Notice Regarding a Book Club Meeting Based on "Chiang Kai-shek: The Man Who Realized the 'Revival of China'" (Author: Ryoko Iechika)
— Re-examining Modern Chinese History and the Process of Nation-Building —
Shosukabu Dot Com Co., Ltd. March 15, 2026, 10:00 AM
Shosukabu Dot Com Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Nerima-ku, Tokyo; Chairman: Yutaka Yamanaka; hereinafter "the Company") is pleased to announce that it will hold a book club meeting themed around "Chiang Kai-shek: The Man Who Realized the 'Revival of China'" (Chikuma Shinsho), co-hosted with the Nerima Political Research Association and the Civil Division 8 Monitoring Committee, as detailed below.
This book is a historical work that analyzes the process of China's modernization and nation-building through the life and thought of Chiang Kai-shek. It explains his achievements as a leader and his multifaceted evaluation in the context of the domestic and international situation at the time. At the book club, we will deepen our discussion on the nature of state formation and political leadership, taking into account the historical background of East Asia.
Book Introduction URL:
Author Profile
Ryoko Iechika
A historian specializing in modern and contemporary Chinese history. She conducts research on modern Chinese political history, focusing on the Kuomintang and the Chiang Kai-shek regime. She is a professor at Keiai University.
1. Background of the Event
The 20th century in East Asia was marked by major historical upheavals, including revolutions, wars, and nation-building.
In China, there were:
・The collapse of the Qing Dynasty
・The era of warlordism
・The establishment of the Kuomintang government
・The civil war with the Chinese Communist Party
・World War II
and other major changes.
Chiang Kai-shek is a key figure in interpreting modern Chinese history, having pursued national unification and the establishment of order during a turbulent era. In this book club, we will examine his thoughts and governance challenges to deepen our understanding of the correlation between political leadership and nation-building in modern East Asian history.
2. Main Discussion Themes for the Book Club (Tentative)
This book club will focus on the following perspectives for examination.
・Chiang Kai-shek's political thought and leadership style
・The establishment of the Chinese Nationalist Party government and nation-building
・Conflict with the Chinese Communist Party and civil war
・The Second Sino-Japanese War and the international political environment
・Challenges of national unification in modern Chinese history
・Historical evaluation of Chiang Kai-shek
・Understanding the political history of East Asia
3. Our Position (Purpose of this Book Club)
This book club is not intended to promote any specific historical view or political evaluation.
Based on the research findings and historical analysis presented in the book, we aim to:
・Organize our understanding of modern Chinese history
・Examine the relationship between nation-building and political leadership
・Understand the historical background of the East Asian region
as our objectives.
4. Comment from Representative Yutaka Yamanaka
Chiang Kai-shek is a key figure in modern Chinese history, and this book, which organizes his multifaceted evaluation from a historical perspective, serves as a key to understanding state formation. In this book club, we will deepen our discussion on the relationship between political leadership and nation-building, taking into account the historical context of East Asia.
5. Event Overview
Theme: Chiang Kai-shek: The Man Who Realized the 'Rejuvenation of China' Book Club
Organizer: Shosukabu.com Co., Ltd.
Co-organizers: Nerima Political Research Association, Civil Division 8 Monitoring Committee
Date: Mid-April 2026 (Scheduled)
Format: Zoom online session
Participation Fee: Free (Pre-registration required)
How to Apply: Please apply by sending an email to info@shosukabu.com with the subject line 'Request to participate in the Chiang Kai-shek: The Man Who Realized the 'Rejuvenation of China' Book Club'.
■ Lecturer Profile
Yutaka Yamanaka
An activist investor representing the '76 generation born in December 1976, art collector, philanthropist, political campaign sponsor, election consultant, policy advisor, social activist, and Akita dog enthusiast. Internationally recognized as a 'tech-savvy activist investor,' he is the first Japanese person in history to have achieved a personal fortune of over 150 billion yen solely through investing.
