporate performance?

This conference will focus on these and related issues as Japan’s corporate landscape continues to evolve, with presentations by a select group of distinguished business leaders, professionals and academics from the Japan and the United States.

Speakers include:
Robert Feldman, Chief Economist and Managing Director, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Japan
Mark Fields, President, Mazda Motor Corporation
Mitsuhiro Fukao, Professor, Keio University
Robert Grondine, President, The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ); Partner, White & Case LLP
Merit E. Janow, Professor in the Practice of International Trade, Columbia University
Shigeo Kagami, Partner, Heidrick and Struggles, International Inc.
Philip R. Lochner, Jr., Managing Director, The Directorship Search Group
Akio Mikuni, President, Mikuni & Co., Ltd.
Arthur Mitchell, Partner and head of the Japan Practice Group, Coudert Brothers
Yoshihiko Miyauchi, Chairman, Orix Corporation Japan (invited)
Eli Noam, Professor, Columbia Business School; Director, Columbia Institute for Tele-Information
Hugh Patrick, R.D. Calkins Professor of International Business; Director, Center on Japanese Economy and Business, Columbia University
Hirotaka Takeuchi, Dean, Hitotsubashi University, Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy

Agenda

8:30 am	Registration & Continental Breakfast
9:00	Welcome & Opening Remarks
9:20	Panel One: “The New Rhetoric & Realities of Corporate Governance”
11:00	Coffee Break
11:15	Panel Two: “Cellular Phone And The Wireless Web: A Megahit Industry”
1:00 pm	Luncheon with Keynote Speaker (TBA)
2:30	Panel Three: “M&A and Foreign Entry in Japan”
4:15	Closing Remarks
4:30	Reception

Registration fee: $150 ($75 for Japan Society members and non-profit/academic). Registration deadline: 12 noon, Tuesday March 20. Cancellation deadline: 12 pm, Wednesday, March 21. Includes continental breakfast and lunch.