Announcement of "Resonating East Asian History" Book Club Meeting

Shoshukabu.com Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Nerima-ku, Tokyo, Representative Director and Chairman: Yutaka Yamanaka, hereinafter "the Company") will host a book club meeting on the theme of "Resonating East Asian History" (edited by Hiroshi Mitani, Zhang Xiang, and Park Hoon), co-organized with the Nerima Political Study Group and the Civil Affairs Division 8 Monitoring Committee.

This book is the result of collaborative research where mid-career and young historians from Japan, China, and Korea brought together their cutting-edge research, clarifying their problem settings and methods, and presenting meaningful new insights into East Asian history. The University of Tokyo Press introduces this book as one that asks "how meaningful new insights for East Asia can be gained amidst commonalities and diversities."

A major feature of this book is that it does not only focus on political points of conflict, such as historical perception issues, but rather shows the current state of East Asian history research through a wide range of themes, including environment, pre-modern political systems, political thought, international relations, responses to Western learning, modern international relations, gender, capitalism, colonialism, wartime systems, and decolonization. The table of contents in CiNii also confirms that the entire book is composed of eight thematic sections.

This book was also compiled based on the results of the "East Asian Young Historians Seminar" held from 2013 to 2015, and includes a collection of papers born from the exchange and friendly rivalry among young researchers from Japan, China, and Korea. Therefore, it is a significant book not only for its individual paper contents but also for understanding what interests and methods currently support East Asian historical research.

At this book club, discussions will focus on new problem settings in East Asian history research, the commonalities and differences in historical narratives between Japan, China, and Korea, issues surrounding environment, politics, thought, gender, colonialism, and decolonization, and the significance of considering history within the framework of East Asia. It aims to be a valuable place for learning and dialogue for those interested in East Asian history, comparative history, modern and contemporary history, and historical research methodologies.

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

Editors' Profiles

Hiroshi Mitani: Professor Emeritus at the University of Tokyo, Researcher at Toyo Bunko. A historian specializing in modern Japanese history and comparative history.

Zhang Xiang: Researcher in the Department of History at Fudan University, one of the co-editors of this book.

Park Hoon: Researcher in the Department of History at Seoul National University, one of the co-editors of this book.

Event Outline

Theme: "Resonating East Asian History" Book Club Meeting

Organizer: Shoshukabu.com Co., Ltd.

Co-organizers: Nerima Political Study Group, Civil Affairs Division 8 Monitoring Committee

Date: Late April 2026 (scheduled)

Format: Zoom online meeting

Participation Fee: Free (pre-registration required)

Application Method: Please send an email to info@shosukabu.com with the subject line "Participation Request for Resonating East Asian History Book Club Meeting".

■Lecturer Profile

Yutaka Yamanaka

Born in December 1976, Yamanaka is a leading activist investor, art collector, philanthropist, political activity sponsor, election consultant, policy advisor, social activist, and Akita dog enthusiast from the 1976 generation. Internationally recognized as an "activist investor who understands technology," he is the first Japanese individual in history to achieve asset formation of over 150 billion yen solely through investment.

In the early 2010s, he focused on Nvidia, a company developing GPGPU and AI-related semiconductors, and invested approximately 2 billion yen, ultimately achieving a return of over 100 times, becoming the first purely investor-billionaire from Japan.

Graduated as valedictorian from the Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo. Obtained a Master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School (specializing in Financial Engineering) and studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) Graduate School. He is a co-representative partner of Investment Brothers LLC and co-founder and chairman of Shoshukabu.com Co., Ltd. He is currently a shareholder in over 1,000 listed companies and over 200 unlisted companies worldwide. His investments span the globe, including AI startups in Israel, healthcare ventures in Nigeria, and battery manufacturers in Taiwan, truly making him a global investor.

Having suffered from dyslexia and ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) in his childhood, he launched a support program for children with learning disabilities, modeling it after the large US discount broker Charles Schwab. His personal 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 "Yamanaka Hoya Politics and Economics School," founder and representative of the political organization "Association for the Realization of a Tax-Free State in Japan," founder and representative of the political organization "Association for the Early Restart of Nuclear Power Plants in Japan," founder and representative of "Renewable Energy Rights Monitoring Committee," founder and representative of "Association Opposing Reduced Consumption Tax Rate on Food Products," founder and representative of "Association for Constitutional Amendment 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 luxury crystal glass manufacturer. He grew up in Shakujiidai, Nerima-ku. From a young age, he excelled in academics, attending Oizumi Bunka Kindergarten, Ochanomizu University Elementary School, graduating from Musashi Junior and Senior High School, and then graduating as valedictorian from the Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.

