Ch1 The Background of Hometown Investment Trust Funds (Naoyuki Yoshino).- Ch2 Supply of Risk Capital for Regional Development in Japan (Atsuo Akai).- Ch3 Hometown Investment Trust Funds in Japan (Masami Komatsu).- Ch4 Hometown Investment Trust Funds for Regional Development (Norifumi Sugimoto).- Ch5 HIT as a Form of Microfi nance in Asia (Yuka Morita).- Ch6 Concluding Remarks and the Way Forward (Shuhei Shiozawa).

About the Author:

Naoyuki Yoshino is a professor of economics at Keio University. In 1979 he obtained his Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University; his thesis supervisor was Sir Alan Walters, Baroness Margaret Thatcher's economic advisor. Dr. Yoshino has been a visiting scholar at MIT and a visiting professor at various universities including New South Wales University (Australia), Fondation nationale des sciences politiques (Paris), and Gothenburg University (Sweden). He was an assistant professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo before he joined Keio University in 1991 as a professor of economics. His professional career includes membership on many government committees. Since 2004, he has been a director of the Institute of Financial Research at Japan's Financial Services Agency (FSA). In recognition of his wide-ranging scholarship and contribution to policy formulation, he was conferred an honorary doctorate by Gothenburg University in 2004. Dr. Yoshino was appointed as board chair of the Financial Planning Standard Board (FPSB, USA). He serves as chairperson of the JGB (Japanese Government Bond) Investors' meeting at the Ministry of Finance and as president of the Financial Council at the FSA (Japanese Government). He is a Policy Board member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation of Japan and serves as chairperson of the banks' stock acquisition organization. He was selected for inclusion in Who's Who in the World in 2009, 2010, and 2011. Dr. Yoshino received the World Top 100 Educators' Award in 2009 at Cambridge U.K.

Sahoko Kaji received her B.A. degree in economics in 1982 and her M.A. in economics in 1984, both from Keio University, and a Ph.D. in economics in 1992 from The Johns Hopkins University. At Keio, Dr. Kaji has been professor of economics since 1999 and, in addition, programme co-ordinator of the Professional Career Programme (PCP) (http: //web.econ.keio.ac.jp/lecture/pcp/) since 2007 at the faculty of economics at Keio. She is also a member of the Council on Customs, Tariff, Foreign Exchange and Other Transactions at the Ministry of Finance, and deputy director of the EUSI (EU Studies Institute). Her publications include 'Successful Structural Reforms after EMU', Journal of the Japanese and International Economies 12, 1998, pp. 507-534; 'What Can Countries Do to Avoid a Financial Crisis?', The World Economy, Vol. 24, No.4, April 2000, pp. 567-589; 'Economie: la décennie perdue', Politique étrangère, Janvier-Mars 2002, pp.67-90; Kokusai Tsuka Taisei no Keizaigaku (The Economics of Exchange Rate Regimes), Nihon Keizai Shimbun Publishing, 2004; 'What Greece Teaches Us about Democracy', Journal of Political Science and Sociology, V.14/P.1-16, 2011/03; Euro Kiki de Nihon wa Dounarunoka (What the Euro Crisis Means to Japan), Nihon Keizai Shimbun Publishing, 2012. Further information can be found at http: //k-ris.keio.ac.jp/Profiles/60/0005959/prof_e.html.