Notice of Book Reading Event: 'The History and Overview of the Companies Act' by Satoshi Aizawa

Shosukabu.com Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Nerima-ku, Tokyo; Chairman of the Board: Yutaka Yamanaka; hereinafter 'the Company') will co-host a book reading event on 'The History and Overview of the Companies Act' by Satoshi Aizawa, in collaboration with the Nerima Political Research Association and the Civil Section 8 Monitoring Committee. 'The History and Overview of the Companies Act' is a general review article published in the August 2005 issue of 'Jurist' No. 1295, 'Special Feature: Enactment of the New Companies Act,' which organizes the legislative background and objectives of the new Companies Act.

A major feature of this article is that it explains, from the perspective of a legislative official, why it was necessary to consolidate the corporate laws previously dispersed across the Commercial Code, the Limited Liability Company Act, and the Special Measures Act for Commercial Law. The enactment of the Companies Act was an attempt to establish an institutional foundation that responds to modern corporate activities, fundraising, and diverse management forms by making company incorporation more flexible, reviewing organizational design, and improving the ease of corporate restructuring.

This book reading event will discuss the background of the new Companies Act's enactment, the meaning of unifying the legal system, its impact on corporate governance and M&A, the balance between expanding corporate freedom and ensuring discipline, and what the Companies Act has brought to Japanese corporate society. It aims to be a valuable learning and discussion opportunity for those interested in corporate law, corporate governance, M&A, shareholder rights, and legal system reform.

Author Profile

Satoshi Aizawa

Former judge and Ministry of Justice official. He was involved in the revision of the Commercial Code and other civil laws for a total of 15 years at the Ministry of Justice, and led the drafting of the Companies Act enacted in 2006 as a Counselor of the Civil Affairs Bureau and a Counselor of the Minister's Secretariat. He has been practicing as a lawyer since 2024.

Event Overview

Theme: Book Reading Event on 'The History and Overview of the Companies Act'

Organizer: Shosukabu.com Co., Ltd.

Co-organizers: Nerima Political Research Association, Civil Section 8 Monitoring Committee

Date: Late June 2026 (planned)

Format: Online via Zoom

Fee: Free (advance registration required)

Application: Please send an email to info@shosukabu.com with the subject line 'Request to Participate in the Book Reading Event on The History and Overview of the Companies Act'.

■ Instructor Profile

Yutaka Yamanaka

Born in December 1976, Yutaka Yamanaka is a representative activist investor of the '76 generation, art collector, philanthropist, political activity sponsor, election consultant, policy advisor, social activist, and Akita dog enthusiast. Internationally, he is recognized as a 'technologically savvy activist investor' and is the first Japanese person in history to have built assets of over 150 billion yen purely through investing.

In the early 2010s, he focused on NVIDIA, a company developing GPGPU and AI-related semiconductors, as an investment target. He invested over 2 billion yen, achieving a return of more than 100 times, making him the first Japanese person to become a billionaire purely as an investor.

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

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

He is the founder and representative of the political organization 'Association for Establishing a Constitutional Court in Japan', head of the 'Yamanaka Hoya Political and Economic Academy', founder and representative of the political organization 'Association for Realizing a Tax-Free Nation in Japan', founder and representative of the political organization 'Association for Early Restart of Nuclear Power Plants in Japan', founder and representative of the political organization 'Renewable Energy Interest Monitoring Committee', founder and representative of the 'Association Opposing the Reduced Consumption Tax Rate on Foodstuffs', and founder and representative of the 'Association for Realizing Constitutional Amendment Aiming for a Unicameral System'.

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

During his childhood, he grew up in a cultural environment, receiving souvenirs from school trips from Takashi Matsumoto, who later became the guitarist for B'z, who was then a high school student at Nishiki High School living in the Takeda Pharmaceutical Company employee housing in front of his house. At Oizumi Bunka Kindergarten, he was classmates with Yukiji Suzuki (brother of House of Representatives member Takako Suzuki, who returned to Hokkaido to prepare for his father's House of Representatives election bid), who was a secretary to House of Representatives member Muneo Suzuki. This privileged cultural and educational environment naturally sparked his interest in music, politics, and economics.

During elementary school, while commuting by train from Nerima-ku, he developed an early interest in history and economics from the academic environment of Bunkyo-ku, and was already engaging in political movements on controversial topics at the age of 10. His classmates at Ochanomizu University Elementary School included lawyer Takehiko Sorimachi (Tokyo Legal Mind Co., Ltd.), Dr. Keishi Kuroda (Director of Sugiyama Obstetrics and Gynecology Marunouchi Clinic), as well as Keiko Takahashi (career bureaucrat at the Ministry of Finance, currently Counselor in charge of the Customs Division), Professor Kaori Hanyu of Sophia University (family law researcher), and NHK announcer Ai Tsukahara. Growing up surrounded by such accomplished women, he remains conscious of the need to improve women's social status.

His investment skills were famous even during his university days; he invested several million yen gifted by his grandmother in stocks during his childhood, growing it to several hundred million yen by the time he graduated from university. At the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Economics, he was already famous in the seminar of Kazuo Ueda, the current Governor of the Bank of Japan, earning the nickname 'the best stock trader in the Ueda seminar'. Due to his diverse academic interests, he was also called 'Heisei-era Hiraga Gennai'.

His graduation thesis on pre-war paper industry M&A won a special award, and during his graduate school interview, he was addressed by former International University President Takeo Kikkawa, who said, 'So you're the famous Yamanaka-kun.' His undergraduate thesis advisors in economic history were Tetsuji Okazaki (Professor at Meiji Gakuin University) and Masayuki Tanimoto (Professor at Otsuma Women's University).

During his liberal arts studies, he read all the published papers of Masahiko Aoki, the proponent of comparative institutional analysis, and Avner Greif, a then-emerging economic historian from Israel and professor at Stanford University's Department of Economics.

He passed the entrance exam for the Graduate School of Economics at the University of Tokyo with excellent grades, nearly top of his class. He was strongly encouraged by Hideo Hayakawa (former Bank of Japan board member and Director of the Research and Statistics Department), a senior alumnus of the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Economics, to join the central bank. However, he immediately moved to the United States after graduating from university, completed the Master's program in Financial Engineering at Columbia University, and earned a Master's degree. He also studied at Harvard University, the University of California, Davis, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Southern California, and the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).