Track 1: Japan: Evolution without imbalance?
- How are the competitive dynamics changing in different market segments?
- Is yen weakness a challenge or an opportunity for foreign investors?
- Which is a bigger returns driver – deep local value creation or cross-border expansion?
- Will sponsor-to-sponsor overtake trade sales as a mid-market exit channel?
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Nozomi Oda is a partner based in Morrison Foerster’s Tokyo office, and she serves as Head of our Asia Private Equity practice. Nozomi’s practice focuses on cross-border public and private M&A, joint ventures, strategic investments, and life sciences. She has a particular emphasis on advising private equity and life sciences clients.
In addition to her work in private practice, Nozomi previously spent two years with Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) as a deputy director of the corporate disclosure department, where she participated in the drafting of the FSA’s regulations on disclosures regarding tender offers, private placement offerings and director compensation.
Nozomi is recommended by The Legal 500 Asia Pacific for Japan: Corporate and M&A and also has been recognized in The Best Lawyers in Japan for Capital Markets Law, Corporate and M&A Law, Private Equity, Private Funds and Venture Capital Law. Nozomi is also ranked as “Highly Regarded” and “Women Leader” by IFLR1000 for Japan: M&A – Foreign.
Nozomi is a bengoshi admitted to practice in Japan and New York, and is a member of the Dai-Ichi Tokyo Bar Association.
Mr. Kita joined Advantage Partners in 2003 and leads all activities for the Japan Buyout team. Mr. Kita has also directly led many investments including CommunityOne, Katitas, Net Protections, Yaruki Switch Group and Cosmolife. He currently serves as a Director on several investments including Material Group, Energywith, NFC Holdings, Net Japan and Daiho Industrial.
Prior to joining Advantage Partners, Mr. Kita was at Bain & Company Japan and focused on projects in the auto, finance, telecommunications, food products, trading houses, and healthcare sectors. Mr. Kita holds an undergraduate degree from the Faculty of Economics, the University of Tokyo, and an MBA from University of California, Berkeley.
Satoru Arakawa has been an investment professional at J-STAR since 2007, and has focused on small-cap buyouts in Japan. Based in Tokyo, he has been involved in nine transactions and value-added activities for portfolio companies in the industrial and healthcare sectors. Prior to joining J-STAR, Arakawa worked for eight years in strategic consulting at Nomura Research Institute, where he engaged in strategic advisory and business improvements for a broad range of sectors, including PE-backed companies.
Shota Kuwaki currently serves as Managing Director of Sunrise Capital KK. In this capacity, he is responsible for the overall investor relations activities of the firm. Prior to joining the firm in 2016, Mr. Kuwaki previously worked as an investor relations professional at domestic buyout fund, Advantage Partners, where he engaged with both overseas and domestic investors. Prior to his tenure at Advantage Partners, he was involved in equity research at Macquarie Securities and Mizuho Securities. Additionally he has experience in the field of insurance at AIG. Mr. Kuwaki received a B.A. in Economics from Keio University.
Mark Chiba is Group Chairman and Partner of The Longreach Group. The Longreach Group is an established independent private equity firm with offices in Hong Kong and Tokyo. The firm focuses on Japan and related Greater China control buyouts in the mature industrial and technology, consumer, business services and financial services sectors. The firm manages three Funds which have accumulated approximately US$2.1 billion of committed limited partner and co-investment capital.
Mark co-founded The Longreach Group in late 2003. Mark's lead responsibilities at Longreach include firm management, senior relationship driven deal sourcing and execution, investments in the financial services sector, and building the firm's capital base and global networks.
Before co-founding Longreach, Mark served as Chief Executive Officer and President of UBS Securities Japan, Chairman of the Asia-Pacific Investment Banking Management Committee, Head of Japan Investment Banking and as a member of the UBS Global Investment Bank Board. Previous to this role in Japan, Mark headed the UBS Asia-Pacific Financial Institutions Group.
Mark is an Australian citizen, resident in Hong Kong. He holds First Class Honours degrees in Economics (University of Melbourne) and Law (University of Sydney). Mark is a Rhodes Scholar with a Master of Philosophy degree in International Relations (with Distinction) from Oxford University.