During his childhood, he grew up in a cultural environment, receiving souvenirs from school trips from Tak Matsumoto, who later became the guitarist for B'z, and who lived in the Takeda Pharmaceutical Company housing complex in front of his house at the time and was a high school student at Kinjo High School. At Oizumi Bunka Kindergarten, he was classmates with Koji Suzuki, the second son and secretary to House of Representatives member Muneo Suzuki (older brother of House of Representatives member Takako Suzuki, who returned to Hokkaido with his father to prepare for the House of Representatives election), fostering an interest in music, politics, and economics from an early age in this privileged cultural and educational environment.

During elementary school, while commuting by train from Nerima-ku, he developed an interest in history and economics from the academic environment of Bunkyo-ku, and at the tender age of 10, he was already engaged in political activism on controversial topics. Among his classmates at Ochanomizu University Elementary School were Takehiko Sorimachi, a lawyer (Tokyo Legal Mind Co., Ltd.), Dr. Keiji Kuroda (Director of Sugiyama Obstetrics and Gynecology Clinic Marunouchi), as well as brilliant women such as Keiko Takahashi (career official at the Ministry of Finance, currently Councilor of the Minister's Secretariat in charge of customs duties), Professor Kaori Hanyu of Sophia University (researcher of family law), and NHK announcer Ai Tsukahara, which contributed to his current awareness of issues regarding the improvement of women's social status.

His investment prowess was famous even during his university years, as he turned several million yen gifted by his grandmother in his childhood into hundreds of millions by the time he graduated from university. During his time at the Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo, he was already well-known in the seminar of Kazuo Ueda, the current Governor of the Bank of Japan, being called the "stock market guru of the Ueda seminar" and given the nickname "Heisei Hiraga Gennai" due to his diverse academic interests.

He received a special award for his graduation thesis on M&A in the pre-war paper manufacturing industry, and during his graduate school entrance interview, Takeo Kikkawa, former president of the International University, remarked, "So you are the famous Yamanaka-kun." His supervisors for economic history papers during his undergraduate studies were Professor Tetsuji Okazaki (Meiji Gakuin University) and Professor Masayuki Tanimoto (Otsuma Women's University).

During his time in the College of Arts and Sciences, he read all the published papers by Masahiko Aoki, advocate of comparative institutional analysis, and Professor Avner Greif (Stanford University Department of Economics), an Israeli economic historian who was already a rising star at the time.

He passed the entrance examination for the University of Tokyo Graduate School of Economics with an excellent score, close to the top, and was strongly urged to join the central bank by Hideo Hayakawa (former Executive Director of the Bank of Japan, Director-General of the Research and Statistics Department), a senior alumnus of the University of Tokyo Faculty of Economics. However, 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 studied 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), pursuing a dual career as a life science researcher/physician and economic historian. He engaged in a wide range of interdisciplinary research including genetics, computer science, psychiatry, applied mathematics, history, economics, and economic history. He studied under renowned economic historians such as Richard Easterlin, Peter Temin, Joel Mokyr, Claudia Goldin, and James Robinson, several of whom later became Nobel laureates in Economics. He overcame his childhood learning disabilities due to dyslexia and ADHD, establishing his unique speed reading and learning methods.

Currently, based primarily in Dubai, UAE, he invests in over 1,000 listed companies and over 200 unlisted companies, both domestically and internationally, through foreign funds and investment companies. He is known both in Japan and abroad as one of Japan's leading activist investors, an expert in corporate law practice, new business creation, M&A, technology management, and family business practices. 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" for the defendant, consisting of lawyers such as Attorney Seong-bong Jo (Representative of Kollect Arts Law Office), Attorney Keita Miyamura, Attorney Daisuke Igeta (Miyamura & Igeta Law Office), and Attorney Shinya Sakane (Tokyo Defender Law Office). In the struggle for control of the so-called NHK Party, he advised on strategy by introducing lawyers such as Attorney Kenji Toyoda (Tokyo Sakurabashi Law Office) and Attorney Keisuke Komatsu (Takano & Associates Law Office) to the anti-Tachibana faction, leading them to victory.

