Lecture by Mr. Yoshinobu Tatewaki, from the Asian Development Bank (ADB)

Talk by Mr. Yoshinobu Tatewaki from Asian Development Bank (ADB) on 9 May 2025

• Introduction

Mr. Tatewaki narrated his personal history to the student. He was a business admin department student from April 1989 to March 1993. He was a working student who was motivated to qualify for Certified Public Accountant, Japan (1991, 2nd stage exam) and a 1995 final stage qualification as well. He was a hardworking individual who even took on jobs like dishwashing as well. His dedication paid off as the youngest person who passed the chartered accountant exam in Japan. He then took on a variety of professional jobs: Price Waterhouse Coopers, Tokyo (1992 to 2000), Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization KEDO in NY (2000-2006) and then ADB 2007 till present day. He has been the Assistant Controller (Director), Controller's Dept since 2019.

• What is ADB?

It is an International Organization (IO, e.g. like the UN), and one of the Multilateral Development Banks MDBs. Tatewaki shared materials on ADB's mission.

• What is poverty?

To answer this, Tatewaki shared some quotations: “Poverty is the absence of all human rights.” ---- Dr Muhammad Yunus
“Poverty must be addressed with a sense of urgency as something that undermines the very foundation of human rights and dignity” ---------  Dr Daisaku Ikeda

• Why I fight against poverty?

Tatewaki shared his reasons for working for poverty reduction in ADB. They include the following reasons:

-Protect human dignity work for peace through development and business.
-To live as global citizen
-Cultivate wisdom that allows him to believe in potential of ordinary people
-Compassion toward happiness of both self and others
-Courage and respect in diversity

Strategic areas that ADB and Tatewaki that focus on in heading toward 2030, include making the world we live in Prosperous, Inclusive, Resilient and Sustainable. In order to achieve these aims, Tatewaki suggested taking the following steps

1. eradicate poverty, inequality
2. ensure gender equality
3. ensuring climate change disaster preparedness

ADB is also interested in building Livable cities, ensuring Rural Development Food Security, instituting good governance and promoting regional economic cooperation integration.

ADB is also market-friendly, involving the private sector, mobilizing finance and funds, and providing technical assistance. In the last category, there are also other recent areas of interest, including developmental finance, Covid19 lending of funds, vaccine assistance and health sector finance (e.g. financing through corona bonds as a form of emergency response within UN).

Other features of the polycrisis world have also become part of ADB’s concerns, including aid and loans to sanctioned countries like Myanmar or Afghanistan. Resources also have to be directed to climate change, clean energy, or disaster responses. With supply chain disruptions, food security regional cooperation integrity, gender issues and the urgency of poverty reduction, MDBs have to undergo evolution.

The 2023 G20 meeting also reveals the challenges of a global polycrisis world, especially with states facing national budget constraints, and delayed achievements of SDGs. Thus, developmental finance, collaboration in cofinancing and harmonization are prioritized.

The May 4 to 7 2025 ADB annual general meeting indicated that we are in a world with unprecedented uncertainty at a historical juncture of changing international economy and order. Thus, stakeholder collaboration is needed to take food system digital transformation, maintaining energy resilience, and managing all these issues from a neutral position perspective of international organization.

Tatewaki points out the importance of free trade, an open economy, diversification of trade resilience. Thus, he advocates balancing risks and opportunities, especially working with the United Nations in international cooperations while respecting basic human rights, DEI (diversity, equality, inclusiveness). It is also challenges managing protectionism and tariffs vs free trade, championing an open economy and applying the fundamentals of international law.

Striving to achieve success in solving problems, Tatewaki argued also meant questioning the status quo, going back to the basics and honing one’s wisdom. It also means discovering the universal values of humankind which may include the importance of peace for business-making and prosperity.

On 21 April 1991 at the University of Philippines, Tatewaki noted that Dr Daisaku Ikeda indicated that in business it is crucial to always consider the greater holistic interest of the entire planet and of humankind beyond personal and corporate interest. This thereby implies that fairness is a spiritual backbone of businesspersons who aim to contribute to peace when moving from the logical of capital toward the logic of humanity.

In the Q&A session, Tatewaki was asked many questions including implications of BRICS’ rise, differences between IO and government work, how to measure improvements made by ADB loan (apart from economic metrics), advice for students interested in studying accounting, good characteristics of a superior-subordinate relationship, internship opportunities for ADB, and the kinds of business he would start in the future.

The session then became like a fireside chat as Tatewaki touched on personal growth he received in Soka university and his experience working in the ADB representative office in India where educational projects and vocational training met challenges in the rural areas where women were not allow to study, nor stay in boarding schools or leaving the family to stay elsewhere.

Tatewaki then provided to point out tech trends that have enabled the work of accountants to be done by AI, resulting in human accountants only signing documentations. The future of work demand globalized teams working together. He also advocated the concept of followship where understanding and following instructions are important. He emphasized that a good leader pays respect, says thank you to followers as human values, in addition to technical expertise.

Institutionally, he mentioned that ADB to government lending normally involves large infrastructure developments, however, ADB lends to the private sector too. In many ways, ADB is also acting as a knowledge bank, not just money lending, and in such areas, ADB can provide advice to others but normally the bank does not intervene in the final decision of the companies.

As for the goal of private sectors, many dialogues between philosophers and Dr Ikeda like the ones he had with Dr Toynbee emphasizes the important of societal contributions. Tatewaki says that one should use profit for benefiting society, becoming sustainable, add value to society with the objective of contributing to people's ideas.