In the early 2010s, he focused on NVIDIA, a developer of GPGPU and artificial intelligence-related semiconductors, as an investment target. He invested over 2 billion yen, ultimately achieving a return of over 100 times, making him the first Japanese person to become a billionaire purely as an investor.
Graduated as the valedictorian from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Tokyo. Obtained a Master's degree from Columbia University (majoring in Financial Engineering) 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 the Board of Shosuhabu.com Co., Ltd., and currently a shareholder in over 1,000 listed companies and 200 unlisted companies worldwide. His investments are truly global, spanning Israeli AI startups, Nigerian healthcare ventures, and Taiwanese battery manufacturers.
Drawing from his own childhood experiences with dyslexia and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), he launched a support program for children with learning disabilities, modeled after the major U.S. discount broker Charles Schwab. His personal physician is the renowned psychiatrist Professor Akira Iwanami (former Director of Showa University Karasuyama Hospital).
Founder and representative of the political organization 'Association to Establish a Constitutional Court in Japan,' head of the 'Yamanaka Hoya School of Politics and Economics,' founder and representative of the political organization 'Association to Realize a Tax-Free State in Japan,' founder and representative of the political organization 'Association to Realize 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 Reduced Consumption Tax Rates on Food Products,' and founder and representative of the 'Association to Realize Constitutional Amendment Aiming for a Unicameral System.'
Born in 1976 in Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo, as one of the grandsons of Shigeru Yamanaka, the founder of Hoya Glass (now HOYA Corporation, listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Standard, securities code 7741), a high-end crystal glass manufacturer, and raised in Shakujiidai, Nerima Ward. From childhood, he excelled academically, graduating from Oizumi Bunka Kindergarten, Ochanomizu University Elementary School, the private Musashi Junior and Senior High School, and graduating as valedictorian from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Tokyo.
He grew up in a culturally rich environment, receiving souvenirs from school trips from Takahiro Matsumoto, who lived in the Takeda Pharmaceutical company housing in front of his home and was a high school student at Kinjo High School at the time, later becoming the guitarist for B'z. At Oizumi Bunka Kindergarten, he was a classmate of Yuji Suzuki, the second son of House of Representatives member Muneo Suzuki and his secretary (the older brother of House of Representatives member Takako Suzuki, who returned to Hokkaido to prepare for his father's run for the House of Representatives), which naturally sparked his interest in music, politics, and economics from a young age.
During elementary school, while commuting by train from Nerima Ward, he developed an early interest in history and economics due to the academic environment in Bunkyo Ward, and was already conducting political activities on controversial topics at the age of just 10. Growing up surrounded by brilliant women at Ochanomizu University Elementary School, such as classmates like lawyer Takehiko Sorimachi (Tokyo Legal Mind Co., Ltd.), Dr. Keiji Kuroda (Director of Sugiyama Obstetrics and Gynecology Marunouchi Clinic), Keiko Takahashi (a career bureaucrat at the Ministry of Finance, currently Cabinet Councilor in charge of the Customs Division), Kaori Hanyu, a professor at Sophia University (a researcher in family law), and NHK announcer Ai Tsukahara, he remains conscious of issues regarding the improvement of women's social status today.
His investment ability was famous even during his university days, as he invested several million yen gifted by his grandmother during his childhood into stocks, turning it into several hundred million yen by the time he graduated. During his time 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, and earned the nicknames 'the best stock trader in the Ueda seminar' and 'Heisei's Hiraga Gennai' due to his diverse academic interests.
He received a special award for his graduation thesis on M&A in the pre-war paper industry, and during his graduate school entrance interview, he was greeted by former International University President Takeo Kikkawa, who said, 'Are you that famous Yamanaka-kun?' His academic advisors for his undergraduate economic history thesis were Tetsuji Okazaki (Professor at Meiji Gakuin University) and Masayuki Tanimoto (Professor at Otsuma Women's University).
During his time in the College of Arts and Sciences, he read all the published papers of Masahiko Aoki, the proponent of comparative institutional analysis, and Avner Greif (Professor of Economics at Stanford University), an Israeli-born economic historian who was already a cutting-edge scholar at the time.