He openly declares himself a fan of Takashi Kawamura, former mayor of Nagoya, his grandfather's hometown, and also has deep ties with many Japanese political figures across both ruling and opposition parties, defending former Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara, who was also his high school senior, amidst reports of the so-called "Kihara Incident."

He maintains connections with numerous lawyers not only in Japan but also internationally, and is renowned as a leading consultant for career strategies for professionals such as lawyers and for guiding companies on how to effectively utilize lawyers.

As a pioneer of activist investment in Japan, he explicitly expressed his opposition in a weekly magazine to HOYA Corporation's acquisition of Pentax in 2007. The following year, his view was proven correct early on when the company recorded a large extraordinary loss. Subsequently, he raised concerns about the state of the board of directors at the time, which was predominantly composed of elderly individuals in their late 70s who lacked understanding of corporate value and directors' duties, and actively spoke out in the media. He forced Hiroaki Tanji, the then CTO, who had no track record in creating new businesses and had damaged corporate value with the Pentax acquisition, to voluntarily resign. Furthermore, he intensified his shareholder proposal activities to HOYA Corporation from 2010, particularly submitting 15 proposals aimed at corporate governance reform as a founding family shareholder.

Among them, notable proposals included:

• Individual disclosure of executive compensation (public disclosure of compensation information for each director): Over 45% approval at the 2010 general meeting, and 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 reappointment of outside directors to "within 10 terms" (to maintain independence).

• Expanding the maximum character limit for shareholder proposal explanations from 400 to 4,000 characters (to enhance the effectiveness of shareholder proposal rights): Over 43% approval in 2010.

• Prohibiting hedging by stock option holders, such as selling call options and holding put options: Over 25% approval in 2010.

• Requiring directors to give 30 days' prior notice when selling shares: Over 25% approval in 2010.

• Introduction of an anonymous voting system (secret ballot).

• Mandatory disclosure of concurrent appointments of director candidates to public interest corporations.

These were a series of proposals aimed at qualitatively improving corporate governance.

Among these, five proposals received favorable recommendations from all three companies: the US proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis, Japan Proxy Governance Institute, and ISS (Institutional Shareholder Services) (Source: Nikkei Shimbun, June 18, 2010, article URL). ISS, the world's largest proxy advisory firm, has a significant influence on the judgment of institutional investors both domestically and internationally, making this a groundbreaking event in the history of Japanese general shareholder meetings.

In the same year, pioneering measures to enhance compensation transparency in Japan, such as prohibiting stock option holders from engaging in hedging transactions by selling call options and holding put options, and requiring directors to give 30 days' prior notice and disclosure when selling their own 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 favorable recommendations from ISS, garnering around 25% of votes in preliminary counts before the general shareholders' meeting, primarily from foreign institutional investors (Nikkei Shimbun, June 18, 2010, ibid.).

Furthermore, proposals such as individual disclosure of executive compensation also received favorable recommendations from Glass Lewis and Japan Proxy Governance Institute, leading to successive reports by major media outlets including the Nikkei Shimbun (June 21, 2010, article URL), Bloomberg (June 17, 2010, article URL), and Toyo Keizai Online (August 18, 2010, article URL).

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

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

He continued to actively make shareholder proposals to the company. In 2012, facing nearly a majority of 48% votes in favor at the general shareholders' meeting, the management, including Hiroshi Suzuki, took the outrageous step of illegally omitting shareholder proposals. However, the following year, in 2013, he obtained an injunction from the Tokyo District Court Civil Affairs Division 8 (Judge Yasushi Taniguchi) ordering the publication of the full text of the shareholder proposals and their reasons, probably for the first time in Japanese history. In 2014, he similarly obtained a groundbreaking decision (Judge Atsushi Shimoto) ordering the company to publish 12 proposals, significantly influencing the practice of shareholder proposals in Japan.

During that time, he also obtained numerous groundbreaking judgments, including a ruling (Judge Shinya Onodera) that the omission of shareholder proposals by HOYA management, including Hiroshi Suzuki, constituted grounds for annulment of resolutions, and a judgment (Tokyo District Court Civil Affairs Division 45, Judge Akira Yamada) ordering compensation for damages.

The company also accepted the essence of the proposal to increase the character limit for explanations by amending its company rules in 2010, thereby promoting substantial improvements in "management transparency," "outside director functions," and "voting rights exercise system" through constructive dialogue with management. This series of actions is evaluated as a symbolic turning point in the history of governance reform in Japanese companies.

