Japan’s Kishida Looks to Flag Change with ‘New Capitalism’ Panel

Yuko Takeo
Thu., October 14, 2021


(Bloomberg) -- Japan’s new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida signaled his intention to shift economic policy and freshen up the ruling party’s image by scrapping a growth strategy panel and replacing it with a more gender-balanced group tasked with fomenting a ‘new form of capitalism.’

The new panel is assigned the task of creating a virtuous cycle of growth and distribution, and creating a new post-Covid society, according to a Cabinet Office statement Friday.

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By highlighting the importance of distributing the benefits of growth more fairly, Kishida is again hitting on a theme he hopes will shore up support for the ruling party in a general election at the end of this month. The new prime minister has said that corporate profits need to be shared more widely.

In another move likely aimed at differentiating himself from previous Liberal Democratic Party leaders, Kishida made almost half the 15 expert members of the panel women. Only a quarter of the growth council’s experts were female.

The new panel members include Commons Asset Management Chairman Ken Shibusawa, who is the great-great grandson of a pioneer of Japanese capitalism who founded the country’s first bank and stock exchange. The panel will also be debating a revision of disclosing quarterly earnings reports.

Crowdfunding platform provider READYFOR Inc.’s 33-year old CEO Haruka Mera is also a part of the panel. So is Yumiko Murakami, a general partner MPower Partners Fund, a venture capital fund focused on ESG investments that she co-started with former Goldman Sachs vice chair Kathy Matsui.