Harvard Business School last month invited Hiroki Jinnai, president of major Japanese consumer moneylender Promise Co., to field student questions in a forum on the firm's growth strategy.
HBS's gesture highlights a gap between domestic and foreign perceptions of the consumer finance industry, which is struggling to improve its negative image on the home front.
"Foreign investors aren't affected by (the negative image), but by company performance and strategy," Jinnai, who will step down to become chairman in June, said in an interview. He added that "lecturing (like this) would be unthinkable in Japan."