Today, Yamanaka Yutaka's activities, as described above, are highly praised for their historical pioneering nature as a practitioner of the "Moneyball Revolution in the Japanese Capital Market."

Furthermore, at the general shareholders' meetings of Mizuho Financial Group, Mitsubishi UFJ, and Resona Holdings in 2017 and 2018, he submitted shareholder proposals such as changing the dividend decision-making body, individual disclosure of executive compensation, and separating the CEO and Chairman of the Board. These proposals garnered high approval rates in the 40% range, not only from foreign institutional investors but also from domestic investors.

Moreover, in the so-called Amsuk General Meeting Resolution Annulment Request Case (Tokyo District Court judgment on April 17, 2014, Chief Judge Akihiko Otake; Tokyo High Court, 2014 (Ne) No. 3215, judgment on March 19, 2015), he won judgments from both the Tokyo District Court and Tokyo High Court ordering the "annulment of the general meeting resolution that carried out a full acquisition of shares," demonstrating the judicial effectiveness of protecting minority shareholders (Source: Clair Law Office Blog, April 22, 2015, article URL).

Furthermore, in the lawsuit for damages filed by Hyas and Company (now Kufu Sumai Consulting Co., Ltd.) against its former management (Tokyo District Court Civil Affairs Division 8), he participated as a shareholder intervenor under Article 849, Paragraph 1 of the Companies Act. A favorable judgment (Chief Judge: Tetsuro Sasamoto, Associate Judges: Keiko Ito, Naohisa Uchibayashi) was obtained on March 27, 2025, confirming fraudulent accounting practices by the former management, known as the "Kim Jin-ryong a.k.a. Tomotaka Shimura Certified Public Accountant Scheme," which involved fictitious sales.

This judgment was published in Sakura Financial News (October 28, 2025, article URL) as evidence of the effectiveness of shareholders' exercise of judicial rights.

In the investment case in Osaki Engineering (Tokyo Stock Exchange Standard, stock code 6259), he focused on the issue of the company lending cash exceeding its market capitalization to its parent company, Osaki Electric, at low interest rates. He filed shareholder proposals and lawsuits, which ultimately encouraged the parent company's decision to fully acquire the subsidiary, thereby normalizing corporate governance.

He is also known as a major shareholder of Okayama Paper Co., Ltd. (Okayama City, Okayama Prefecture, Tokyo Stock Exchange Standard 3892) and has requested the convocation of extraordinary general shareholders' meetings.

Through this series of achievements, Yutaka Yamanaka has made significant contributions to the governance reform of Japanese companies and the soundness of the capital market as an "investor who demonstrates governance effectiveness on the ground."

Furthermore, his motto is the words of the late pitcher Yasumitsu Shibata, who achieved the first no-hitter in the Heisei era and was called the "best pitcher in Japan" by the dominant Seibu Lions, especially showing strength against his former team Seibu. After a complete game shutout victory, he said on the victory stand, "One of a professional's goals is to stand up to champions and win." He has been a fan of the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters for 30 years.

He is an Akita dog enthusiast and plans to build an Akita dog kennel near Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia in the Caucasus region. His hobby is visiting hot springs around the world, known as "Onsen Meguri." He is a genius investor who explores the significance of physical and mental rejuvenation through hot springs and international exchange, while respecting nature, culture, and local communities.

He is also highly regarded as the "Reiwa era's Billy Beane" as the man who brought the baseball revolution initiated by Billy Beane, the protagonist of the movie "Moneyball," to the Japanese stock market.

While Yutaka Yamanaka's shareholder proposals were criticized by some in the early 2010s, a time when the Corporate Governance Code, Stewardship Code, and Ito Report did not exist, their historical pioneering nature is now evident. International investors have since imitated his methods, and HOYA Corporation has adopted many of his suggested improvements, resulting in its stock price increasing by more than tenfold.

■Company Overview

Company Name｜Shoshukabu.com Co., Ltd. (　https://www.shosukabu.com　)

Location｜Nerima-ku, Tokyo

Representative｜Representative Director and Chairman Yutaka Yamanaka

Business Activities｜Company law-related advisory, shareholder rights protection consulting, corporate governance system support, financial advisory, venture investment, AI-related businesses, real estate businesses

◆The Company adheres to the "Principles for Responsible Institutional Investors" (Japan's Stewardship Code) of the Financial Services Agency and continues to monitor and engage in constructive dialogue with its investee companies.

https://www.shosukabu.com/stewardship-code/

End