Tax reform has been thrust into the nation’s headlines as a top priority for President Trump and US Congress as they have announced their intention to effect the most significant overhaul of US taxation in decades. Please join us on May 16 for a program sponsored by the Japan Society of Northern California in cooperation with PwC to learn about how tax reform proposals now being considered in Washington would impact business between the Bay Area and Japan. Whether you are working at a large established tech firm or start up, financial services provider, manufacturer or retailer, these prospective tax changes will present major challenges and offer interesting opportunities for your business. Yoshiaki Tojo, head of San Francisco’s JETRO office, Miho Aoki, a Principal in the International Tax Services practice of PwC with extensive cross border experience working with Japanese companies, and Robert Madsen, Senior Fellow at MIT’s Center for International Studies, will lead this valuable discussion of what will certainly be a headline issue for many months to come.

Speakers:
Miho Aoki
Principal, International Tax Services, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLC
Miho has over 14 years collaborating with clients to align their international tax structure with their business objectives. Her clients are primarily in the technology and retail and consumer products industries and include public, private and private equity backed companies. She has extensive experience providing international tax services to both U.S. and foreign based companies. Her experience includes establishing and structuring global operations, including consideration of intangible property, sales and distribution, procurement and supply chain, and licensing and services activities; cross-border acquisition and divestiture planning; and, repatriation planning. Miho also has experience in tax accounting and tax compliance.
Miho received her B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley and her JD from the University of California, Davis. She is a member of the California State Bar.

Yoshiaki Tojo
Chief Executive Director, JETRO San Francisco
Program Advisor, NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization)
Yoshiaki Tojo is currently Chief Executive Director, JETRO San Francisco, a post he assumed in August of 2014. JETRO, or the Japan External Trade Organization, is a government-related organization that works to promote mutual trade and investment between Japan and the rest of the world. Originally established in 1958 to promote Japanese exports abroad, JETRO’s core focus in the 21st century has shifted toward promoting foreign direct investment into Japan and helping small to medium size Japanese firms maximize their global export potential. A particular focus of the JETRO San Francisco office is the technology and entrepreneurial environment of development in the Silicon Valley and how Japanese firms can tap into this source as well as assisting US firms which seek to do the same in Japanese technology markets.
Prior to his current post, Mr. Tojo was Director General of the General Affairs and Planning Policy Department of NEDO where he was involved in strengthening NEDO’s &D formation and management, increasing transparency and accountability and coordinating the organization-wide policy planning and resource allocation. He has also served as Special Counsellor (Innovation & Engineering Economies, and Head of the Economic Analysis and Statistics Division of Japan’s Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry (STI) and the OECD. In that capacity, Mr. Tojo strengthened the STAN database, harmonized Input-Output database, and patent databases. Other previous positions were with METI as well as posted to overseas embassies for the Government of Japan. Mr. Tojo earned an M.Phil. & M.A. (PoliSci) at Yale University, as well as an LL.B from the University of Tokyo.

Robert Madsen  
Global Economics, Finance, Politics and Geopolitics
Robert Madsen is an expert on global economics and politics who advises financial institutions, corporations, governments, and monetary authorities on long-run trends as well as emergencies around the world. From 2004 to 2015 he was a Senior Fellow at MIT’s Center for International Studies. Over that decade he also served with several of Japan’s most prestigious businessmen on the Executive Council at Unison Capital, that country’s premier private equity group; and as a consultant to one of the “super-major” oil companies, which he helped with global and regional forecasting as well as the 2008-2009 financial crisis, fiscal and monetary policies in the major economies, Chinese politics and economics, European debt and banking, and the future of the Eurozone. He has additionally worked as Senior Economist and Advisor at Asia Alternatives, a fund-of funds; and a retained consultant to Caxton Corporation, a macroeconomic hedge fund.
From 1997 to 2013, Dr. Madsen wrote the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Japan Country Reports and contributed to that company’s analysis of China, broader East Asia, and the world. He also did substantial modeling of national debt sustainability, the future of Chinese GDP growth, and other topics amenable to quantitative analysis. Before joining MIT in 2004, he was a Fellow at Stanford University’s Asia Pacific Research Center, Asia Strategist at Soros Private Funds Management, and a limited partner and advisor to the Robert M. Bass Group on its investments in Japan. Still earlier, as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company he focused on international finance, the EP&C industry, and Overseas Chinese business networks in Southeast Asia.
Robert Madsen graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University’s Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations and then entered Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, where he earned a master’s degree, with distinction, and a doctorate in international relations. He also holds a J.D., with distinction, from Stanford Law School and is a member of the California State Bar. Having spent over a dozen years abroad, he is fluent in Japanese and Mandarin Chinese.

Schedule:

• 6:00 PM – 6:30 PM Networking/Registration
• 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM Presentation with audience Q&A
• 8:00 PM – 9:00 PM Networking & Reception

Light appetizers and drinks provided.

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