Prime Minister Kishida’s New Capitalism: Why Japan Needs Its Implementation

While capitalism has fueled prosperity and growth throughout much of the world, its shortcomings have become increasingly apparent. When he took office in October 2021, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged to realize a “new form of capitalism” to revitalize Japan. His ambitious economic plan focuses on new areas of growth, proposing investments in human capital, green technology, and digitization. How is this form of capitalism different from Abenomics and Suganomics? How will Japan’s capitalism evolve under Kishida’s New Capitalism? In this program, Ken Shibusawa, CEO of Shibusawa and Company and member of Prime Minister Kishida’s New Capitalism panel, discusses the new economic plan, its progress thus far, and the future of capitalism in Japan.

Speaker:
Ken Shibusawa, Chief Executive Officer, Shibusawa and Company, Inc.; Founder and Chairman, Commons Asset Management; Founder and CEO, &Capital, Inc.; Senior Advisor, Brunswick Group

Presider:
Joshua W. Walker, Ph.D., President & CEO, Japan Society

Agenda:
12:00 – 12:30 pm Registration & Reception
12:30 – 1:00 pm Luncheon
1:00 – 2:00 pm Lecture and Q&A

About the Speaker
Ken Shibusawa founded in 2001, Shibusawa and Company, Inc., a strategic advisory firm for alternative investments, ESG/SDGs alignment and human resource development. He also founded in 2008, Commons Asset Management, a mutual fund dedicated to deliver long term investment opportunities to the Japanese household. In 2023, he founded &Capital, Inc., an impact fund management company for Africa. He has extensive market experience at JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs as well as Moore Capital, a global macro hedge fund, where he was the representative managing director of the Tokyo Office. He is also director of Keizai Doyukai (Japan Association of Corporate Executives), advisor to the Office of the President at the University of Tokyo, steering committee member of UNDP SDG Impact, and member of the Council for New Form of Capitalism, established by PM Kishida. In 2022, he was named as board member of the newly founded International Foundation for Valuing Impact, as special advisor to the ISSB(International Sustainability Standards Boards) chair.

He is a published author and writes frequently for magazines, journals, and internet media.  He also publishes and hosts of a podcast, Made With Japan.

He was educated in the United States from second grade elementary through college (University of Texas, BS Chemical Engineering, 1983), and then returned again for graduate school (University of California Los Angeles, MBA, 1987). 

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Co-organized by Consulate General of Japan in New York.

Business & Policy programs are generously supported by Japan Society Global Leaders & Corporate Partners. Global Leaders Corporate Partners
Japan Society programs are made possible by leadership support from Booth Ferris Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Additional support for cultural programs is provided by an anonymous donor and the Sandy Heck Lecture Fund.