Speaker Series

We invite a variety of guest speakers to talk about business / cultural issues in Japan. (Previous speakers include Professor Thurow and Cusumano.)

Japan Club, Sloan Entrepreneurs, MIT TinyTech and MIT TechLink jointly invited Hideki Murayama, Ph.D., Founder, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Frontier Carbon Corporation (FCC). Dr. Murayama talked about FCC's strategy to launch the Fullerene business, current status of market development, and relevant issues such as technology management (MOT) and corporate entrepreneurship in Japan.

Hideki Murayama, Ph.D.

Founder, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, Frontier Carbon Corporation

Japan Club and John F. Kennedy School of Government Japan Caucus jointly invited Mr. Ryozo Hayashi, Consulting Fellow at the Research Institute of Economy, Trade & Industry (RIETI) and Senior Fellow at the Center for Business and Government, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Mr. Hayashi spoke about the prospect of the new Koizumi Cabinet entitled "Is Japan coming back?".

Mr. Ryozo Hayashi

Consulting Fellow
Research Institute of Economy, Trade & Industry (RIETI)

Senior Fellow
Center for Business & Government
Kennedy School of Government Harvard University

MIT Industrial Liaison Program invited Mr. Carlos Ghosn, President and Chief Executive Officer, Nissan Motor Company, Ltd. as a speaker for the Industry Leaders in Technology and Management Lecture Series. Mr. Ghosn explained about the successful alliance between Renault and Nissan as "equal" partners, the dramatic transformation under the Nissan Revival Plan, and the challenges Nissan would face in the future.

Mr. Carlos Ghosn

President and CEO
Nissan Motor Company, Ltd.

Japan Club, MIT Japan Program, Foreign Languages and Literatures, and MIT Anime Club jointly invited Mr. Ken Belson, New York Times, for the presentation about Hello Kitty.

Hello Kitty is an unlikely success story. With almost no advertising, the two dimensional cat churns out half a billion in revenue and is sold in more than 40 countries. Mr. Belson explained how Hello Kitty grew into one of the most recognizable characters in the world; how the company's founder became the Walt Disney of Japan; and how the Japanese character goods industry has grown into one of the world's most creative. Along the way he will discuss what makes Kitty so adorable, and what's in store for her next 30 years.

Mr. Ken Belson

New York Times














Packed audience in E51-095

Japan Club invited Mr. Yasutomo Fukui, General Manager of Corporate Information Systems Planning Group, Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd (known as Panasonic in the USA). Being in charge of the IT strategy at Matsushita, Mr. Fukui spoke about the IT Management Innovation and how he is building the corporate IT architecture to the students from Babson College, Boston University, and MIT.

Mr. Yasutomo Fukui

General Manager,
Corporate Information Systems Planning Group,
Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd










Students from the universities in the Greater Boston area















Mr. Fukui and
Kotaro Matsuda (MBA '05)

Japan Club invited Mr. Masanao Tomozoe, Senior Vice President and Chief Coordination Officer, Toyota Motor Sales USA. Mr. Tomozoe spoke about the Toyota brand and the challenges that they face in the future in front of the capacity crowd with some standing audience.

Chung-Pei Chen (MBA '05) "Through his humorous speech, Mr. Tomozoe effectively delivered his message to the crowd within 45 minutes. It was very interesting to learn how Toyota markets different brands targeting different groups. In short, it was an impressive presentation."

Ron Feldman (MBA '05) "I thought that Mr. Masanao Tomozoe was a very dynamic and interesting speaker. Toyota is a tremendously successful brand and company and it was great to hear from Mr. Tomozoe about how they have achieved this in North America and their future plans to continue and enhance their success. Mr. Tomozoe's sarcastic humor and style made the speech entertaining and engaging. It was also interesting to hear about his role as a liaison between Japan and North American operations."

Seungwon Jeong (MBA '05) "I was impressed by TOYOTA's deeply rooted learning-oriented culture and its reflection on the company strategy. I could appreciate Kaizen more through this opportunity. Now I understand why TOYOTA is different from other companies and reinvents the industry through continuous improvement."

Chye Hee Tan (MBA '05) "Kudos to the Japan Club for organizing the excellent Toyota presentation by Mr Tomozoe! It was refreshing to hear direct from a very senior Japanese Toyota executive on the culture, marketing strategies and challenges facing Toyota. Mr Tomozoe's presentation contextualised many of the academic concepts learnt in our strategy and marketing classes!"

Stephanie Oba (MBA '06) "I found the presentation experience to be truly enlightening. Through Mr. Tomozoe's presentation, I learned about the history of Toyota's success in the U.S. car market. What is equally interesting is that I learned how Toyota is trying to transform its brand image and expand its growth by introducing Scion in the U.S. market. I have always known that Toyota is the best car company when it comes to production. Through this presentation, I also discovered that Toyota is very successful in Marketing."

Johnson Wu (LFM '06) "I’m taking the first-semester Marketing class taught by Prof. Duncan Simester, and I found many of the concepts (customer segmentations, tailoring your brand to fit the customers’ taste, etc.) interesting in Tomozoe-san’s talk. I wish he could have spent more time to share more of his wisdom with us."

Mr. Masanao Tomozoe

SVP & Chief Coordination Officer Toyota Motor Sales USA













E51-345 filled to capacity
















Mr. Tomozoe and
Yukari Matsuzawa (MBA '05)