Latest news with #Tsutsumi
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Goldman's CIO Service Gains Traction in Japan After a Decade
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) is one of the best Dow stocks to invest in. After more than ten years of effort, the company secured its first institutional asset management client in Japan last year. A second pension fund followed in early 2025, and roughly 10 more potential clients are now in the pipeline, according to Kenro Tsutsumi, head of Goldman Sachs Asset Management Japan. This recent uptick in interest highlights a growing trend among Japanese institutional investors to outsource the management of their vast assets. As a result, more global financial firms are entering the market for outsourced chief investment officer (OCIO) services in hopes of earning steady fee-based revenue. In Japan, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) faces competition from other major players like BlackRock Inc. and Mercer Inc., a subsidiary of Marsh & McLennan, both of which have also recently landed significant clients in the space. Tsutsumi, who stepped into his current role at the start of 2024 and has over 20 years of experience at Goldman, noted that the firm's edge in the OCIO market lies in its ability to offer in-house investment products spanning both traditional and alternative assets. While he didn't disclose the names of Goldman's Japanese clients due to confidentiality, he emphasized the firm's strategic focus on expanding its asset and wealth management footprint in Japan, particularly by managing a portion of assets for corporate pensions and insurance firms. Senior leadership views Japan as a key growth market within the newly restructured division. While we acknowledge the potential of GS as an investment, we believe certain AI stocks offer greater upside potential and carry less downside risk. If you're looking for an extremely undervalued AI stock that also stands to benefit significantly from Trump-era tariffs and the onshoring trend, see our free report on the best short-term AI stock. READ NEXT: and Disclosure. None. Sign in to access your portfolio
Business Times
08-06-2025
- Business
- Business Times
Goldman CIO service suddenly catches on in Japan after 10 years
[TOKYO] It took more than a decade of trying, but Goldman Sachs last year landed the first client for its business of helping institutions manage their money in Japan. A second pension was signed up in early 2025. Now about 10 more potential customers are in the pipeline, according to Kenro Tsutsumi, head of Goldman Sachs Asset Management Japan. The sudden influx of business reflects an increased willingness of Japanese institutional investors to hire third parties to help oversee their trillions of US dollars in assets. More global financial firms are seeking to offer the service, known as an outsourced chief investment officer, in a bid to generate stable fee income. 'This business is a top priority for us,' Tsutsumi said in an interview in Tokyo. 'It's a big opportunity.' The return of inflation after two decades has added pressure on Japan's pensions and insurance companies to seek higher returns. The government has also been urging asset owners to better serve their beneficiaries, including by tapping the expertise of OCIOs. Financial firms, for their part, are increasingly viewing asset management as a steady source of revenue growth in an unpredictable business environment. Globally, the OCIO industry's assets are expected to grow about 7.9 per cent a year on average to 2028, consulting firm Cerulli Associates said in a November report. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up In Japan, Goldman is going up against the likes of BlackRock and Marsh & McLennan Cos' Mercer, which have also signed up large clients recently. Goldman can compete in the OCIO space through an ability to provide its own investment products across traditional and private assets, said Tsutsumi, a veteran of more than two decades at the US bank who took the top job at the Japan asset management division at the start of 2024. He declined to give the names of its two clients in Japan, citing confidentiality. BlackRock said it has made six deals for outsourced investment services in Japan to manage a total of 2.5 trillion yen (S$22.2 billion). One of the clients included the corporate pension of NEC. Last month, Mercer said it will provide OCIO services to Mizuho Financial Group's local customers, including pensions and educational institutions, through the Japanese bank's Asset Management One unit. For the OCIO business, 'Japan is probably the biggest single country-specific opportunity we have', Graham Elliot, head of Asia wealth at Mercer, said. One catalyst came last year when the Cabinet Office released guidelines encouraging asset owners such as pensions, insurers and university endowments to consider using external knowledge and outsourcing, he said. Japan has the largest pool of retirement savings in the world through the US$1.8 trillion overseen by the Government Pension Investment Fund. But the country's corporate pensions also hold around 84 trillion yen in assets, according to data from three industry associations. Elliot compared Japan's current corporate defined-benefit pension system to that of the UK in their evolution process. In the past two decades, British companies have increasingly embraced outsourced services, and Japan is moving in that direction as well, he said. Japan's life insurance market – with about 790 trillion yen of individual life and annuity policies at the end of 2023 – is the second largest in the world, also providing a ripe potential source of business for such third-party asset management services. For Goldman, managing a portion of assets for more corporate pension clients or insurers is a priority to expand its asset and wealth management business, Tsutsumi said. Senior managers see Japan as a key area in the revamped division, he added. 'The environment in Japan is attracting a lot of attention from overseas,' he said. BLOOMBERG
Japan Times
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Japan Times
‘The Killer Goldfish': The future of cinema, or just indie cosplay?
