Whether in Tokyo or Osaka, the name Nabizan Begum is likely to be of little interest to Japan's business and government leaders. That's understandable since Begum — like tens of millions of other poor, rural women across Asia who have long struggled to survive off of day labor work and by growing small-scale crops — lives in a part of Bangladesh that is far from Japan's centers of power.
That's also unfortunate, for Begum's story offers up a lesson for Japan's policymakers and others in the region focused on how best to grow economies and address Asia's persistent poverty. Increasingly business, including Japanese enterprises, can play a critical role in fighting poverty, and it can be done in a way that quite frankly is also good for business.
For nearly four years, I served as the U.S. ambassador to the Asian Development Bank after having stepped down from a leadership role at a major multinational company. As a member of the ADB Board of directors, I pushed to make that international financial institution more effective and more focused on results and its overarching mission of reducing poverty across the region.