Dr Saori Sugeno is an economist with a major Japanese investment bank, based in the UK and Japan. She is an expert in the areas of the Russian and Japanese economies, corporate governance, emerging markets, geopolitics and global financial markets. Born and educated in Russia, Saori has twenty years’ experience of working in academia and the public and private sectors in Japan: employed in a think-tank of the Cabinet Office Government of Japan and a major Japanese trading company, inter alia. An author of two books on Russia, Saori is a prominent speaker on Russia-focused and emerging markets-related issues in the Japanese media.
Professional experience
- Saori is an emerging markets economist at Daiwa Capital Markets Europe Limited in the UK, also being a senior economist of the Daiwa Institute of Research, a think-tank of Daiwa Securities Group in Tokyo.
- After achieving her PhD in economics, focused on the Main bank system and Japanese corporate relations, Saori worked as a researcher and consultant in various fields for a number of Japanese companies, deepening her knowledge of the Japanese corporate system and corporate governance from the inside.
- Saori is a well-known expert on Russia-related issues in Japan; she has partnered with Sumitomo Corporation as a consultant, advising on doing business in Russia and CIS countries and was a visiting fellow of the Economic and Social Research Institute of the Cabinet Office providing research on Russian structural reforms. She is a prominent speaker in the Japanese media on Russia and emerging markets-related topics; served as a columnist online for the leading economic newspaper, Nikkei Shimbun and has published two books on Russia through the prestigious publishing house, Nihon Keizai Shimbun. She writes extensively for major Japanese media outlets, including Nikkei Business online and Financial Affairs weekly magazine.
- Passionate about teaching, Saori has taught Japanese economy courses at Chuo and Oberlin Universities in Tokyo for Japanese students and exchange students from across Europe and Asia. She was the CEO of an educational consulting company, designing, organizing and delivering executive education programmes, including courses on corporate finance and Japanese corporate culture for managers of leading Russian institutions, including the Russian Central Bank and Gazprom, in liaison with other Japanese think-tanks.
- Fluent in Russian, Japanese and English, Saori holds her PhD in economics from Chuo University in Japan.
Publications
- Understanding Russia through its jokes (Japanese), Premium series, Nikkei Publishing, 2011
- Russia which only Russians know (Japanese), Premium series, Nikkei Publishing, 2008
- The Political Economy of the Currency Crisis – Perspectives for the 21st Century System, Ch4. Russian currency crisis 1998 (Japanese), Nihon Keizai Hyouronnsha, 2000.
- Rouble Trouble, blog Daiwa Capital Markets, October 2014
- Impact of the changes of EU budget for Central and Eastern Europe (Japanese), Financial Affair, June 2018
- How geopolitical risks affect Russia’s Central bank monetary policy (Japanese), Financial Affairs, May 2018
- Will “grey” wage decrease pressure on the Russian central bank to cut interest rates? (Japanese), Financial Affairs, January 2018