Anyone stumbling unawares into a screening of 'The Killer Goldfish' at K2, a dinky independent cinema in Tokyo's Shimokitazawa neighborhood, would be forgiven for assuming it's an archetypal midnight movie — one of those schlocky, low-budget productions made for cult infamy rather than commercial success. Superficially, this loopy tale of murderous pets and esoteric evolutionary theory bears the hallmarks of a true outsider effort, complete with a no-name star and a single-screen theatrical release. But look closer and the figure at the helm isn't some aspiring auteur: It's Yukihiko Tsutsumi, a veteran director whose recent output includes mainstream fare such as 'First Love' (2021) and '12 Suicidal Teens' (2019). There's nothing wrong with an established filmmaker going back to their roots, of course (as Tsutsumi himself did with black-and-white homelessness drama 'My House' in 2012). However, 'The Killer Goldfish' has a more ambitious goal in mind. It's the first feature produced by Super Sapienss, a project Tsutsumi started with fellow old-timers Katsuyuki Motohiro and Yuichi Sato with the aim of upending the Japanese film industry. Tired of the ubiquitous 'production committee' system — with its timid preference for movies based on existing properties, starring the same actors you see in everything else — they're proposing an alternative model. Super Sapienss is conceived as a decentralized organization that handles the entire process, from creating original IP to distributing the finished film. ('The Killer Goldfish' has already appeared as an online manga series.) It's a bold idea, even if the guys seizing control of the means of production are the ones who got us here in the first place. ('Bayside Shakedown', '20th Century Boys,' 'SPEC,' 'Strawberry Night' — need I go on?) Too bad 'The Killer Goldfish' is such a lousy movie. It does at least deliver on the promise of its title, even if the piscine carnage is all cutaways and bad CGI. There's been a spate of mysterious murders where the victims are mostly middle-aged men. The police are flummoxed, but occult specialist Erika Tamaki (newcomer Erika Oka, game but a bit grating) quickly deduces that the killings are being perpetrated by angry goldfish — and someone else is pulling their fins. The story quickly branches out to reveal an alternative history of human evolution, in which the Japanese people turn out to be descended from interbreeding between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. Yosuke Kubozuka pops up as a handsome university professor, who explains how this led to the appearance of people with superhuman powers. Ever wondered what seventh-century mystic En no Gyoja has in common with postwar artist Taro Okamoto? Now you know. The action is interspersed with bursts of psychedelic animation, clips from a 'Love Island'-style reality TV show and a balaclava-wearing YouTuber who provides a running commentary of sorts. We even get a couple of parkour-inspired action sequences, featuring a teleporting antagonist with an enormous ping-pong ball on his head (played by Kubozuka's son, Airu). If this sounds like wacky fun, that's because it really should be, yet the outlandish concepts and discordant stylistic flourishes never cohere into an entertaining film. Only a brief appearance by Jiro Sato reaches the heights of sublime ridiculousness 'The Killer Goldfish' seemed to promise. Too often, it feels like Tsutsumi and his collaborators are just flinging ideas at the wall without checking what sticks. Evolution is a messy process, I guess.
