Yoshiaki Murakami (村上 世彰, Murakami Yoshiaki, born August 11, 1959 in Osaka) founded the “Murakami Fund”, with M&A Consulting, Inc. at its core. After graduating from University of Tokyo, he joined the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (the current Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry), and in spending 16 years as a government employee, he came to the realization that Corporate Governance is crucial for the sustained growth of the Japanese economy, and decided to effect change by establishing a fund and becoming a player himself just before hitting the age of 40. He gained attention as a “vocal shareholder” through obtaining shares in publicly traded companies that fail to optimize their cash reserves and idle assets, and proactively making shareholder proposals to maximize enterprise values, at times making open critiques at shareholder meetings towards management that take shareholders lightly, in an environment where Japanese shareholders tend to be (or are perceived to be, as a generalization) passive towards getting involved in the management of corporations. His typical style of investment involves obtaining shares in a target corporation, and making them focus on profitable business domains in order to maximize shareholder value. Representative transactions include Tokyo Style, Nippon Broadcasting System, Hanshin Electric Railway, etc. As the sizes of investments grew, 6 years after the establishment of the Fund, Murakami was arrested for accusations of insider trading of shares in Nippon Broadcasting Systems, though there still are mixed opinions on the legal interpretation of the situation. One of his policies includes “money, for a corporation, is equivalent to blood for the human body. The flow of money (blood) is essential for the growth of corporations, and there are negative side effects to the health of a corporation if this flow is blocked.”