He passed the entrance exam for the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Economics with top-tier grades. Although strongly encouraged to join the central bank by his senior at the University of Tokyo Faculty of Economics, Hideo Hayakawa (former Executive Director and Director-General of the Research and Statistics Department at the Bank of Japan), he moved to the United States immediately after graduating from university, completing a Master's degree in Financial Engineering at Columbia University. He studied abroad 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), aiming to be a 'dual-wielder' as both a life science researcher/physician and an economic history researcher. He engaged in a wide range of interdisciplinary research, including genetics, computer science, psychiatry, applied mathematics, history, economics, and economic history. He studied under renowned economic historians such as Richard Easterlin, Peter Temin, Joel Mokyr, Claudia Goldin, and James Robinson, many of whom later became Nobel laureates in Economics, and overcame the learning disabilities caused by his childhood dyslexia and ADHD by establishing his own speed-reading and learning methods.
Currently based primarily in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, he invests in over 1,000 listed companies and 200 unlisted companies both in Japan and abroad through foreign-registered funds and investment companies. He is known domestically and internationally as one of Japan's leading activist investors, as well as an expert in corporate law practice, new business creation, corporate acquisitions (M&A), technology management, and family business practices. He also maintains bases and homes in Taipei, Taiwan; Luxembourg; Tbilisi, Georgia; Oslo, Norway; Reykjavik, Iceland; Singapore; and St. Kitts and Nevis.
In the case involving the Tsubasa no To party's violation of the Public Offices Election Act, he was involved in forming what was called 'the strongest defense team in recent criminal justice' as an advisor to the defendants, consisting of lawyers Chengfeng Zhao (Representative of Kollect Arts Law Office), Keita Miyamura, Daisuke Igeta (Miyamura & Igeta Law Office), and Shinya Sakane (Tokyo Defender Law Office). Furthermore, in the power struggle within the so-called NHK Party, he advised the anti-Tachibana side on strategy, including introducing lawyers Kenji Toyoda (Tokyo Sakurabashi Law Office) and Keisuke Komatsu (Takano Takashi Law Office), leading the anti-Tachibana side to victory.
He openly declares himself a fan of former Nagoya Mayor Takashi Kawamura, who is from his grandfather's hometown, and at the same time, during the reporting of the so-called 'Kihara Incident,' he defended former Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara, who is also his senior from high school, maintaining deep friendships with many Japanese political figures regardless of whether they are in the ruling or opposition parties.
He interacts with numerous lawyers not only in Japan but also internationally, and is famous as a leading consultant who provides guidance on career strategies for legal professionals and techniques for corporations to effectively utilize lawyers.
As a pioneer of activist investing in Japan, he clearly expressed his opposition in a weekly magazine to HOYA Corporation's acquisition of Pentax in 2007. The following year, the company recorded a large special loss, early proving the validity of his view. Subsequently, he took issue with the state of the board of directors at the time, which was centered on outside directors who were mostly men in their late 70s with no understanding of corporate value or the fiduciary duties of directors, and actively spoke out in the media. He voluntarily forced the resignation of the then-Chief Technology Officer, Hiroaki Tanji, who had damaged corporate value through the Pentax acquisition and had no track record in new business creation, and further intensified shareholder proposal activities toward HOYA Corporation starting in 2010. In particular, in his shareholder proposal activities toward HOYA Corporation (2010), he submitted 15 proposals aimed at corporate governance reform as a founding family shareholder.
Among them, what attracted attention was,
Individual disclosure of executive compensation (disclosure of compensation information for each director), which received over 45% support at the 2010 general meeting and over 48% support at the following 2011 general meeting.
