Announcement of a Book Reading Event on 'Finance Theory' Column 2: 'The Emergence of Zombie Companies in Europe and Japan' by Meziane Lasfer

Shosukabu.com Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Nerima-ku, Tokyo; Chairman and Representative Director: Yutaka Yamanaka; hereinafter 'the Company') will hold a book reading event on the column 'The Emergence of Zombie Companies in Europe and Japan' from 'Finance Theory: Global Financial Literacy' by Ai Sato, co-organized with the Nerima Political Study Group and the Civil Affairs 8th Division Monitoring Committee.

A key feature of this column is that it considers the concept of 'zombie companies' not merely as a colloquial term for underperforming firms, but as a problem linked to monetary policy, bank lending behavior, debt restructuring, and industrial stagnation. The existence of companies that survive without exiting the market despite poor profitability can distort resource allocation and hinder productivity improvement. While this has been a long-debated topic in Japan, comparing it with Europe reveals differences in the underlying financial systems and institutional characteristics.

Furthermore, the zombie company issue is not simply about what to do with 'companies that should be eliminated.' It leads to broader policy debates, such as how to balance employment maintenance and regional economic relationships during financial crises and low-interest-rate environments, and how banks should behave between bad debt disposal and corporate support. This book reading event will discuss the definition of zombie companies, a comparison between Europe and Japan, monetary easing and corporate survival, and the relationship between bank behavior and industrial policy.

Book URL: https://x.gd/RAtQE3

Author Profiles

Ai Sato
Professor at the Faculty of Business Administration, Osaka University of Economics. A researcher who systematically explains financial theory from basics to applications.

Meziane Lasfer
A researcher specializing in corporate finance and financial markets, contributing an international comparative column on the zombie company issue to this book.

Event Overview

Theme: 'Finance Theory'
Column 2: 'The Emergence of Zombie Companies in Europe and Japan' Book Reading

Organizer: Shosukabu.com Co., Ltd.
Co-organizers: Nerima Political Study Group, Civil Affairs 8th Division Monitoring Committee

Date: Late June 2026 (tentative)
Format: Online via Zoom
Fee: Free (advance registration required)
Application: Please send an email to info@shosukabu.com with the subject line 'Zombie Company Book Reading Participation Request'.

■ Lecturer Profile

Yutaka Yamanaka
Born in December 1976, an activist investor representing the '76 generation', art collector, philanthropist, political activity sponsor, election consultant, policy advisor, social activist, and Akita dog enthusiast. Internationally recognized as a 'technologically savvy activist investor', he is historically the first Japanese person to achieve asset formation of over 150 billion yen solely through investing.

In the early 2010s, he focused on NVIDIA, which develops GPGPUs and AI-related semiconductors, investing over 2 billion yen and achieving a return of more than 100 times, making him the first Japanese person to become a billionaire purely as an investor.

He graduated at the top of his class from the Faculty of Economics, 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 partner of Investment Brothers LLC, co-founder and Chairman of Shosukabu.com Co., Ltd., and 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.

Based on his own childhood struggles with dyslexia and ADHD, he launched a support program for children with learning disabilities, modeled 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 group 'Association for Establishing a Constitutional Court in Japan', head of the 'Yamanaka Hoya Political and Economic Academy', founder and representative of the political group 'Association for Realizing a Tax-Free Nation in Japan', founder and representative of the political group 'Association for Early Restart of Nuclear Power Plants in Japan', founder and representative of the political group '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 a grandson of Shigeru Yamanaka, 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. Excelling academically from an early age, he attended Oizumi Bunka Kindergarten, Ochanomizu University Elementary School, private Musashi Junior and Senior High School, and graduated at the top of his class from the Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.

Growing up in a cultural environment, he received souvenirs from a school trip from Takashi Matsumoto, who later became the guitarist for B'z, who lived as a high school student at the Takeda Pharmaceutical Company dormitory in front of his house. At Oizumi Bunka Kindergarten, he was classmates with Yukiji Suzuki, the second son and secretary of House of Representatives member Muneo Suzuki (brother of Representative Takako Suzuki, who returned to Hokkaido in preparation for his father's candidacy for the House of Representatives), which naturally fostered 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 activities 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 Cabinet Councilor in charge of the Customs Division) and Professor Kaori Hanyu of Sophia University (family law researcher), and NHK announcer Ai Tsukahara. Surrounded by such accomplished women, he developed a strong awareness of issues related to improving 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 well-known in the seminar of current Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda, earning the nickname 'the top stock trader in Ueda's seminar' and, due to his diverse academic interests, 'the Heisei-era Hiraga Gennai'.

His undergraduate thesis on pre-war M&A in the paper industry won a special award. During his graduate school interview, he was greeted by former International University President Takeo Kikkawa with the words, 'Are you that famous Yamanaka?'. His undergraduate thesis advisors in economic history were Professor Tetsuji Okazaki (Meiji Gakuin University) and Professor Masayuki Tanimoto (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 (Professor at Stanford University's Department of Economics).

He passed the entrance exam for the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Economics with excellent grades near the top. He was strongly recruited for a position at the central bank by Hideo Hayakawa (former Bank of Japan Executive Director and Director of the Research and Statistics Department), a senior from the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Economics, but immediately after graduating, he went to the United States, completed the Master's program in Financial Engineering at Columbia University, and obtained his Master's degree. He also studied at Harvard University and the University of California.