Dr. Misawa received his LLB from Tokyo University Law School, LLM from Harvard Law School, MBA from the University of Hawaii as an East-West Center grantee and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan (International Finance). He is professor of finance (International Finance and Corporate Finance) and the director of the Center for Japanese Global Investment and Finance at Shidler College of Business, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, which was established in 1997 under the sponsorship of Japanese Keidanren (Japanese Federation of Economic Organizations).

Before he joined the University of Hawaii at Manoa in August 1996, he had been with Industrial Bank of Japan (IBJ) for 30 years. His career at IBJ included assignments in banking and leasing operations in New York and Tokyo. During his career at IBJ, he served as the Executive Vice President, IBJ Trust Bank (NY), Deputy General Manager, Loan Department, IBJ (Tokyo) in charge of large scale companies such as Nissan, Sony, Komatsu, etc., the General Manager, International Headquarter, IBJ (Tokyo), and the President, IBJ Leasing (NY) as a member of the Board of Directors, IBJ Leasing (Tokyo). One of the financial arrangements he conducted as an investment banker at IBJ was the Nissan Motor’s direct investment to manufacture trucks and cars in Smyrna, Tennessee in 1983. For total financing of $400 million, he employed "global financial engineering" techniques. Since then, these techniques have been widely used by other Japanese investments to the U.S.

Dr. Misawa consulted for a number of international institutions such as IBJ (Japan) and OSG Corporation (Japan). From 1989 to 1996, he served as the U.S. Counselor on the Keidanren’s "Council for Better Corporate Citizenship." Dr. Misawa was appointed "Colonel of the State of Kentucky" and "Arkansas Traveler" by those states in recognition of his achievements in soliciting Japanese investments for these states.

Dr, Misawa was awarded Commendation of the Consul General of Japan in Honolulu, The Japanese Government on April 12, 2016. He has been serving as Ambassador of Ina City, Ina City, Nagano prefecture, Japan. since July 25, 2007.

His research has been published in numerous academic journals, including Sloan Management Review, Financial Management, The Columbia Journal of World Business, and Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law.

Dr. Misawa published five books;

• • • • Misawa, M. (2023). International Business and Finance in Japanese Corporations (NO.2), Recent Harvard-Listed Case Studies and Insights. World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

• • • • Misawa, M. (2016). Book written by Misawa, 2nd edition of "Cases on Intenational Business and Finance in Japanese Corporations (978-9814663090 ed., pp. 546). World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..=Imperial College Press in London..

• • • • Misawa, M. (2011). Book written by Misawa: 2nd Edition of "Current Business and Legal Issues in Japan's Banking and Finance Industry" (5 chapters are added) (978-981-4291-01-9 ed., pp. 596). World Scientific Publishing Co.Pte.Ltd.=Imperial College Press in London.

• • • • Misawa, M. (2008). Book written by Misawa: Cases on International Business and Finance in Japanese Corporations (ISBN 978-962-209-891-6 ed., pp. 1- 174). Hong Kong University Press.

• • • • Misawa, M. (2006). Book written by Misawa: Current Business and Legal Issues in Japan's Banking and Finance Industry (ISBN:981-256-859-X ed., pp. pp.1-454). World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..=Imperial College Press in London..

In 2026 now, Misawa's 25 Cases on Japanese Companies are listed on Harvard Business Publishing Online. 

Through Harvard, a total number of 63,425 copies were sold over the past 19 years to universities and companies worldwide.

Following two cases have achieved remarkable success. They are ranked as bestsellers at Harvard and listed among the top 20 most popular case studies sold by Harvard:

Misawa, M. (2020). Negative Interest Rates: The Bank of Japan Experience (Vol. HKU 1235, 20/651C, p. 17 pages (Main Text) and 17 pages (Teaching Notes)). Harvard Business School Cases by Harvard Business Publishing. ---BEST SELLER AT HARVARD

Mitsuru Misawa, (2016). “The Toshiba Accounting Scandal: How Corporate Governance 

Failed”, Harvard Business School Cases by Harvard Business Publishing, Main 21p, Teaching Notes 11p, 

HKU1097, vol. 16/579C, (POPULAR) ---BEST SELLER AT HARVARD

Most recent case listed at Harvard;

Misawa, M. (2025). How Business Model Reinvention Helped Tokyo Disneyland Build Success Post Covid-19 (vol. HK1502-PDF-ENG, pp. Main 16p. TN19p.). Harvard Business School Cases by Harvard Business Publishing.

Universities who used Misawa's Cases,

In the US, Harvard Business School (MBA) purchased 1063 copies of Misawa’s cases for their own use in 2010. Other major universities such as Yale, MIT, USC, Wharton, Northwestern, Cornell, University of Washington, NYU, Colombia and University of Hawaii at Manoa are users of Misawa’s cases. 

In the foreign countries, Indian Institute of Management (India), Monash University (Australia), S P Jain School of Global Management (United Arab Emirates), Xavier Labour Relations Institute (India), IE Business School (Spain), University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong), Hitotsubashi University (Japan), University of Oxford (UK), National University of Singapore (NUS) (Singapore), Bocconi University (Italy), Keio University (Japan), SDA Bocconi University (Italy), Kyoto University (Japan), Waseda University (Japan), Korea University (Korea) and University of Tokyo (Japan) are users of Misawa’s cases.

Companies who used Misawa’s Cases,                                                                                                                       

 International Professional Managers Association (IPMA) (UK), Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI) (India), NIDA - National Institute of Development Administration (Thailand), Boston Consulting Group International (US), Bain & Company, Inc. (US), and Goldman Sachs & Co. (US).

Dr. Misawa awards U.H. Professor Misawa-Honjo International Fellowship

The year of 2027 is the 20th year of this fellowship. Misawa provided a total amount of $600,000 to 120 UH students to study in Japan. 

$30,000 a year has been granted to six recipients each year. Each recipient will receive $5,000. Payment in Japanese yen will be based on the exchange rate at the time. The fund has been provided by the Honjo Foundation in Japan.

For the past recipients, see  Professor Misawa-Honjo Int Fellowship Recipients List 2007-2026.

Recipient students can select any university in Japan. In the past they have studied at Waseda, Keio, Hitotsubashi, Sophia, Oberlin and Ritsumeikan. They transferred the credits they had earned in Japan to UH.