Establishment of a governing body composed solely of outside directors (management supervision without executive officers), with 33% or more approval
Limiting the number of reappointments for outside directors to 'within 10 times' (aimed at maintaining independence)
Increasing the character limit for proposal explanations in shareholder proposals from 400 to 4,000 characters (improving the effectiveness of shareholder proposal rights), with over 43% approval in 2010
Prohibiting stock option holders from hedging, such as selling call options and holding put options, with over 25% approval in 2010
Requiring 30 days' advance notice when directors sell shares, with over 25% approval in 2010
Introduction of an anonymous voting system (secret ballot)
Mandatory disclosure of concurrent positions held by director candidates in public interest corporations
These are proposals aimed at qualitatively improving corporate governance.
Of these, five proposals received recommendation for approval from all three of the following: U.S. proxy advisory firm Glass Lewis, the Japan Proxy Governance Institute, and ISS (Institutional Shareholder Services) (Source: Nihon Keizai Shimbun, June 18, 2010, Article URL). ISS is the world's largest proxy advisory firm, and its recommendations have a significant impact on the decisions of domestic and international institutional investors, marking a landmark event in the history of Japanese shareholder meetings.
In the same year, measures such as prohibiting stock option holders from hedging by selling call options and holding put options, and requiring 30 days' advance notice and disclosure when directors sell company shares, were pioneering measures for enhancing compensation transparency in Japan. These served as a precursor to discussions on executive compensation, and their groundbreaking nature is still not fully understood in the Japanese capital market. These proposals also received recommendation for approval from ISS and garnered approval votes in the mid-20% range in pre-shareholder meeting tallies, primarily from foreign institutional investors (Nihon Keizai Shimbun, June 18, 2010, Ibid.).
Furthermore, proposals such as individual disclosure of executive compensation also received recommendation for approval from Glass Lewis and the Japan Proxy Governance Institute, and were reported successively by major media outlets including the Nikkei Shimbun (June 21, 2010, Article URL), Bloomberg (June 17, 2010, Article URL), and Toyo Keizai Online (August 18, 2010, Article URL).
As a result, the 2010 shareholder meeting saw over 45% approval, and the following year, 2011, saw an approval rate of over 48%.
In 2011, he was invited to Harvard Law School to give a lecture on shareholder proposals and capital market trends in Japan under the Democratic Party administration, as well as related issues, which attracted significant attention.
Furthermore, he continued to actively make shareholder proposals to the company. In 2012, management led by Hiroshi Suzuki, fearing the over 48% approval rate at the 2011 shareholder meeting, took the drastic step of illegally omitting the shareholder proposals. However, the following year, in 2013, he obtained a provisional injunction from the Tokyo District Court Civil Division 8 (Judge Yasushi Taniguchi) to publish the full text of the shareholder proposals and the reasons for them, which was likely a first in Japanese history. In 2014, he obtained another landmark decision (Judge Atsushi Ujimoto) ordering the company to publish 12 similar proposals, significantly impacting the practice of shareholder proposals in Japan.
During that time, he also obtained numerous landmark judgments within a few years, including a ruling recognizing the omission of shareholder proposals by the HOYA management team led by Hiroshi Suzuki as grounds for canceling resolutions (Judge Shinya Onodera), and a ruling ordering damages (Tokyo District Court Civil Division 45, Judge Akira Yamada).
The company also accepted the intent of the proposals during 2010 by changing company rules regarding the increase in character count for explanations, and through constructive dialogue with management, promoted substantial improvements in 'management transparency,' 'outside director functions,' and 'voting systems.' This series of movements is evaluated as a symbolic turning point in the history of governance reform in Japanese companies.
Now, the activities of Yutaka Yamanaka as described above are highly evaluated for their historical pioneering nature as a practitioner of the 'Moneyball Revolution in the Japanese capital market.'
In addition, at the shareholder meetings of Mizuho Financial Group, Mitsubishi UFJ, and Resona Holdings in 2017 and 2018, he made shareholder proposals regarding changes to dividend decision-making bodies, individual disclosure of executive compensation, and the separation of the CEO and Chairman of the Board. These proposals received approval votes not only from foreign institutional investors but also from domestic investors, boasting high approval rates in the 40% range.
