By Peggy McInerny, Director of Communications
A founding partner of a women-managed global venture capital firm in Japan, Matsui is the third recipient of the award, which is bestowed biannually by the Paul I. and Hisako Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies.
UCLA International Institute, April 10, 2026 — Kathy Mastui, a highly successful Japanese American businesswoman who has worked in Japan since 1999, has received the 2026 Irene Hirano Inouye Award of the UCLA Paul I. and Hisako Teraskai Center for Japanese Studies.
Matsui began her career in investment banking in 1990, specializing in Japan, at Barclays de Zoete Wedd Securities (a precursor of Barclays Investment Bank). She then spent 26 years at Goldman Sachs Japan, where she rapidly became a managing director, the firm’s first female partner, and eventually, its vice-chair and chief Japan equity strategist.
In 2021, she founded a women-managed global venture capital firm in Japan,
MPower Partners. The firm focuses on environmental, social and governance, or ESG, factors and makes early-stage investments in ventures founded by women and mid- to late-stage investments in firms using technology-enabled solutions to resolve societal problems.
Matsui will deliver a memorial lecture in honor of Irene Hirano Inouye (1948–2020) to an invited audience on Tuesday, April 14, 2026, at the residence of the Consul General of Japan to Los Angeles Kosei Murota, followed by a reception in her honor.
“Ms. Matsui’s lifelong commitment to empowering women, advancing gender equity through her groundbreaking ‘womenomics’ research and her leadership in strengthening U.S.-Japan relations exemplify the very essence of this honor,” said Hitoshi Abe, the Paul I. and Hisako Terasaki Professor for Contemporary Japanese Studies and director of the UCLA Terasaki Center. Abe is also professor of architecture and urban design at the UCLA School of Art and Architecture.
The Teraskai Center created the biennial award in 2022 to honor the life and work of Irene Hirano Inouye, a celebrated Japanese American leader who championed U.S.-Japanese relations throughout her life and was recognized for her work in philanthropy, community engagement and advancing social causes. She was also a stalwart friend of Japanese studies at UCLA, serving as the chair of the Terasaki Center’s Board of Advisors from its establishment in 2012 until her death in 2020.
The award is bestowed on a Japanese American for significant and lasting contributions to U.S.-Japan relations in such areas as academia, business, the creative arts, international relations, medicine and science. It was been awarded only twice previously: in 2022, to scholar of Japanese literature
Indra Levy (Stanford University), who is also executive director of the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies in Japan; and in 2024, to veteran award-winning television Los Angeles journalist and documentary filmmaker
David Ono.
Matsui is the daughter of Japanese immigrants to the United States who created a flower nursery in Salinas Valley, California that eventually became one of the largest wholesale flower businesses in the country. She went on to earn a B.A. in social studies from Harvard and an M.A. in international relations and international economics from Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.
The business leader is well known for her work on “
womenomics,” a term that she coined in a 1999 Goldman Sachs research report. The report argued that increasing women’s participation in the Japanese labor force was the preferred solution to Japan’s economic stagnation. Her research had a direct impact on the policy world, as her ideas were later incorporated into the reform policies of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2012. Her continued work in this area led Matsui to publish a book in Japanese in 2020, “How to Nurture Female Employees,” that became a best-seller in Japan.
Matsui was named by The Wall Street Journal one of “10 Women to Watch in Asia” 2007. In 2014, she was named among the “50 Most Influential” list of Bloomberg Markets Magazine.
Matsui believes that empowering women through education and equitable work opportunities can help resolve many global challenges. Her values inform her active support of the Asian University for Women in Bangladesh (where she is a board member), an institution that educates women from underserved communities in Bangladesh with the goal of cultivating future leaders. Among her many board memberships and advisory positions, Matsui is currently board chair of the U.S.-Japan Council; an external board director of Fast Retailing, Inc., and director of Fast Retailing Foundation; and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Published: Friday, April 10, 2026
