Congressman Naokazu Takemoto is an 8th term elected member of the Japanese Parliament, a native of Osaka prefecture, a graduate of the University of Kyoto, UC Berkeley, and Colombia University. He started his career as a civil servant in the former National Land Agency (now Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism).
Since his election to the Diet he has also served as Parliamentary Secretary for Economy, Trade and Industry (Mori Cabinet), Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Labour and Welfare (Koizumi Cabinet), and Senior Vice-Minister of Finance (Koizumi Cabinet). He also chairs more than 20 legislative coalitions and is the chairman of the maglev train project. He was responsible for facilitating and bringing World Expo25 to his native Osaka prefecture and the key figure in casino projects.
Congressman Takemoto exclusively provided the following comments to FTE 2019:
“When the U.S. owned 25％ of world’s GDP, Japan contributed 17％ to the world’s economy. The 2nd place was taken over by China but we still sit as the 3rd largest economy in the world as of now.
However, the business is not moving fast enough as we should expect. Japan seems to lack in direct investments. Partialy because of lack of communication. Japanese firms are a bit shy on prensenting themselves forward.
I am currently sitting as the chair of SME (Small-Medium Enterprizes) policy initiative at the diet and I’m here to change that trend. I was able to facilitate and bring the World Expo 2025 to my native town of Osaka which follows the 2020 Olympic games in Tokyo. The Casino bill was enacted and we are in full force to bring the greatest entertainment to the integrated resort in major cities such as Osaka.
Japan has a strength in many technologies, but going foward we would like to put emphasis on Bio and AI. There are so many technologies hidden within the SME sector which the world hasn’t yet seen. Perhaps we could facilitate a vehicle that focuses on these gems. Speaking of gems, Osaka is famous for its commodities and futures market. Some historians argue that Osaka is the oldest commodities market where it all began.
I am also responsible for establishing potentially the world’s first Crytpo-Blockchain legislative Coalition in Japan. Along with Kevin, we are facilitating an oversight institution for Security Tokens and STO.
I’m looking forward to many great opportunities here at the FTE. Thank you for having me!”