was a Japanese businessman who served as the chairman of

Resona Holdings () is the holding company of , the fifth-largest banking group in Japan as of 2012. It is headquartered in the Kiba area of Koto, Tokyo. The main operating entities of the group are Resona Bank, a nationwide corporate and retail bank headqu ...

, Japan's fifth largest bank by market share, from 2003 until his death in 2012. Hosoya was appointed Chairman of Resona in May 2003, is credited with leading Resona's revitalization in the wake of a 2003 taxpayer-funded

bailout A bailout is the provision of financial help to a corporation or country which otherwise would be on the brink of bankruptcy. A bailout differs from the term ''bail-in'' (coined in 2010) under which the bondholders or depositors of global sys ...

from the government for 1.96 trillion yen ($24 billion US dollars). Hosoya graduated from the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...

in 1968. He joined the staff of the former

Japanese National Railways The abbreviated JNR or , was the business entity that operated Japan's national railway network from 1949 to 1987. Network Railways As of June 1, 1949, the date of establishment of JNR, it operated of narrow gauge () railways in all 46 pref ...

, the state-owned railway network company, after college. The Japanese National Railway is the predecessor of the

East Japan Railway Company The is a major passenger railway company in Japan and is the largest of the seven Japan Railways Group companies. The company name is officially abbreviated as JR-EAST or JR East in English, and as in Japanese. The company's headquarters are ...

and the other six members of the

Japan Railways Group The Japan Railways Group, more commonly known as the or simply JR, consists of seven for-profit stock companies that took over most of the assets and operations of the government-owned Japanese National Railways (JNR) on April 1, 1987. Mo ...

. Hosoya worked on the

privatization Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...

of the East Japan Railway Company.

Resona

Resona Holdings, which used to be called Daiwa Bank Holdings Inc., was formed in December 2001 through the merger of Daiwa Bank Ltd., Kinki Osaka Bank Ltd. and Nara Bank Ltd. Asahi Bank Ltd. In March 2002, a fourth bank, Asahi Bank Ltd., joined the lending group as well. In May 2003, Resona posted 838 billion yen loss which reduced the bank's capital below the minimum required levels, requiring it to seek a bailout from the Japanese government to stay afloat. Resona received a taxpayer funded bailout worth 1.96 trillion yen ($24 billion US dollars). The bailout required a shakeup in Resona's management. Eiji Hosoya joined Resona as chairman in May 2003. He had arrived at Resona after helping with the privatization of the East Japan Railway Company. Hosoya was initially very reluctant to join Resona, telling reporters in a news conference on 30 May 2003, that "I decided to accept the offer as I realized that stabilizing the financial system is the highest priority for the

Japanese economy The economy of Japan is a highly developed social market economy, often referred to as an East Asian model. It is the third-largest in the world by nominal GDP and the fourth-largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). It is the world's secon ...

." Hosoya is widely credited with revitalizing Resona in the wake of the bailout, leading the bank back to financial stability. Hosoya proposed that Resona purchase of 1.3 trillion yen of

preferred share Preferred stock (also called preferred shares, preference shares, or simply preferreds) is a component of share capital that may have any combination of features not possessed by common stock, including properties of both an equity and a debt inst ...

s from the Japanese government by 2015. In January 2011, an equity group provided 545 billion yen towards the purchase proposal. Hosoya raised the number of female managers at Hosoya to combat the gender gap in Japan's finance and business sectors. In a November 2011 interview, Hosoya noted that, "Companies that don't give women leading roles will be left behind." He also sought to cut Resona's expenses. In 2008, Resona, under Hosoya, sold its headquarters building in Tokyo's pricey

Ōtemachi is a district of Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is located north of Tokyo Station and Marunouchi, east of the Imperial Palace, west of Nihonbashi and south of Kanda. It is the location of the former site of the village of Shibazaki, the most a ...

financial district A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies and other related finance corporations have their head offices. In major cities, financial districts are often home to s ...

. Resona relocated to a new headquarters in Kiba, Koto, Tokyo. Eiji Hosoya died from an illness at his home in Tokyo on 4 November 2012, at the age of 67.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hosoya, Eiji 2012 deaths Japanese chief executives University of Tokyo alumni Businesspeople from Tokyo 1940s births