Minority Stock.com Inc. Announces Reading Group: "East Asian Historical Dialogue: Beyond Borders and Generations"

Minority Stock.com Inc. (Headquarters: Nerima-ku, Tokyo, Representative Director and Chairman: Yutaka Yamanaka, hereinafter referred to as “the Company”) will co-host a reading group on the theme of “East Asian Historical Dialogue: Beyond Borders and Generations” (edited by Hiroshi Mitani and Tae-Chang Kim) with the Nerima Political Research Group and the Civil Affairs Department 8 Monitoring Committee.

This book is the result of a collaborative research project that asks how contemporary East Asian citizens should confront the memories of past wars and colonial rule, and the “historical narratives” that nations have shaped.

A major feature of this book is that it treats historical perception issues not only as conflicts between nations but also as complex problems involving individual experiences, intergenerational memories, and regional historical experiences. The contents include multifaceted discussion points such as “The Meaning of Narrating One's Own History,” “Historical Experiences of Wartime and Postwar Okinawa,” “China's Historical Perception and Intellectual Circles,” “Asia Amidst Forgetting and Remembering in Postwar Japan,” “Evaluation of Colonial Cultural Policy,” and “Historical Understanding as Intergenerational Dialogue.”

The book also puts forward the stance that the path to reconciliation is opened not by asserting one-sided correctness but by “narrating and conveying.” The significance of this book lies in its attempt to explore the possibilities of public historical dialogue in East Asia by bringing together individual war experiences, regional memories, and historical narratives created by nations, and by confronting the wounds, discrepancies, and forgotten aspects within them.

At this reading group, we will discuss key issues such as conflicts over historical perception in East Asia, memories of war and colonial rule, intergenerational historical understanding, problems with national historical narratives, and the conditions for dialogue leading to reconciliation. We aim to provide a valuable learning and dialogue platform for those interested in Japan-China-Korea relations, modern and contemporary East Asian history, historical perception issues, the politics of memory, and international reconciliation.

Book Introduction URL: https://x.gd/srkgs

Editors’ Profiles

Hiroshi Mitani
Emeritus Professor at the University of Tokyo and Researcher at Toyo Bunko. A historian specializing in modern Japanese history and comparative history, researching topics such as the Meiji Restoration, modern state formation, nationalism, and East Asian history.

Kim Tae-Chang
A researcher known for his work in public philosophy and dialogue studies, he served as co-editor of this book on dialogue concerning historical perceptions in East Asia.

Event Outline

Theme: "East Asian Historical Dialogue: Beyond Borders and Generations" Reading Group
Organizer: Minority Stock.com Inc.
Co-organizers: Nerima Political Research Group, Civil Affairs Department 8 Monitoring Committee
Date: Late April 2026 (planned)
Format: Zoom online event
Participation Fee: Free (pre-registration required)
Application Method: Please send an email to info@shosukabu.com with the subject line "East Asian Historical Dialogue Reading Group Participation Request."

Lecturer Profile

Yutaka Yamanaka
Born in December 1976, Mr. Yamanaka is a representative activist investor, art collector, philanthropist, political activity sponsor, election consultant, policy advisor, social activist, and Akita dog enthusiast from the '76 generation. Internationally, he is recognized as an “activist investor who understands technology,” being the first Japanese person in history to achieve asset formation of over 150 billion yen solely through investments.

In the early 2010s, he focused on Nvidia, a developer of GPGPU and artificial intelligence-related semiconductors, investing approximately 2 billion yen and achieving a return of over 100 times, becoming the first Japanese pure investor billionaire.

Graduated as valedictorian from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Tokyo. Earned a master’s degree in Financial Engineering from Columbia University Graduate School, and studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He is a co-representative partner of Investment Brothers LLC and co-founder and chairman of Minority Stock.com Inc. Currently, he holds shares in over 1,000 listed companies and over 200 unlisted companies worldwide. His investments are truly global, including AI startups in Israel, healthcare ventures in Nigeria, and battery manufacturers in Taiwan.

Having experienced dyslexia and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) in his childhood, he established a support program for children with learning disabilities, modeling it after Charles Schwab, a major US discount broker. His attending physician is Professor Akira Iwanami (former director of Showa University Karasuyama Hospital), a renowned psychiatrist.

Founder and representative of the political organization "Association for the Establishment of a Constitutional Court in Japan," head of the "Yamanaka Hoya Political and Economic School," founder and representative of the political organization "Association for the Realization of a Tax-Free Nation in Japan," founder and representative of the political organization "Association for the Early Restart of Nuclear Power Plants in Japan," founder and representative of the "Renewable Energy Rights Monitoring Committee," founder and representative of the "Association Against Reduced Consumption Tax Rates on Food Products," and founder and representative of the "Association for Constitutional Reform Aiming for a Unicameral System."

