Published by Asia Asset Management – 14th Mar 2019
Japan’s Nomura Asset Management (Nomura AM) has promoted Junko Nakagawa to chief executive officer, the first woman to helm a top Japanese fund management firm.
Ms. Nakagawa, who is currently executive managing director, will assume her new role on April 1.
She succeeds Kunio Watanabe, who will become executive chairman for the Americas, Nomura AM’s parent company, Nomura Holdings, says in a statement on March 5.
Ms. Nakagawa will not only be the first woman to head Nomura AM, but also the first female chief executive among Japan’s top fund houses.
The upper echelons of Japanese companies have traditionally been dominated by men. But the culture is slowly changing as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pushes policies to promote gender equality and harness the power of women to spur economic growth.
Ms. Nakagawa began her career at Nomura Securities, the securities brokerage arm of Nomura Holdings, in 1988, working at its investment banking and finance division.
She left in 2004 and rejoined Nomura Group in 2008 as president of its healthcare arm, Nomura Healthcare Co. She became executive managing director of Nomura AM in 2017.
Nomura AM had approximately US$458 billion of total assets under management at the end of 2018.
