C Bryan Jones 12/23/23 C Bryan Jones 12/23/23

2022 Person of the Year: Akio Mimura

On November 9, 2023, the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) recognized Akio Mimura as the 2022 ACCJ Person of the Year. He was chosen for his efforts to bring the Japanese and international business communities closer together during his nine years as chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI).

The ACCJ honors the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry honorary chairman for his enduring support of international businesses in Japan.

Photos by Miki Kawaguchi/LIFE.14

From left: ACCJ Executive Director Laura Younger, Akio Mimura, and ACCJ President Om Prakash

The person of the year is normally honored in spring, but this year’s event was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

During a special luncheon at The Place of Tokyo, the former chairman and president of Nippon Steel Corporation spoke about his long career.

The event began with a VIP session where ACCJ leaders greeted Mimura, after which ACCJ Executive Director Laura Younger welcomed guests and provided background about the award. ACCJ President Om Prakash delivered remarks and invited Mimura to the podium.

“I am truly honored to be nominated as the 2022 ACCJ Person of the Year, because 2022 was the year I concluded my 60-year business career, 51 years in the Nippon Steel Corporation and nine years as the chairman of the JCCI,” Mimura began.

“The last nine years have been especially worthwhile periods in my life,” he continued, noting that the coronavirus pandemic, during which he closed out his time as JCCI chairman, required action and guidance to protect the most vulnerable people and businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

“I devoted my energy to three initiatives,” explained Mimura, who requested:

Balanced measures to contain Covid-19 that allow free economic activity
All possible measures from government to ensure that businesses survive
SMEs use the pandemic as a wake-up call and promote self-reformation

“Luckily, Covid-19 is finally coming to an end, and most SMEs were able to preserve their business continuation,” he said. “Overall unemployment in Japan was kept very low, at 2–3 percent. Our real challenge is to position this pandemic and the worldwide inflation as a turning point, and to rejuvenate the Japanese economy, which has been stagnant for the past quarter century.”

Mimura shared that another great memory is encountering the philosophy of Eiichi Shibusawa. Born in 1840, Shibusawa played a key part in business development during the Meiji Period (1868–1912) and is often referred to as the father of Japanese capitalism.

“He was involved in the founding of 481 companies and played an active role in the launch of 600 social contribution institutes. Can you believe it?”

The latter especially resonates with Mimura.

“In recent years, I have been very heartened to see the increasing global interest in [strategic development goals] and stakeholder capitalism,” he said. “However, I have personally felt dissatisfied with the fact that this interest often remains only on the surface, limited to general overviews or investor-related presentations without translating into concrete actions.”

Shibusawa, he notes, insisted earnestly that business leaders should pursue profit but also contribute to the public interest, namely by enriching society and making people happier.

“He was not only a person of action but also a visionary leader,” Mimura said. “We business leaders must somehow achieve the harmony of private and public interests in our own way.”

C Bryan Jones 7/7/22 C Bryan Jones 7/7/22

Shared Interests and Values

Each year, the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) honors those who have significantly impacted the global business environment in Japan with the ACCJ Person of the Year award. Former chair, president, and group chief executive officer of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (MUFG) Nobuyuki Hirano was selected as the 2021 Person of the Year not only for his work with MUFG, but also for his tireless efforts to promote better US–Japan business ties.

The ACCJ honors 2021 Person of the Year Nobuyuki Hirano

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During a career spanning more than 40 years, and as chair of the Japan–U.S. Business Council from 2017 to 2021 and a current vice-chair of the Keidanren (the Japanese Business Federation), Hirano has helped to strengthen global business. ACCJ members and guests recognized this on April 25 at an in-person event held at Tokyo American Club and livestreamed to remote attendees.

The luncheon began with a VIP session where ACCJ leaders greeted Hirano, after which ACCJ Governor and Financial Services Forum Chair Andrew Conrad welcomed members and guests, and provided background about the award. ACCJ President Om Prakash delivered remarks, saying that, in Hirano, “we are extremely lucky to have someone who is so thoughtful—and very methodical—in how he approaches incredibly complex issues between the United States and Japan, and the entire world.”

Values and Principles

Taking the podium, Hirano expressed his deep honor to have been chosen for the award, and thanked the chamber for its contributions as a member of the Japan–U.S. Business Council. “I appreciate the initiatives of all the ACCJ presidents—Christopher LaFleur, Sachin Shah, Peter Jennings, Peter Fitzgerald, and Jenifer Rogers—during my tenure."

He then addressed the importance of shared values and trust by taking attendees back to the eighties—1983 to be precise—when he had arrived in New York City as a trainee at Morgan Stanley. The two years spent there for his secondment was the start of an extraordinary journey that would make Hirano a bridge between the United States and Japan and lead him to a position on the firm’s board of directors, which he accepted in March 2008.

Speaking of his fellow directors, he said, “They often joke, ‘Nobu, you are the first, and possibly the last, guy who has been elevated from unpaid trainee to Board member.’”

During the 2008 global financial crisis, MUFG made a $9 billion strategic investment in Morgan Stanley—a move that Hirano says exemplifies the importance of shared values and principles between business partners. “This was a significant investment in its huge scale but, more so, in the sense that it is the only successful alliance between globally systemically important banks,” he explained. Worldwide, there are just 30 such banks, often called G-SIBs.

“But I believe it is more than this,” he continued. “James Gorman, now CEO of Morgan Stanley Investment Bank, and I agree that we actually have a similar corporate culture. I think it’s very important that our values and principles are similar, [in areas] such as putting the client first, doing the right thing, and [having] an appreciation for long-term perspective.”