Talk by Mr. Yoshinobu Tatewaki from Asian Development Bank (ADB) on 17 May 2023

The guest speaker provided a practitioner’s insights on the development finance.
As the primary objective of the multilateral development banks/institution, such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB), is eradicating extreme poverty, he clarified the definition of poverty. On top of the common definition of below US$1.9 per day, the speaker also quoted other public intellectuals in defining poverty as a threat to peace and human rights. Dr. Amartya Sen’s ‘Development as Freedom’ states that freedom as the primary objective of development. He sees parallels with Soka University’s focus to discover students’ potential. Recent examples in the development finance includes response to emergencies such as COVID-19 vaccine assistance and the assistance to Afghan’s basic-human needs, in addition to providing the loans for infrastructure building. Climate Change will be a major focus in the future. Businesses and private sector do have critical role in development.
Active questions and answers session touched upon various topics such as (i) the role of governments when it comes to crises; (ii) the level of engagement with the projects themselves; (iii) issue of corruption; (iv) key skills relevant to youth’s career development; (v) air quality issues in India; and (vi) the ADB internship and scholarship programs. He concluded, with his personal experiences, seeking a great mentor is the key to growth of youth.

The excerpts of comments from the students who attended are as follows.

• “The Special Lecture done by Mr. Tatewaki was very informative in that he not only gave us a deeper understanding of the work done by the Asian Development Bank, but he also gave us some insights with regards to his own experience as a student and as a professional.”

 

• “Before this lecture, I did not have many insights about how and what ADB does to help the community, as I never came across such an organization before joining IBSP. After the lecture, I had a better understanding of ADB and started thinking to myself about how I can serve society when I graduate next year. As mentioned by Mr. Tatewaki, it is important to define one’s mission in life, and believe we will be able to contribute in a bigger way in our productive years. This really gave me a heartfelt boost in my motivation to do better. As of now, I do not know for sure how to go about doing it as yet, but it is never too late to start discovering my mission from henceforth.

 

• “Thank you for taking the efforts to conduct such an informative, motivating, and interactive lecture on how businesses impact economic development. Hearing his personal background motivated me personally as well others to not give up and fight with resilience and resolve.”

 

• “After I listened to Tatewaki's speech, I think what I should do is to help others make the world a better place. I should not always be concerned about making money. A love for humanity might also be a noble thing for me to pursue. ”

Talk by Mr. Yoshinobu Tatewaki from Asian Development Bank (ADB) on 19 May 2021

Mr. Tatewaki, who works with the ADB, conducted a lecture titled “Power of Business- Essential to Economic Development and Achieving SDGs” for the IBSP students on May 19, 2021.

He graduated from Soka University in 1993. Though he faced financial hardship as a student and worked as he studied, he successfully passed the highly competitive national exam, Certified Public Accountant (CPA), in Japan. The experience forged through his tough life on SOKA University campus as a student became his self-motivation to want to fight against poverty with an aim to protect human dignity and work for peace. (*1)

He introduced a speech “Peace and Business” delivered by Dr. Daisaku Ikeda at the University of Philippines on April 21, 1991, suggesting “fairness” as a spiritual backbone of businesspersons who aim to contribute to peace.

Businesses are essential for successful regional economic development. Businesses enhance efficiency, spread cutting-edge know-how, empower people, and create sustainable business models. He introduced one example, the Khadi(*2) reform program in India which was supported by ADB. Through various business analysis, policy changes, and IT system enhancement, the Khadi reform program achieved changes and improvements in the village industries in India, and peoples’ lives. The program brought about more profits and employment opportunities, empowerment of women, higher education for children, self-confidence, and hope for many lives in rural areas of India.

*1 After working with an international accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), and with an international organization in New York, he has worked with ADB for 14 years since 2007.　 From March 2019, he assumed the position of Assistant Controller, Loan Administration Division, Controller’s Department in Manila, ADB headquarters. The lecture was intended to share his experiences and perspectives, and not to represent ADB.

*2 The device Khadi refers to a hand-spun and hand-woven cloth, and a symbol of the self-reliant spirit of India. Mahatma Gandhi once said it was “the symbol of economic freedom and equality”.

This was a good example of development finance for poverty alleviation contributed to SDGs, among others; No Poverty (Goal 1), Gender Equality (Goal 5), Decent Work and Economic Growth (Goal 8), Industry, Innovation, Infrastructure (Goal 9), Reduced Inequality (Goal 10), Responsible Consumption and Production (Goal 12) and Partnerships for the Goals (Goal 17).
At last, the lecture was concluded with three remarks to the students; to accomplish one thing first, one has to be tough and never give up, and to seek a great mentor.

The excerpts of comments from the students who attended are as follows.

• “The Special Lecture done by Mr. Tatewaki was very informative in that he not only gave us a deeper understanding of the work done by the Asian Development Bank, but he also gave us some insights with regards to his own experience as a student and as a professional.”

 

• “Before this lecture, I did not have many insights about what and how ADB does to help the community, as I never came across such an organization before joining IBSP. After the lecture, I had a better understanding of ADB and started thinking to myself that what can I do to serve society when I graduate next year? As mentioned by Mr. Tatewaki, it is important to define one’s mission in life, and believe that we will be able to contribute in a bigger way while we can. This really gave me a boost in my heart about what I can do better. As of now, I could not know for sure and how to go about it yet, but it is never too late to start discovering my [life] mission from now.

 

• “Thank you for taking the efforts to conduct such an informative, motivating, and interactive lecture on how businesses impact economic development. Hearing his personal background motivated me personally as well others to not give up and fight with resilience and resolve.”

 

• “After I listened to Tatewaki's speech, I think what I should do is to help others and make the world a better place. I should not always be concerned about making money. Humanity's love might also be a good thing for me to pursue. ”