My Families and Other Samurai: A Memoir
Event Description
Join us for an evening with Haruko Fukuda OBE, former Joint Chair of The Japan Society and a pioneering figure in international finance, as she discusses her remarkable memoir My Families and Other Samurai.
In this deeply personal yet sweeping historical account, Fukuda draws on her extraordinary life and lineage to paint a vivid portrait of 20th century Japan – and of a family whose story is inextricably tied to its transformation. From her father’s high-ranking role in the Ministry of Finance to her mother’s quiet strength during wartime and widowhood, Fukuda recounts with elegance and candour the sacrifices and achievements of a family shaped by samurai heritage, diplomatic duty, and international ambition.
Spanning from the Meiji Restoration through the post-war Occupation and into the financial corridors of modern London, My Families and Other Samurai is as much a testament to personal resilience as it is to a bygone world. The book introduces readers to prominent figures in Japanese political and economic history, including Admiral Yamanashi Katsunoshin and Tanaka Heihachi, and shares rare insights into the upper echelons of Japanese society – including the education of Imperial Family members and state visits to the Kennedy White House.
In conversation, Fukuda will reflect on themes of identity, legacy, and cultural belonging – exploring what it means to reconcile East and West, duty and freedom, and tradition with modernity. With warmth and clarity, she invites us into a world both deeply personal and historically significant.
There will be an opportunity to purchase books and have them signed by Haruko Fukuda following the talk.
Speaker
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Haruko Fukuda OBEFormer CEO of the World Gold Council and former Joint Chair of The Japan SocietyHaruko Fukuda OBE was born in Tokyo and went to the Peers’ School; her father’s work as Japan’s Financial Minister at the embassies in Washington and London then brought her to the West. She read History at Cambridge, and stayed to make her life and career. In England.
She has enjoyed a long and successful career in the fiercely competitive world of finance. After working for policy research institutes, where she published several books on international trade policy, and a short period at the World Bank in Washington, she became a stockbroker and then an investment banker in the City of London. She was the first Japanese made Partner of the largest firm of stockbrokers in London, James Capel & Co. She joined Nikko Europe Plc and became Vice Chairman. Then to Kazard’s as Senior Adviser. She was appointed the CEO and Board Director of the World Gold Council.
She held directorship on the main boards of AB Volvo, Investec Group and several investment trust companies. In recent years, she has been a director of a start-up fintech company. She is lso on the board of the Arab International Women’s Forum, promoting female entrepreneurship in the gulf region.
She was Joint Chairman of the Japan Society. Her other activities included serving on the development boards of several national charities, including the National Gallery, Asia House and The Art Fund.