Born in Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, in 1976, as one of the grandchildren of Shigeru Yamanaka, founder of Hoya Glass (now HOYA Corporation, listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Standard, stock code 7741), a former high-end crystal glass manufacturer. He grew up in Shakujiidai, Nerima-ku. From a young age, he excelled in academics, graduating from Oizumi Bunka Kindergarten, Ochanomizu University Elementary School, Musashi Junior and Senior High School, and as valedictorian from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Tokyo.

In his childhood, he received souvenirs from a school trip from Tak Matsumoto, who would later become the guitarist for B'z, and who lived in the Takeda Pharmaceutical Company dormitory in front of his house. He was raised in a cultural environment. In Oizumi Bunka Kindergarten, he was classmates with Koji Suzuki, the second son and secretary of House of Representatives member Muneo Suzuki (who returned to Hokkaido with his father for his father's House of Representatives election campaign). This privileged cultural and educational environment naturally led him to develop an interest in music and political economy.

During his elementary school years, while commuting by train from Nerima-ku, his academic environment in Bunkyo-ku sparked an early interest in history and economics. At the young age of 10, he was already engaging in political movements on controversial topics. He grew up surrounded by talented female classmates at Ochanomizu University Elementary School, including lawyer Takehiko Sorimachi (Tokyo Legal Mind Co., Ltd.), Dr. Keiji Kuroda (Director of Sugiyama Obstetrics and Gynecology Marunouchi Clinic), as well as Keiko Takahashi (career official at the Ministry of Finance, currently Councilor for the Customs Division), Professor Kaori Hanyu of Sophia University (a family law researcher), and Ai Tsukahara, NHK announcer. This environment fostered his continued awareness of issues related to the advancement of women's social status.

His investment ability was already well-known during his university days, as he turned several million yen gifted by his grandmother into hundreds of millions of yen by the time he graduated from university. During his time at the Faculty of Economics at the University of Tokyo, he was already famous in Kazuo Ueda's seminar (who is now the Governor of the Bank of Japan), earning him the nickname "Stockbroker of the Ueda Seminar" and, due to his diverse academic interests, "Heisei Hiraga Gennai."

His graduation thesis on M&A in the pre-war paper industry received a special award. During his graduate school entrance interview, he was asked by Takeo Tachikawa, former president of International University, "Are you that famous Mr. Yamanaka?" His thesis advisors for economic history during his undergraduate studies were Professor Tetsuji Okazaki (Meiji Gakuin University) and Professor Masayuki Tanimoto (Otsuma Women's University).

During his liberal arts studies, he read all published papers by Masahiko Aoki, a proponent of comparative institutional analysis, and Professor Avner Greif (Stanford University Economics Department), an economic historian from Israel who was already a rising star at the time.

He passed the entrance examination for the Graduate School of Economics at the University of Tokyo with excellent grades, close to the top. Although he was strongly urged to join the central bank by Hideo Hayakawa, a senior at the University of Tokyo Faculty of Economics and then at the Bank of Japan (former Executive Director and Director-General of the Research and Statistics Department of the Bank of Japan), he immediately went to the United States after graduating from university, completing his master's degree in Financial Engineering at Columbia University Graduate School. He also studied abroad at Harvard University, University of California, Davis, University of California, Berkeley, University of Southern California, and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He pursued a dual career path as a life science researcher/physician and an economic historian, engaging in a wide range of interdisciplinary research in genetics, computer science, psychiatry, applied mathematics, history, economics, and economic history. He studied under several future Nobel laureates in economics, including renowned economic historians Richard Easterlin, Peter Temin, Joel Mokyr, Claudia Goldin, and James Robinson, overcoming his childhood dyslexia and ADHD learning disabilities to establish his own speed-reading and learning methods.

Currently, primarily based in Dubai, UAE, he invests in over 1,000 listed companies and over 200 unlisted companies domestically and internationally through foreign funds and investment companies. He is known domestically and internationally as one of Japan's leading activist investors, as well as an expert in company law practice, new business creation, M&A, technology management, and family business practice. He also has bases and homes in Taipei (Taiwan), Luxembourg, Tbilisi (Georgia), Oslo (Norway), Reykjavik (Iceland), Singapore, and St. Kitts and Nevis.

In the public election law violation case involving Tsubasa no To, he was involved in forming the “strongest defense team in recent criminal justice” as an advisor to the defendants, including lawyers Cho Sung-bong (representative of Kollect Arts Law Firm), Keita Miyamura, Daisuke Igeta (Miyamura-Igeta Law Firm), and Shinya Sakane (Tokyo Defender Law Firm). In the power struggle within the so-called NHK Party, he advised the anti-Tachibana side on strategy, introducing lawyers Kenji Toyoda (Tokyo Sakurabashi Law Firm) and Keisuke Komatsu (Takano Takashi Law Firm), leading the anti-Tachibana side to victory.

He openly proclaims himself a fan of former Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura, whose hometown is his grandfather's birthplace. During the reporting of the so-called "Kihara Incident," he defended Seiji Kihara, former Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary and his senior in high school. He has deep ties with many Japanese political figures, regardless of party affiliation.

