Shigematsu Murakami and Aya Nomura and others' research

A: Please tell us about Murakami Takashi and others who are collectively referred to as the former Murakami Fund.

R: Takashi Murakami was originally a bureaucrat of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (now the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry). After retiring in 1999, he founded Murakami Fund (M&A Consulting). He has been active as an activist. In 2006, he was arrested on suspicion of violation of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act. After moving to Singapore, he resumed investment activities in the 2010s. The group includes his eldest daughter Ayaka Murakami and numerous corporations (Reno, Minami Aoyama Real Estate, City Index Eleven, Esgrant Corporation, and many others). The family tree of the group is quite complex, making it difficult for outsiders to grasp the full picture.

A: Recently, Ayaka Murakami has started to stand out.

R: Ayaka Murakami is now regarded as Japan's largest individual investor. Murakami says in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun on June 24, 2025, that “I have increasingly taken on the basic dialogue with investees. When it comes to meetings with presidents, my father often attends. My father personally has hardly invested since he was arrested in 2006 on suspicion of violation of the Securities Exchange Act (now the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act). We are not in a hierarchical supervisor-subordinate relationship, so we speak to each other as equals. I learned all the investment methods from my father.”

A: Murakami and Murakami Aya have invested in many Japanese companies as individuals.

R: There are investments in Sumitomo Mitsui Construction (delisted in December 2025), Fuji News Network Holdings (4676), Alps Alpine (6770), Shinko Shōji (8141), Heiwa Real Estate (8803), NGK Spark Plug (5334), Mitsui Sumitomo Holdings (1518), and Mitsui Road (1776), among others.

A: Murakami Takashi and others’ assets under management are believed to be in the hundreds of billions of yen.

R: They currently invest entirely with their own funds. Therefore, Takashi Murakami and Ayaka Murakami are among Japan’s wealthiest individual investors and operate as a “family office” that uses only their own funds. Since there is no need to heed the wishes of outside backers, they do not have to worry about investment returns or the time until exit.

A: Other activist investors have backers funding their activities.

R: Since the asset owners who back the funds do not supervise, Murakami and colleagues can invest as they please. Regarding this, Ayaka Murakami says, “I don’t have a strong desire to make a lot of money. I invest because it’s enjoyable to change and improve a company by becoming a major shareholder. If I were managing other people’s money, I would have to make a profit. Even if we disregard profits, it’s not a problem, so even if earnings are unclear and returns aren’t certain, we invest out of a sense of justice and speak up. We pointed out issues such as executive terms and policy-held shares at Kyocera (6971). They aren’t particularly sophisticated investors; they are just Japanese parents and children investing in ways that satisfy them,” as stated in the Nihon Keizai Shimbun on June 24, 2025.

R: When the era of the “Murakami Fund” was referred to, they were fund managers who managed funds from Western institutions. As mentioned above, Takashi Murakami was arrested in 2006 on suspicion of violation of the Securities Exchange Act (now the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act), and afterward he stayed away from the investment world for a while, but now he is a representative activist in Japan, pushing into quite gray areas. Therefore, it is questionable whether he can be considered a legitimate investor.

A: Murakami and others use multiple corporations to jointly acquire and hold shares; why is that?

R: The Financial Instruments and Exchange Act states that profits obtained from buying and selling shares within six months by major shareholders holding more than 10% can be demanded to be returned by the company. To avoid violating the law, it is believed they avoid becoming a major shareholder under a single name.

A: Investment methods have also changed. Previously, there was a tendency to push for share repurchases or dividends from companies that hoarded more funds than necessary.

R: When they were active as Murakami Fund, management focused on capital efficiency, and this was not yet widespread among listed companies. However, even now Murakami shows a strong fixation on a price-to-book ratio (PBR) of 1x, and takes a harsh stance toward companies that fall below that.

A: What changes are seen as the fund manager has become an individual investor?