Sunday, April 7, 2013

April 14 - Socially Responsible Investment - Mizue Tsukushi


SRI (Socially Responsible Investment) will be discussed by Mizue Tsukushi, CEO of The Good Bankers at our Sunday, April 14th meeting at the International House of Roppongi at 3 p.m.  Everyone is welcome.

Part of the thrust in recent years has been the development of information infrastructure to provide investors with the information to compare the social responsiblity of corporations, in terms of their responsiblity to the environment, for corporate governance and development of human capital.

 Established in 1998, the Good Bankers is an independent investment-advisory company devoted to social investment research in Japan. The company is a pioneer in implementing the first SRI product "Eco-fund" into the Japanese market.   The objective of the Good Bankers is to contribute to making our society a better and more sustainable one by using financial tools such as socially responsible investment (SRI).

Tsukushi-san is founder of the company. She is a former Deputy General Manager of the Institutional Marketing Department, UBS Trust & Banking Co., Ltd. in Tokyo. She has been awarded first prize of “Women of the year 2000: Women Entrepreneur Section” for her successful launch of Eco-fund.

 

March 10 - From Martin Luther King to the Buddha

Not many people can say they were invited by Martin Luther King to run a church in Atlanta in the middle of the Civil Rights movement, but tall New Englander Gene Reeves told us about those times and other fascinating aspects of his amazing life at our March meeting. 

Gene is well know not our members for his activities as the former head of the International Buddhist Council in Tokyo and his many presentations to us over the years, but we always find him a delight to listen to.  He spoke with us of his life as a Unitarian and a Buddhist.  A tall white New Englander with a vigorous beard, he told us of the fun of integrating restaurants, filling up the back of buses with whites, complaining to management that the "colored water fountain" did not have colored water, and helping to bring about integration in Atlanta in the space of two years by pressure on businessmen.

He had met King at Boston University where he was studying at the semenary learning how religion was being taught in America, part of his plan to spend a life teaching religion.  After Atlanta, he taught at Tufts and then at Wilberforce in Ohio, the first predominantly African-American private university in the nation, and was active in anti-war and other social issues as head of a church in Dayton.  Then he lead the Meadville Lombard Seminary while drawing on the rich religious library and resources at the University of Chicago.  There he became involved in the International Association of Religious Freedom, which led to him meeting  Nikkyo Niwano, co-founder of the Rissho Koseikai, and a lifelong interest in Japan, China and the Lotus Sutra.  He has published several books on the Lotus Sutra including a translation.  

For those who missed his talk to our little group, you can find videos of his presentations on Youtube, such as at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BY8xaGXPYVo

We very much appreciate his ongoing support of our group.


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