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Tom Redmond
For Tom Redmond's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Dec 21, 2021
Artisan’s $9 billion manager eyes backing Toshiba plan to split
Artisan Partners, one of the biggest U.S. investors in Toshiba Corp., generally supports the conglomerate's plan to separate into three companies.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies / FOCUS
Aug 27, 2018
Japan's star businessman who ignores his investors to make them rich
When Akira Matsumoto speaks, investors hang on his every word. And here's what he tells them: You're less important than everyone else.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Aug 22, 2018
Japan's shogi champ makes all the right moves as AI startup hits stratosphere
Takahiro Hayashi won his first nationwide title in shogi while still in high school and by the age of 22 he was the world amateur champion. His coaches were urging him to turn pro.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jul 17, 2018
Yoshiaki Murakami, once the scourge of Japan's boardrooms, turns peacemaker with big Idemitsu-Showa Shell Sekiyu win
Yoshiaki Murakami, who once struck fear into Japan's boardrooms and split public opinion with bitter activist battles, is now enjoying rare acclaim from executives and being praised as a peacemaker.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 16, 2018
Nomura says Abe scandal and trade risk could erupt for Japan stocks
Stock investors should take note that the risks of domestic political upheaval or trade friction are far from gone away.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 13, 2018
The Bank of Japan looks to empower women with new ETF index pick
In Japan's latest attempt to change corporate behavior, the Bank of Japan decides to put money into an index of firms selected for the way they treat women.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 21, 2018
'Herbivore' investor Haruhiro Nakano takes on lions of Japanese finance
In a tiny, windowless meeting room high above the streets of Tokyo, Haruhiro Nakano starts to cry. The rail-thin, 54-year-old fund manager, who looks like a faded former J-pop star, has just shared his investing pitch, which sounds so deceptively simple you may not appreciate just how radical it is: Japanese workers, Nakano says, should invest for retirement using the capital markets rather than letting more than $8.6 trillion fester in bank accounts.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets / FOCUS
Dec 19, 2017
Tokyo Stock Exchange is an 'irresponsible' market referee, fund head says
The Tokyo Stock Exchange is failing in its duty as a market referee, according to the chairman of a prominent Japanese investment fund.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Tech
Aug 31, 2017
How a rice lover's robot revolutionized the modern sushi industry
Kisaku Suzuki, creator of the world's first sushi robot, once ran a company that made candy-wrapping machines. And he was angry.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Aug 16, 2017
Ex-Nomura salesman exiled in Chicago goes hostile at tiny Japan firms
From downtown Chicago, a former Nomura Holdings Inc. salesman is taking activist investing to Japan's smaller listed firms, betting that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's corporate governance overhaul is trickling down to less-covered parts of the market.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 13, 2017
Parcel giant Yamato's first price hike in 27 years shows fruits, limitations of Abenomics
By last November, Hirotaka Yokota had finally had enough.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 26, 2017
Why ex-Goldman trader shunned hedge funds for a Japan broker
As the biggest earthquake ever recorded in Japan rocked the Roppongi Hills skyscraper in central Tokyo, Makoto Yamada put on his helmet, dropped to his knees, and traded.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Apr 25, 2017
Maverick Beji Sasaki picks a fight with Fujitsu to push takeovers, turnarounds of undervalued firm
Beji Sasaki, a maverick businessman who first challenged Tokyo's status quo four decades ago, says his bidding war with the $13 billion computer giant Fujitsu Ltd. is just the start of his plan to use takeovers to change Japan Inc.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Apr 17, 2017
A $165 billion money manager says Japan's stock gloom overdone, predicts surge after geopolitical risks ease
Japanese stocks have been battered so badly that they're too cheap to ignore, says the $165 billion investor Pictet Asset Management Ltd., after the Topix index tumbled to its fifth straight weekly loss.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Feb 21, 2017
Oasis CEO ups pressure on Panasonic for better PanaHome deal
Oasis Management Co.'s Seth Fischer has increased his pressure on Panasonic Corp. to sweeten its offer for listed subsidiary PanaHome Corp., calling the transaction a test case of whether Japan's corporate governance overhaul is working.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 30, 2016
From bit actor ‘bum’ to managing $2.7 billion Japanese fund
Takahiro Kusakari went from being a self-described bum getting by on bit-part acting roles in Tokyo to calling the shots at a $2.7 billion stock fund.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 20, 2016
In hot water, bathroom fittings firm Lixil hires outsider to fix pipes
Early last year, big bets started to go wrong for a Japanese giant of toilets and faucets.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 23, 2016
Tokyo professor's medicine-making molecules bring new tool to pharma
When he realized he was not going to make it as a guitarist, Hiroaki Suga set out to find the origin of life, and ended up creating a new way to develop medicines.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Companies
May 20, 2016
Cookpad's maverick founder stirs recipe for unrest
A spat is rocking one of Japan's most popular Internet companies after the founder moved to kick out the board, enraging staff and sending shares tumbling.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
May 11, 2016
A Tokyo stock picker watches his nation age
It's an early weekday morning in Tokyo and the Japanese pub is already filled with a boisterous clientele, mostly pensioners. Sitting among them is Kengo Kuzuhara, taking notes.

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