He has extensive interactions with numerous lawyers not only in Japan but also internationally, and is renowned as a leading consultant who advises on career strategies for lawyers and other professionals, and on techniques for companies to effectively utilize lawyers.

As a pioneer of activist investment in Japan, he clearly expressed opposition in a weekly magazine to HOYA Corporation's acquisition of Pentax in 2007. The following year, the company recorded a large extraordinary loss, quickly proving the correctness of his view. Subsequently, he raised issues with the state of the board of directors at the time, which primarily consisted of elderly individuals in their late 70s who did not understand corporate value or directors' duties, and actively spoke out in the media. He forced Hiroaki Tanji, then Chief Technology Officer, who had damaged corporate value with the Pentax acquisition and had no track record in new business creation, to voluntarily resign. Furthermore, he intensified shareholder activism against HOYA Corporation from 2010, particularly in 2010, when, as a founding family shareholder, he submitted 15 proposals aimed at corporate governance reform.

Among them, notable proposals included:

- Individual disclosure of executive compensation (public disclosure of compensation information per director): Over 45% approval at the 2010 general meeting, over 48% at the 2011 general meeting.
- Establishment of a committee composed solely of outside directors (management oversight without executive officers): Over 33% approval.
- Limiting the re-election of outside directors to "within 10 terms" (for maintaining independence).
- Expanding the character limit for proposal explanations in shareholder proposals from 400 to 4,000 characters (to enhance the effectiveness of shareholder proposal rights): Over 43% approval in 2010.
- Prohibiting stock option holders from selling call options and holding put options (hedging): Over 25% approval in 2010.
- Requiring directors to provide 30 days' prior notice when selling shares: Over 25% approval in 2010.
- Introduction of an anonymous voting system (secret ballot).
- Obligation to disclose concurrent positions of director candidates in public interest corporations.

These were a series of proposals aimed at qualitative improvement of corporate governance.

Five of these proposals received recommendations for approval from all three major proxy advisory firms: Glass Lewis (US), Japan Proxy Governance Institute, and ISS (Institutional Shareholder Services) (Source: Nikkei Shimbun, June 18, 2010, Article URL: https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXNASFL1805H_Y0A610C1000000/). ISS is the world's largest proxy advisory firm, and its recommendations significantly influence the decisions of institutional investors domestically and internationally, marking a groundbreaking event in the history of Japanese shareholder meetings.

In the same year, pioneering compensation transparency measures in Japan, such as prohibiting stock option holders from engaging in hedging activities like selling call options and holding put options, and requiring directors to provide 30 days' prior notice and disclosure when selling company shares, spearheaded discussions on executive compensation. It is still difficult to say that their groundbreaking nature is fully understood in the Japanese capital market. These proposals also received ISS's recommendation for approval and secured over 20% approval in pre-shareholder meeting counts, mainly from foreign institutional investors (Nikkei Shimbun, June 18, 2010, same as above).

Furthermore, proposals such as individual disclosure of executive compensation also received approval recommendations from Glass Lewis and Japan Proxy Governance Institute. Major media outlets including Nikkei Shimbun (June 21, 2010, Article URL: https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXNASFL21086_R20C10A6000000/), Bloomberg (June 17, 2010, Article URL: https://www.bloomberg.co.jp/news/articles/2010-06-17/L454710D9L3501), and Toyo Keizai Online (August 18, 2010, Article URL: https://toyokeizai.net/articles/-/4758?display=b) reported on these proposals.

As a result, these proposals garnered over 45% approval at the 2010 general meeting and over 48% approval in 2011.

In 2011, he was invited to Harvard Law School to give a lecture on shareholder proposals and capital market trends and issues in Japan under the Democratic Party administration, attracting significant attention.

Subsequently, he continued to actively submit shareholder proposals against the company. In 2012, the management, including Hiroshi Suzuki, fearing the over 48% approval rate at the general meeting in 2011, took the unprecedented step of illegally omitting shareholder proposals from the agenda. However, in 2013, he obtained a provisional disposition order from the Tokyo District Court Civil Affairs Department 8 (Judge Yasushi Taniguchi), probably the first in Japanese history, to publish the full text of a shareholder proposal and its reasons. In 2014, he obtained another groundbreaking decision (Judge Atsushi Shimoto) ordering the company to publish 12 similar proposals, significantly influencing shareholder proposal practices in Japan.

During this period, he also obtained judgments, such as a ruling recognizing the omission of shareholder proposals by HOYA management, including Hiroshi Suzuki, as grounds for cancellation of resolutions (Judge Shinya Onodera), and a judgment ordering compensation for damages (Tokyo District Court Civil Affairs Department 45, Judge Akira Yamada), securing numerous groundbreaking rulings over several years.

The company also changed its rules regarding the character limit for explanations, implementing the proposal to increase it in 2010.