Returning to the present, Hirano noted that there has been a series of global crises in the financial world—roughly one per decade—which “have had a huge impact that exceeded most people’s expectations.” These include the collapse of Japan’s bubble economy in 1990, the Asian financial crisis of 1997, and the global financial crisis that sent shockwaves through the markets in September 2008 with the collapse of Lehman Brothers—the event which brought together MUFG and Morgan Stanley.

Today, we are on the precipice of another shockwave.

“The world is at a critical juncture and has entered a period of great uncertainty. We are undergoing a once-in-a-century period of dramatic change, which has been described as the era of VUCA, or volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity,” he said, adding that we are witnessing a crucial moment in history with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“A question we need to ask in today’s society is what role business leaders should play.”

Cooperation on China

As part of his work with the Japan–U.S. Business Council, Hirano has been involved in the Japan–U.S. Business Conference, an annual event first held in Tokyo in 1961. The conference makes recommendations to the Japanese and US governments as well as related organizations.

At the 58th conference last fall—held virtually for the second year in a row due to the pandemic—a key topic of discussion was bilateral cooperation in the face of challenges from China.

“The struggle for supremacy between the United States and China is expected to be prolonged, while the economies of China and other countries are already deeply connected,” Hirano said. “There is consensus among business leaders that decoupling is unrealistic … with a slight difference [being that] Japanese businesses tend to be more cautious about risk due to Japan’s high level of dependence on China and its close geographical proximity. Their US counterparts take a more opportunistic stand.”

While this difference in risk aversion exists, the only way to successfully deal with China, he proposed, is for likeminded countries to continue acting together based on their shared interests and values.

“Working with likeminded countries to reach out to China has also affected the private sector. That’s what I believe,” he said. “In fact, last autumn, we jointly invited guests from the EU government and European industries to the Japan–U.S. Business Council for the first time, to discuss rebuilding the global order as well as sustainability.”

While China may not change course over the short term, in the next few decades, he added, China may face socioeconomic challenges, such as the declining birthrate and aging population. “These might substantially undermine China’s economic growth potential,” Hirano explained. “History shows that the distortions that occur alongside rapid economic growth are concealed until the growth slows. Once the distortions are revealed, they then force major structural reforms.”

Issues Uncovered

It has been more than two years since life as we knew it hit the brakes due to Covid-19. Hirano said the pandemic has not only disrupted the global economic order and increased political and geo-economic tension, but also revealed the global scale of the need to address sustainability issues. These include societal divisions, social inequality, and climate change.

“These problems,” he reasoned, “are largely due to globalization and excessive shareholder capitalism … Whether we like it or not, we will be forced to remodel the current socioeconomic systems that have supported capitalism up to now.

“However, we have no clear idea, yet, how to solve many of the problems. This is partly due to differences in values and principles among conflicting nations.”

This is where he sees the great asset that is the US–Japan relationship, which is built on shared values and principles. It is important, he stressed, for US and Japanese business leaders to discuss how to chart and navigate a course on issues such as carbon-neutrality targets and convey their opinions to local governments.

On this issue, he believes, it is very important that there be cooperation with other countries in Asia, particularly members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

In terms of Japan’s economy, the country’s future may be in jeopardy, Hirano suggested, unless drastic measures are taken to address the serious issues laid bare by the pandemic.

“To overcome this situation, the public and private sectors must act with a sense of urgency to make large structural changes to socioeconomic systems, in particular, and to revitalize and restructure industry through digitization and green transformation,” he stressed.

United by Trust

As a final point, Hirano noted that it is trust which has allowed the United States and Japan to develop such good relations and that, while close-knit cooperation between the governments is no doubt a huge part of this, he believes a major factor is the human connection between the people of both nations, strengthened over many years.

And it is this trust, which “cannot be seen by just looking at economic numbers,” that he considers to be an extremely important asset as we move into a future that is uncertain—not just for countries, but for business partners as well.

“I’d like to conclude by expressing my sincere hope that the business leaders of Japan and the United States will further deepen relations and our mutual understanding which, in turn, will strengthen the relationship—the partnership—between our two countries,” he said. “I also wish for the continued prosperity and success of this excellent institution, the ACCJ.”

C Bryan Jones 5/6/22 C Bryan Jones 5/6/22

2021 Person of the Year Photo Gallery

On April 25, 2022, the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ) recognized Nobuyuki Hirano as the 2021 ACCJ Person of the Year for his leadership and substantial contributions to the US–Japan relationship. View a selection of photos from the event.

Photos by Miki Kawaguchi/LIFE.14

From left: ACCJ President Om Prakash, Nobuyuki Hirano, 2021 ACCJ President Jenifer Rogers, and ACCJ Financial Services Forum Chair Andrew Conrad

During a hybrid event held at Tokyo American Club and livestreamed to remote ACCJ members and guests, the former chair, president, and group chief executive officer of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (MUFG) spoke about his long career.

The event began with a VIP session where ACCJ leaders greeted Hirano, after which ACCJ Governor and Financial Services Forum Chair Andrew Conrad welcomed luncheon guests and provided background about the award. ACCJ President Om Prakash delivered remarks and welcomed Hirano to the podium.

In addition to his work at MUFG, Hirano served as chair of the Japan-U.S. Business Council from 2017 to 2021, working tirelessly to promote better US–Japan business ties and to further strengthen the international business environment in Japan.

Following Hirano’s presentation and a Q&A session, moderated by Conrad, 2021 ACCJ President Jenifer Rogers presented the certificate.

The ACCJ Person of the Year Award was created in 1996 to enable the chamber to recognize individuals for their outstanding contributions to business and commercial relations between Japan and the United States. Past recipients include: Fujio Cho, honorary chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation; Hiroshi Mikitani, CEO of Rakuten, Inc.; and Caroline Kennedy, the 30th US Ambassador to Japan.