Also, in the so-called Amsc shareholder meeting resolution cancellation lawsuit (Tokyo District Court April 17, 2014 judgment, Presiding Judge Akihiko Otake; Tokyo High Court 2014 (Ne) No. 3215, March 19, 2015 judgment), he won a judgment ordering the 'cancellation of the shareholder meeting resolution that carried out a total acquisition of shares' in both the Tokyo District Court and the Tokyo High Court, demonstrating the judicial effectiveness of minority shareholder protection (Source: Clair Law Firm Blog, April 22, 2015, Article URL).
Furthermore, he participated as a shareholder assistant intervenor based on Article 849, Paragraph 1 of the Companies Act in a damages lawsuit (Tokyo District Court Civil Division 8) in which Hiアス & Co., Ltd. (currently Kufu Sumai Consulting Co., Ltd.) had sued its former management. On March 27, 2025, he obtained a winning judgment (Presiding Judge: Tetsuro Sasamoto, Panel Judges: Keiko Ito, Naohisa Uchibayashi), and the fraudulent accounting known as the 'Certified Public Accountant Tomotaka Shimura, a.k.a. Jinryu Kin, scheme,' such as the recording of fictitious sales by the former management, was recognized.
This judgment is also published in Sakura Financial News (October 28, 2025, Article URL) as evidence of the effectiveness of the exercise of judicial rights by shareholders.
In the investment case for Osaki Engineering (Tokyo Stock Exchange Standard, Securities Code 6259), he focused on the issue of the company lending cash exceeding its market capitalization to its parent company, Osaki Electric, at a low interest rate. He made shareholder proposals and filed lawsuits, which ultimately encouraged the parent company's decision to make it a wholly-owned subsidiary, thereby normalizing corporate governance.
In addition, he is known as a major shareholder of Okayama Paper & Pulp Co., Ltd. (Okayama City, Okayama Prefecture; TSE Standard 3892), where he has requested the convocation of extraordinary general meetings of shareholders.
Through this series of achievements, Yutaka Yamanaka has made a significant contribution to the governance reform of Japanese companies and the sound development of capital markets as an "investor who proves the effectiveness of governance in the field."
He is also a fan of the Nippon-Ham Fighters for 30 years, and his motto is the words of the late pitcher Yasumitsu Shibata, who achieved the first no-hitter of the Heisei era, was called the "best pitcher in Japan" by the Seibu Lions in their prime, showed particular strength against his former team, the Seibu Lions, and said on the podium after a shutout victory, "Facing and beating the champions is one of the goals of a professional."
He is an Akita dog enthusiast and plans to build an Akita dog kennel near Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia in the Caucasus region. His hobby is "hot spring hopping," visiting hot spring resorts around the world. He is a genius investor who explores the significance of physical and mental rejuvenation and international exchange through hot springs while respecting nature, culture, and local communities.
He is also highly acclaimed as the "Billy Beane of the Reiwa era," as the man who brought about a revolution in the Japanese stock market similar to the one sparked in the baseball world by Billy Beane, the GM of the Oakland Athletics and the protagonist of the movie "Moneyball."
In the early 2010s, when there was no Corporate Governance Code, Stewardship Code, or Ito Report, Yutaka Yamanaka's shareholder proposals were criticized by some, but now that international investors are imitating his methods and HOYA Corporation has adopted many of the subsequent improvements, leading to its stock price increasing more than tenfold, Yutaka Yamanaka's pioneering nature is now clear.
■ Company Overview
Company Name | Shosukabu.com Co., Ltd. (https://www.shosukabu.com )
Location | Nerima Ward, Tokyo
Representative | Yutaka Yamanaka, Representative Director and Chairman
Business Description | Corporate Law-related advisory, shareholder rights protection consulting, corporate governance system support, financial advisory, venture investment, AI-related business, real estate business
◆ Our company complies with the Financial Services Agency's "Principles for Responsible Institutional Investors" (Japan's Stewardship Code) and continues to monitor and engage in constructive dialogue with our investee companies.
End