Hiroyuki Arita, Chairman and Representative Director, BlackRock Japan Co., Ltd.

2026.03.06

Be a contributor to society, not a contributor to society.

■ Profile
Graduated from the Faculty of Economics at Hitotsubashi University in 1987 and joined the Industrial Bank of Japan. Joined BlackRock (NY) in 1999 as a portfolio manager for US Treasury bonds and mortgage-backed bonds. After returning to Japan in 2001, he has consistently overseen BlackRock's overall business in the Japanese market. He has previously served as Vice Chairman of the Japan Investment Advisers Association, Director of the Investment Trusts Association, Financial System Council Expert Committee Member, and Co-Chairman of the Asset Management Forum.

BlackRock Japan is the Japanese subsidiary of BlackRock, the world's largest asset management company. Hiroyuki Arita, who began his career as a banker and has been driving the growth of BlackRock Japan for many years, will talk about his outlook on the role of finance in creating industry and its contribution to the Japanese economy.

■Please tell us about your student days.

While attending Hitotsubashi University, I was a member of the rugby club, and my student life was dominated by rugby. Meanwhile, I studied international economics in a seminar and became interested in industrial finance, a field that supports industry. Collecting money in the form of deposits, investing it in industry, efficiently running the economy, and creating new industries one after another. The Industrial Bank of Japan played this role, and I knew I wanted to work there. For example, if you take a moment to look at the cityscape, you'll see that trains run smoothly, roads are well-maintained, and buildings remain standing. All of this is possible because experts in each field conduct extensive research, make calculations, and plan and then execute those plans. It symbolizes the way our world functions, with many different people helping each other. Finance is an invisible function within this.

■Why did you change jobs from the Industrial Bank of Japan (now Mizuho Bank) to BlackRock Japan?

I was working in asset management at the Industrial Bank of Japan, and through that experience, I met the CEO of BlackRock, who invited me to join the company. I personally felt that as Japan's economy matured after the war, the central mechanism for providing funds to industry would shift from banks to asset management companies. I believed that it would become increasingly important for depositors and institutional investors to invest directly in industry through asset management companies, without going through a bank. At the time, BlackRock was unknown in Japan, so my decision to leave the Industrial Bank of Japan and enter the asset management world surprised those around me. In fact, that decision is often cited as the greatest achievement of my 27-year career, but I personally disagree. Rather than that one decision, I am proud of the process I have taken to get to where I am today, a journey that has involved luck and repeated difficult failures.

■What is the catalyst for BlackRock Japan's rapid growth and what makes it unique?

BlackRock Japan is the Japanese subsidiary of BlackRock, one of the world's largest asset management companies, managing over 2000 trillion yen globally. Unlike Japanese asset management companies that focus on domestic assets, we have strengths in managing overseas stocks and bonds. Recently, we have been offering a wide range of non-traditional investment products, such as alternatives, in order to accurately understand and meet our clients' investment needs. While the financial products we handle carry a great deal of responsibility, they are also intangible, making trust with our clients essential. To gain trust, it is important to ensure that our employees are able to recommend the financial products they handle to their own parents and siblings, and that they treat clients with sincerity.

■What kind of people would you like to work with?

As I mentioned briefly earlier, society to date has not been built by the efforts of one person, but by people with many roles and specialties working together. Even within a company, it is important to respect each other's expertise, so I am attracted to people who value teamwork. In the world of investment management, when judging whether or not to buy stocks for the portfolio you manage, there are many aspects that cannot be covered by one's own experience or knowledge alone. Regarding the various global events occurring right now, it is necessary to efficiently absorb the opinions of various experts and make the right judgment. It is important to remember that all expertise is combined to form a single team.
Furthermore, as the country has become more prosperous, I feel that many young people and students lack a hunger for success. On the other hand, I seek people who study hard, eager to absorb everything they can, and who strive to be more knowledgeable and experienced today than they were yesterday. As I always tell my employees, there are only two types of people in the world: those who contribute to organizations and society, and those who have organizations and society contribute to them. This may sound harsh, but students are in a position where society contributes to them. Their current school life is only possible because of the people and society that built their schools. However, once they enter the workforce, they must become part of society, creating environments like schools. I want to work with people who are grateful for the environment in which they were raised and who are conscious of giving back. As a company, I hope to continue contributing to the stable growth of Japan's economy.

■Message to students

Whether it's club activities, part-time work, or job hunting, do your best to gain experience in whatever you're doing. Don't waste time, actively engage in everything you can now, and absorb it to your full potential. The knowledge you gain from each of these experiences will likely be beyond your comprehension when you're young. So, I want you to try to imagine the thoughts of primitive people who, looking at the countless stars in the sky, connected them with lines to create constellations. They didn't just see the countless stars high above as light; they wondered what they really were. Even if they initially appeared as separate dots, by concentrating day after day, they used their boundless imagination to create various constellations. The same goes for things you don't understand at the moment. By gaining experience, using your imagination, and asking yourself "why" every day, you'll be able to transform those countless dots into flat, then three-dimensional, and gain a deeper understanding on your own.

Interviewed by Student Newspaper Online on February 12, 2026 by Nakatsu Ayuri, a first-year student at Dokkyo University

Daiki Shimada, fourth-year student at Hosei University, Ayuri Nakatsu, first-year student at Dokkyo University, and Chiharu Yamada, second-year student at Information, Management and Innovation University