Dr. Mitsuru Misawa

Professor of Finance


University of Hawaii at Manoa
Shidler College of Business
2404 Maile Way, E601e
Honolulu, Hawaii 96822
E-mail: misawa@hawaii.edu
Tel: 808.956.9713
Fax: 808.956.9713

Curriculum Vitae About

About

Dr. Misawa received his LLB from Tokyo University Law School, LLM from Harvard Law School, MBA from the University of Hawaii as an East-West Center grantee and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan (International Finance). He is professor of finance (International Finance and Corporate Finance) and the director of the Center for Japanese Global Investment and Finance at Shidler College of Business, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, which was established in 1997 under the sponsorship of Japanese Keidanren (Japanese Federation of Economic Organizations).

Before he joined the University of Hawaii at Manoa in August 1996, he had been with Industrial Bank of Japan (IBJ) for 30 years. His career at IBJ included assignments in banking and leasing operations in New York and Tokyo. During his career at IBJ, he served as the Executive Vice President, IBJ Trust Bank (NY), Deputy General Manager, Loan Department, IBJ (Tokyo) in charge of large scale companies such as Nissan, Sony, Komatsu, etc., the General Manager, International Headquarter, IBJ (Tokyo), and the President, IBJ Leasing (NY) as a member of the Board of Directors, IBJ Leasing (Tokyo). One of the financial arrangements he conducted as an investment banker at IBJ was the Nissan Motor’s direct investment to manufacture trucks and cars in Smyrna, Tennessee in 1983. For total financing of $400 million, he employed "global financial engineering" techniques. Since then, these techniques have been widely used by other Japanese investments to the U.S.

Dr. Misawa consulted for a number of international institutions such as IBJ (Japan) and OSG Corporation (Japan). From 1989 to 1996, he served as the U.S. Counselor on the Keidanren’s "Council for Better Corporate Citizenship." Dr. Misawa was appointed "Colonel of the State of Kentucky" and "Arkansas Traveler" by those states in recognition of his achievements in soliciting Japanese investments for these states.

Dr, Misawa was awarded Commendation of the Consul General of Japan in Honolulu, The Japanese Government on April 12, 2016. He has been serving as Ambassador of Ina City, Ina City, Nagano prefecture, Japan. since July 25, 2007.

His research has been published in numerous academic journals, including Sloan Management Review, Financial Management, The Columbia Journal of World Business, and Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law.

Dr. Misawa published two books;

(2016) "Cases on International Business and Finance in Japanese Corporations”, 2nd edition, (978-9814663090 ed., pp. 546). World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. (Imperial College Press London)

(2011) "Current Business and Legal Issues in Japan's Banking and Finance Industry", 2nd edition (5 chapters are added) (978-981-4291-01-9 ed., pp. 596). World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. (Imperial College Press London)

Dr Misawa’s 21 cases are Listed on Harvard;

In 2020 Misawa's 21 Cases are listed on Harvard Business Publishing Online. Visit Harvard Business Online Under Misawa.

His 4607 copies were sold in 2019 through Harvard to worldwide universities and companies. Total number sold through Harvard in the past 13 years is 37,080 copies. 

Misawa’s case on Toshiba; “The Toshiba Accounting Scandal: How Corporate Governance Failed” was the best seller on Harvard in 2018 and was ranked among the top 20 most popular cases at Harvard. Misawa listed the two new cases below on Harvard Business Publishing and they are marked as “New” on the list.

1. Toyota’s New Business Model: Creating A Sustainable Future, (2019)

“Many companies study the management strategies of others, adapting and learning from the experiences of large multinationals. But global corporations also need strategies that are capable of adapting to changing markets and profitability. Is it possible for these corporations to develop new and powerful insights from smaller firms?”

2. Negative Interest Rates: The Bank of Japan Experience, (2020)

“Despite Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's new economic strategy, known as "Abenomics," being enacted in 2012, Japan's deflationary spiral continued. In an effort to stimulate economic growth, early in 2013 the Bank of Japan (BOJ) stepped in, using quantitative and qualitative monetary easing (QQE) with the aim of achieving an inflation target of 2% in two years. At that time, the short-term prime interest rate was 1.475% per year. Could an unconventional monetary policy work? Despite all efforts, Japan's economy remained weak. On 20 January 2016, the BOJ's governor, Haruhiko Kuroda, held a policy meeting in Tokyo, where the decision was made to introduce QQE with a negative interest rate.”

Harvard Business School (MBA) purchased 1063 copies of Misawa’s cases for their own use in 2010. Other major universities such as Yale, MIT, USC, Wharton, Northwestern, Cornell, University of Washington, NYU and Colombia are users of Misawa’s cases in the US. In the foreign countries, IE Business School (Spain), University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong), Hitotsubashi University (Japan), University of Oxford (UK), National University of Singapore (NUS) (Singapore), Bocconi University (Italy), Keio University (Japan), SDA Bocconi University (Italy), Kyoto University (Japan), Waseda University (Japan), Korea University (Korea) and University of Tokyo (Japan) are users of Misawa’s cases.

Dr. Misawa awards U.H. Professor Misawa-Honjo International Fellowship

The year of 2020 is the 14th year of this fellowship. Misawa has provided $420,000 to 52 UH students to study in Japan. $30,000 a year has been granted to four recipients each year. The fund has been provided by the Honjo Foundation in Japan.

For the past recipients, see  Professor Misawa-Honjo Int Fellowship Recipients List 2007-2020.

Recipient students can select any university in Japan. In the past they have studied at Waseda, Keio, Hitotsubashi, Sophia, Oberlin and Ritsumeikan. They transferred the credits they had earned in Japan to UH.