Chicago Booth Magazine The View From Tokyo

No matter your industry, the draw to live in Tokyo is readily apparent: ultramodern transport, a fast-paced yet family-friendly lifestyle, and so many great restaurants that residents can hardly agree on a top-10 list. Add in the active contemporary art scene, buzzing nightlife, and neighborhoods brimming with longstanding cultural traditions, and it’s clear why Tokyo’s population is nearing 14 million, and growing. 

More than 500 Booth alumni live in Japan, many of whom call this modern-meets-traditional metropolis home. Almost 20 percent of Booth’s tight-knit alumni here work in the banking industry, with other contingents in general management, consulting, and marketing. Those that work in Tokyo are increasingly focused on connecting with prospective students. 

“In the last 12 months, there’s been a concerted effort on many of our parts to meet prospective students, and there’s been a significant increase in enrollment at Booth from Japan,” said John Ehara, ’78, cofounder and partner at Unison Capital, a private equity firm with operations in Japan, Korea, and Singapore. “We want to maintain this momentum.”

As the city, long known for finance and industry roles, opens its doors to countless venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, many alumni events are taking on an entrepreneurial focus. Several times a year, Booth’s Tokyo alumni host the Chief-J Chicago Innovation and Entrepreneurship Forum, which facilitates connections among graduates there. In July, 230 alumni attended the first-ever panel—which included Ehara and was moderated by Eric J. Gleacher Distinguished Service Professor of Accounting Douglas J. Skinner—on corporate governance and the place of private equity in Japan. 

“Alumni now have thoughts of starting their own business, so we try to match up our events with their interests,” said Japan alumni club president Kyota Narimatsu, ’11 (AXP-10), a principal and copresident at strategic communications firm Finsbury Japan.

Entrepreneur Hirokazu Morita, ’13, is also on their call list. This fall, Morita, the founder of a virtual-reality software startup called 3D Stylee, is hosting a meeting to discuss his experiences pursuing entrepreneurship in Tokyo as a relatively new alumnus. 

The idea is to integrate students into the local network well before they return to Tokyo as alumni. “Many [prospective students] are in finance and industry, but are interested in becoming entrepreneurs after graduation,” he said. 

Others prefer socializing outside of larger events. Recently, Mark Miller, ’87, ran in Bloomberg’s Square Mile Run alongside six Booth alumni. “We want to do some activities that are not intellectual,” joked the alumnus, a former investment banker and founder of M.Square Inc., a health product exporter. Miller also attends a Third Thursday social that’s hosted jointly with Booth graduates and the University of Chicago alumni club in Tokyo’s Roppongi district.

Many of Tokyo’s Booth alumni are making time for one-on-one meetings as well. If a prospective student asks Akiko Nakajo, ’06 (AXP-5), for coffee, the director of YouTube Partnerships Japan at Google makes room in her jam-packed schedule. Nakajo recently hosted a “ladies lunch” in Tokyo’s luxury Ginza neighborhood with Booth alumnae from Japan and Taiwan. Another women-focused event for alums of Booth, Wharton, and Harvard business schools was hosted at Google’s Japan office, as a way to connect with female MBAs and ramp up future female enrollment. “We are working with different alumni groups to encourage Japanese women to apply,” she said.