Japan Macro Salon with Jesper and Bill
Date
Monday 6 July 2026
Time
12.00 - 1.00pm (BST)
8.00 - 9.00pm (JST)
Check the time in your location
Booking Details
Free - On Zoom
Please register for the webinar in advance from the link below. After registering, you will receive a automated confirmation email with meeting access details (please check your spam folder if you don't receive any emails).
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Join us for the latest in our regular quarterly webinar on business and current affairs, Japan Macro Salon with Jesper and Bill. In these our Honorary Vice Chair Bill Emmott teams up with Jesper Koll, longtime Tokyo resident and one of the most keenly watched economists and investment strategists in that town, to discuss what's new in the Japanese economy, business, financial markets and more.
Each quarter, Jesper and Bill open with a conversation about the latest trends that have caught their attention, before welcoming a special guest to focus on a topic of the moment. Throughout, they will be interacting with questions from the audience. These webinars are run in association with Asia Society Japan.
For this July edition of Macro Salon, Jesper and Bill will be joined by venture capitalist James Riney, Founder and CEO of Coral Capital. The discussion will focus on Japan’s fast-evolving AI start-up ecosystem, trends in venture investment, and the opportunities and challenges shaping innovation in Japan and beyond.
James Riney is the Founding Partner and CEO of Coral Capital, where he invests in companies both in Japan and globally that will define Japan’s next century. The firm’s portfolio includes SmartHR, Kyoto Fusioneering, Ramp, Anduril, and General Matter. Prior to Coral, James launched the first fund for 500 Startups in Japan, and before that he covered early stage investments for DeNA’s venture arm, focusing on Silicon Valley and Asia. Before investing, he was the founding CEO of ResuPress (now Coincheck, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan). In another life, he worked at J.P. Morgan in New York and Tokyo. He grew up in Japan and speaks fluent Japanese.
Jesper Koll has been researching and investing in Japan since becoming a resident in 1986. Over the past two decades, Jesper has been consistently recognized as one of the top Japan strategists/economists, having worked as Chief Strategist and Head of Research for U.S. investment banks J.P. Morgan and Merrill Lynch. He currently serves as Expert Director for the Monex Group and the Japan Catalyst Fund (Japan’s 1st retail investor based corporate engagement/activist fund). His analysis and insights have earned him a position on several Japanese government and corporate advisory committees, including Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike’s Advisory Board. Jesper serves as Board Director of OIST, the Okinawa Institute for Science and Technology and is a Founder and Board Director of the Asia Society Japan and heads their Policy Committee. He is one of the few non-Japanese members of the Keizai Doyukai, the Japan Association of Corporate Executives; and serves on the board of several Japan-based start-ups. He has written three books in Japanese and, in 2021, created the acclaimed video/pod-cast series Japan - Capitalism that works. Jesper is an economist, angel-investor, patron; and yes, a Japan Optimist.
Bill Emmott is an independent writer, lecturer and consultant on international affairs. He is a Visiting Fellow of Tokyo College, University of Tokyo’s interdisciplinary research institute, and was a Visiting Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford in 2017-18. He is also a trustee of the Chester Beatty museum in Dublin, a non-executive director of the Irish Times, and Senior Advisor, Geopolitics, for Montrose Associates. He was previously Editor-in-Chief of The Economist (1993-2006) and has written nine books on Japan, the first of which was The Sun Also Sets: Why Japan Will Not Be Number One (1989). He contributes regularly to the Mainichi Shimbun and Nikkei Business. His book on the future role of women in Japan’s economy, politics and society, was published in Japanese by Nikkei in 2019 and released in English as Japan’s Far More Female Future by Oxford University Press in 2020. Bill was Chairman of The Japan Society (2019-2024) and is now Honorary Vice-Chair.
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